New pieces for the blog:

Under “Blogroll” their is a link to the latest location map.  At the top of the blog there is also a complete Great Loop map showing the whole route, which might be useful to study for future “legees” Jeff, Eric and Steve.

So how Memsahib get from the Upper Trent Severn to Cheboygan?

At the substantial town of Midland, ON I rented a car and took Bjorn back to Toronto airport to return to Sweden and picked up Pat Harris.

From Midland we went into the beautiful granite channels of Georgian Bay — beautiful but very tough navigation. Full of rocks and narrow channels — some won’t take any more than a 40-foot boat because the turns are too tight.

One night at Henry’s, one at Sandy Bay, then we cut across the bay to Killarney  to dodge bad weather.  Sitting here in Cheboygan with a McDonalds and a Walmart, etc.  I fondly remember Killarney and the really nice Sportsman s Inn — particularly since dockage there (as in all Canada) costs about a third of Long Island Sound.

Killarney is just about as far as you get from anywhere on the Loop.  It is a former fur trading post that didn’t have a road until 1962.  The bus stop is AN HOUR from town.  I had to get Mr. Rite Limosine from Sudbury (who didn’t have a prom or wedding on a Tuesday) to pick up Ray Gaulke our next crew and get him from the bus to Sudbury.   Pat Harris took a Parks Tour bus out by simply getting on the bus and passing on the tour part (remember Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces trying to get just whole wheat toast at a diner:  “I’ll have a BLT on whole wheat toast — hold the bacon, hold the lettuce, hold the tomato –between your knees”).

Anyway, Killarney is great — three restaurants, a church, a general store ($4 for a bag of potato chips),  the Inn and a gillion great boats and seaplanes since it’s the only way to the North Channel.  Pat and I ate breakfast every day at a restaurant where the owner gets up at 3 am to bake fresh bread, pies, cinammon rolls — and you’d have to be a total glutton to spend $10 there.

On the night before Ray got in, three otters came to play around the boat, but were goine before I could get my camera.

Ray and I did Baie Fine (already covered) and then headed toward the metropolis of Little Current where we were blown in for three days.  Good thing because Ray became Chief Steward Ray and was shocked, SHOCKED that I did not have an omelet pan, breadknife or martini glasses on board (I did have the vodka, olives and vermouth).  These deficiencies were quickly rectified by riding our folding bikes to town and we had some great meals while the wind blew.

Then onto John’s Island, Drummond Island for customs and on to Mackinac Island — a story unto itself.