Hunting Headwinds

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I paddle Georgian Bay - every trip is different and each one leaves me wanting more. I can’t shake how lucky I feel to live so close to the most beautiful coastline in the world.

After surviving a winter trip with Jake and Jeff, we quickly made plans to spend another week out in the wilds and settled on a mid-summer trip to the playground that is French River Provincial Park. It’s one of the few places I’ll consider camping in July in Ontario; the Georgian Bay winds provide a much needed shelter from summer heat and bugs.

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Hugging the north-east coast of Georgian Bay, the French River park boasts staggeringly beautiful landscapes and, compared to Algonquin and Killarney, it sees very little traffic. Being a fairly new park (est. 1989), you’ll see the occasional cottage and fishing camp, but otherwise it’s an excellent spot for a taste of solitude and scenery.

As the name suggests, the park follows the French River as it empties Lake Nipissing into Georgian Bay. It’s the track that Samuel Champlain took when Europeans first arrived at the Bay, with Voyageurs following the same route for centuries to exploit the area for the fur trade. There is no shortage of paths from the main channel into the bay, with the river emptying through multiple arms - giving a backcountry tripper lots of options.

The Route

With a couple guys who haven’t spent much time in the area, I wanted some general exploration but ultimately to highlight a special part of the park: the Bustard Islands.

The Bustards are a bit of a geologic anomaly. They cover a significant landmass, are unusually far offshore, and are reasonably undeveloped. On windy day, it can be difficult to even get to them in a kayak (and impossible in a canoe). So for a few guys with time to burn, it was a perfectly reasonable target.

We carved off a full calendar week for the trip, which left us with tons of options for a healthy loop. In the end we decided to launch from the Pickerel River Marina, connect with the French and ride the West arm to open water, curl back East to the Bustards, and head home up the main channel. We covered around 110km over seven days (only five of which were spent between sites).

I had hoped to do some exploring around Fox Island to the East, but we didn’t get quite that far. And it’s always nice to leave something for next time.

The Trip

I’ve been up to this area twice in recent years, and introduced the Pickerel River segment to shake things up a little. It saved us some driving and gave us a bit more distance to play with. Water levels were insanely high in 2020, so we had very little swift water to worry about in either direction. There are plenty of campsites along the Pickerel, although they can be widely spaced so plan accordingly. As it approaches the French, the Pickerel bends and carves through some incredible channels and valleys. If you can afford the time, it’s far superior to the segment from Hartley Bay to the main junction of the French’s ‘figure 8’.

Carving through cliffs on the Pickerel River.

As much as I love tracking new routes, some are just too perfect to change. I had to take the boys through the Old Voyageur Channel, which I highlighted on my 2019 route around Philip Edward Island. The water levels were much higher and the rapids less exciting, but the channel always reminds me why I keep coming back.

In true Georgian Bay form, reality didn’t set in until we hit open water. Winds picked up dramatically and didn’t let up for the rest of the trip. The title of this blog isn’t just some playful alliteration. I am a fucking headwind magnet.

Landing in Green Bay, we found ourselves at the westernmost point of the park. We settled in at a glorious island site for two nights - spending our days surfing waves, drinking swampy bay water, dodging rattlesnakes, and soaking in sunsets.

Shoals around Green Bay, the Westernmost point of the French River park.

After a couple days of island life, we saw a window of sub 15km/hr winds and decided to make our 10km push across open water to the Bustards. Aside from Jake’s rudder popping off ten minutes into the trip, we had little friction getting to the Bustard lighthouses and began our hunt for a campsite.

Despite the vast landmass of the Bustard Islands, there are only a handful of campsites marked on the map. This would create a bit of a challenge if you got all the way out there and all were taken, and indeed we saw plenty improvised sites along the shoreline. Not ideal, but in a pinch you can make it work. At this point we still hadn’t seen anyone in days, and we settled in at a beautiful and quiet site nested in the belly of Tanvat Island.

Traversing the bay towards the Bustard Island lighthouses.

We decided to stay another night on the Bustards, but ended up moving out to the coast after being accosted by in-land mosquitos. The exposed point we settled at was stunning, rugged, and certainly the highlight of the trip for me. You can see it in the headline picture of this post!

For our final push back up-river, we chose the Canoe Channel route back towards the French. I hadn’t gone this way before and was so pleased we did. The cliffs and canyons made for a gorgeous detour back to our original route, which we traced back to the marina the following day.

Itinerary
Day 1: Pickerel River Marina to Pickerel River (17km)
Day 2: Pickerel River to Green Bay (27km)
Day 3: Island day (no travel)
Day 4: Green Bay to Bustard Islands (16km)
Day 5: Island day (no travel)
Day 6: Bustard Islands to Pickerel River (23km)
Day 7: Pickerel River to Pickerel River Marina (17km)

Hot Tips

With Georgian Bay trips it’s good practice to pick a start and finish point, a general route, and leave yourself plenty of flexibility to make changes based on wind/mood.

As of July 2020, there is a massive wind power installation around the Henvey Inlet at the Eastern arm of the park. Thumbs up for renewable energy, but it’s absolutely hideous. Flashing red lights all through the night. Try to snag a West-facing site in this part of the park.

