Today we decided to hike the George Island Wilderness trail which is not actually in the park. The beginning of this 7 Km trail is a two minute boat ride across the narrow strait between the mainland shore, 2 minutes walk from the lodge, and George Island. The trail is a loop crossing the eastern portion of George Island to the southerly high point then along a bit of the western shoreline on the return. It begins in a fairly open and level grassy wetland area before passing into a forest of pine and deciduous trees.
The relatively flat part of the walk soon changes to, guess what, uphill with lots of climbing on and over rocks. And here on the island the rocks are pink granite as we saw on the Cranberry Bog trail in the first Killarney blog post. One hundred years ago the island was bare of trees as a result of logging operations which provided wood for fuel for local residents and logs for the mill at Collins Inlet just east of Killarney. Over the years the forest has returned to a fairly typical Great Lakes forest ecosystem with white and red pines trees mixed with maple and aspen.
Throughout the wooded sections there are frequent open spaces with expanses of large pink rock outcroppings characteristic of Canadian Shield topography. Also characteristic is the presence of lichen and plants tenacious enough to find and sustain a foot hold in the smallest cracks in the rocks as well as in small depressions where water and bits of soil collect.
After a substantial climb through the increasingly rocky areas we reached this high point where we were able to see the water of Georgian Bay and a glimpse of Manitoulin Island. We learned that Manitoulin, the largest freshwater island in the world, is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a glacial limestone deposit which, according to the brochure, extends for about 1000 Km.
From the above high point of land we began the descent, again through fairly rocky forested terrain, on our way to the portion of the trail that follows the island shoreline for close to one Km.
Above is the rocky beach we encountered when we reached the shoreline. The water is Georgian Bay and in this image we have a better view of the flat shelf-like outline of Manitoulin Island.
As George Island is in the southern part of the Killarney region, the rock which dominates the shore line is the pink granite which we found in our earlier walk in the Cranberry Bog area.
The large areas of smooth rock provide both a fascinating and relatively easily negotiable walking surface. The one downside of this portion of the trail is that the absence of trees limits the vertical structures available for trail markers. As a consequence many of the markers were on the surface of the rocks which made them difficult to locate from a distance. Hence, several moments of frustration while we searched for the next marker. This was the most poorly marked area of the hike.
In some areas we found rocks which, by virtue of their color and characteristics, clearly were out of place here. The geologists apparently call these erratic rocks which they suggest were dropped by receding glaciers. The cluster of rocks in this photo - varying from white to a dark gray, is fairly characteristic of these glacial droppings.
Not all of the rocks here are smooth or intensely pink. This photo shows some darker brownish and irregular bits along with some small outcroppings which form tiny islands.
In the photo to the right we are at the end of the shoreline portion of the trail so we are heading back into the interior and the last leg of the hike, though still a couple of Km to go before we get to the boat.
This was a much less arduous trail than the climb to the Killarney Ridge, but at the end of this day we were both pretty weary and ready for a beer in the lodge bar, dinner and a good night's sleep before heading back to Dundas tomorrow.
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