Hiking the Peninsual Bruce Trail 2003

We (Jay, Ben, Susan and myself) went hiking on the Peninsula section of the Bruce Trail this past July. We parked a bit south of Lion's Head, hiked around the head, then up past Cape Chin and north to the village of Dyer's Bay, where we finished. That's approximately fifty kilometres.

The weather didn't cooperate fully; it rained a little each day, and quite hard on the second night. Fortunately it was not too hot. After the trip, Jay and I had minor blisters, and Ben's knee gave out. He could barely walk... Only Susan escaped completely unscathed.

The photos here are all taken by me. The sky was very hazy at times, so a lot of great views didn't really give great photographs. The highest point we were at was along Lion's Head, but it wasn't a great vantage point for exactly that reason. One regret I have is that the numerous amazing sights don't really sum up the experience at all; I really enjoyed hiking through the forest. It was very peaceful and beautiful in its own right. The trail conditions varied a lot; the trail was rugged and rocky in some places, in others it went along the edge of the escarpment, there were sections along the shore of Georgian Bay, some meadows, there were several distinct types of forest, and a few sections along roads of varying sizes from a logging road to a busy road surrounded by cottages just north of the town of Lion's Head.

I left out a lot of more fun photographs of our group hiking, and some rabbits and large birds of prey that we saw. The theme here is landscapes, so they didn't fit, even though I like many of them. Sorry about the large file sizes, but smaller images don't do these justice. In fact, I think you have to print them to do them justice, but I don't want to burden Eugenia's server with that much larger still file size.

One of the first photographs of the water that turned out. There are a lot of lookouts along the Lion's Head. The first day was a half day, and we took it pretty slowly. Finding good stuff to look at and listen to wasn't a problem.
The escarpment runs fairly straight along the south side of the Lion's Head. From the vantage point of a ledge that is just a bit longer than most you can see along to the north.
From this lookout near Gun Pt. on the south side of the Lion's Head you can see the southern shore of Barrow Bay. We didn't hike along that part.
You can see the trail here is rocky, with small trees growing along it. What you can't see is the edge of the escarpment just at the base of the trees on the left. It goes down about forty metres at this section.
At McKay's Harbour there is a campsite along the lakeshore. This is the lakeshore.
It rained on and off starting just after we finished setting up the tent. The sun came back out just before it set for the evening.
Facing the opposite direction a few minutes later, you can see the sun setting on the clouds in the sky.
We had an adventure with raccoons in the night, and I didn't sleep very well after that. I got up early and captured this shot of the sun rising over the lake.
The weather was varied the second day, but fortunately it didn't rain again until the evening. This is McKay's Harbour as we were leaving. The fog rolled in and stayed behind us while we walked along the shore. It was gone by the time we got through the forest and back on top of the escarpment.
This is from the highest lookout on the Lion's Head. It was pretty hazy, so this is one of two photographs from that point. You can see almost straight down to the small island.
You can also look along the escarpment. This is the way that we came; the other direction points toward the town of Lion's Head.
This is Reed's Dump some ways north, where we spent the second night.
On the third day we passed through several flowery meadows. One of them looked like a garden. It was very neat. This one had more colour, though.
This small waterfall emerges from the rocks on the side of the escarpment.
Right beside it is this thing called a stack. It's a tower of rock that forms from some hot glacial rock action. Or something like that. Anyway, it doesn't happen very often, but it looks pretty cool. This particular instance is designated, "Devil's Monument."
The clearest part of the trip was the afternoon of the third day after it stopped raining. This is a view south to Cape Chin. Shortly after this we turned inland to Britain Lake Road, and eventually our northern parking spot. I think that thing in the picture is a butterfly.
Document and images are copyrighted Raymond Fingas 2003.

One of the first photographs of the water that turned out. There are a lot of lookouts along the Lion's Head. The first day was a half day, and we took it pretty slowly. Finding good stuff to look at and listen to wasn't a problem.
The escarpment runs fairly straight along the south side of the Lion's Head. From the vantage point of a ledge that is just a bit longer than most you can see along to the north.
From this lookout near Gun Pt. on the south side of the Lion's Head you can see the southern shore of Barrow Bay. We didn't hike along that part.
You can see the trail here is rocky, with small trees growing along it. What you can't see is the edge of the escarpment just at the base of the trees on the left. It goes down about forty metres at this section.
At McKay's Harbour there is a campsite along the lakeshore. This is the lakeshore.
It rained on and off starting just after we finished setting up the tent. The sun came back out just before it set for the evening.
Facing the opposite direction a few minutes later, you can see the sun setting on the clouds in the sky.
We had an adventure with raccoons in the night, and I didn't sleep very well after that. I got up early and captured this shot of the sun rising over the lake.
The weather was varied the second day, but fortunately it didn't rain again until the evening. This is McKay's Harbour as we were leaving. The fog rolled in and stayed behind us while we walked along the shore. It was gone by the time we got through the forest and back on top of the escarpment.
This is from the highest lookout on the Lion's Head. It was pretty hazy, so this is one of two photographs from that point. You can see almost straight down to the small island.
You can also look along the escarpment. This is the way that we came; the other direction points toward the town of Lion's Head.
This is Reed's Dump some ways north, where we spent the second night.
On the third day we passed through several flowery meadows. One of them looked like a garden. It was very neat. This one had more colour, though.
This small waterfall emerges from the rocks on the side of the escarpment.
Right beside it is this thing called a stack. It's a tower of rock that forms from some hot glacial rock action. Or something like that. Anyway, it doesn't happen very often, but it looks pretty cool. This particular instance is designated, "Devil's Monument."
The clearest part of the trip was the afternoon of the third day after it stopped raining. This is a view south to Cape Chin. Shortly after this we turned inland to Britain Lake Road, and eventually our northern parking spot. I think that thing in the picture is a butterfly.