There are only a handful of sites on the Bustards. If you’re in peak season and worried about not getting a site, start your trip on a Thursday or earlier. Weekend traffic may pick up, but mid-week things are dead.

All you can eat!

I’m not sure it ever gets dark in Green Bay.

The gorgeous rock formations once you reach the Bustards.

A rare visitor joined our hangout circle.

Lunch Break on the French.

Canoe Channel cliffs falling into the French.

A glassy morning paddle.

I don’t need an excuse to head out into the woods, but in July 2019 I had one. An Australian friend was going to be in Canada for a few weeks, and insisted we help find him some good fishing.

My fellow camping compatriots suggested we use this opportunity to get out onto Georgian Bay to (among other things) hunt bass, pike, pickerel, and whatever else we could convince to bite a hook. I’m no fisherman, but figured we would have some luck in one of my favourite places on earth - the Lower French River.

The Route

Running the Lower French is a phenomenal long-weekend route. You get a little of everything: river paddling, light rapids, and the inevitable descent into one of the most beautiful sections of Georgian Bay. Canadian Shield, the mighty pine, and white-capped waves abound. There are plenty of routes that will take you down and back up in three days, but we had five set aside in the calendar and I wanted to try something a bit more ambitious.

I’ve spent lots of time in the rocky bays of French River Provincial Park, but had never been beyond Point Grondine. If you can get around the Point, it opens up a whole new section of the shoreline - including the vast length of Phillip Edward Island. The Island is on crown land (for now), and camping is a bit more rugged and less trafficked than many of the parks.

We decided on a route that would take us from Hartley Bay Marina, down the French River’s Old Voyageur channel, around Point Grondine, and across the open shoreline of Phillip Edward Island into Killarney. We opted for poly sea kayaks as the open bay can be pretty shaky in a canoe when the weather turns. All in all, about 75km over five days.

The Trip

We planned on a mid-week jaunt, from Monday to Friday, hopefully avoiding the weekend warrior crowds. Unfortunately mosquitoes don’t have the same 9-5 schedule as the rest of us, but we figured getting out to the open water would keep them windbound. We were right about the crowds, and partially right about the mosquitoes.

Sunday night, we drove up to Killarney and stayed at the Sportsman’s Inn. This gave us the flexibility of an early start on Monday and the (unexpected) option of a couple dozen oysters, shrimp jambalaya, and French rosé at Big Willy’s Bait Shop the night before. Highly recommended.

We had organized kayaks and a shuttle to Hartley Bay through Killarney Outfitters. They are an incredibly organized outfitters, but get busy in the high season and I recommend booking your gear early, even if you’re not 100% locked and loaded - they’re flexible with changes.

In our oyster/jambalaya/rosé haze, we made the aggressive call to push the entire French River on Monday, to give us more time on the Bay through the week. Day 1 ended up being 28km, and took us through a headwind for most of the day and into a jaw-dropping paddle down the Old Voyageur channel and rapids. Staying in Batt Bay on Night 1 reminded me why I typically only camp in the fall - the mosquitoes were insane. But after a long day (and Morne's 60cm pike!), we didn’t need an excuse to crash early.

We left early on Day 2, having been warned that the exposed route around Point Grondine can be treacherous (if not impassible). We lucked out with manageable winds, but I can understand why we got the warning. This is a gnarly pass with plenty of shallows and shoals that could force you back into Horseshoe Bay until the winds calm. If in doubt, take it wide. After 16km, we landed on a gorgeous site at Moose Bay where we had a bass and BBQ dinner, followed by a late night of banter, bourbon, and more mosquitoes. Maybe not in that order.

Our plan for Day 3 was to buzz around Phillip Edward’s inner bays and find a place to camp for the next two nights. We settled on a 12km paddle to West Fox Island which had a protected cove to dock at, and plenty of potential for sunsets and exploring. Not to mention some exposed points to (hopefully) mitigate the bugs. We settled in and spent the next two days and nights, swimming, hiking, and playing cards.

Originally, we had intended to finish the trip in Killarney. To make it home a bit earlier on Friday, we opted to finish at the Chikanishing boat launch and have our shuttle pick us up there instead. (We found cell signal at West Fox and were able to contact Killarney Outfitters to change our itinerary.) This 9km route saved us a couple hours and bought more time to explore the coast of Philip Edward on the way in. If the wind had been heavy, this might have been a necessity.

Itinerary (GPX File)
Day 1: Hartley Bay Marina to Batt Bay (28km)
Day 2: Batt Bay to Moose Bay (16km)
Day 3: Moose Bay to West Fox Island (12km)
Day 4: Island day (no travel)
Day 5: West Fox Island to Chikanishing Boat Launch (9km)

The Food

Trip cooking for four people is ideal - any more and you have to deal with bigger (or more) pots, and more complex food requirements. Breakfasts and lunches we typically do solo, to avoid over-engineering meals that people typically like to enjoy at their own pace. But a big communal dinner brings everyone together at the end of the day to break (gluten-free) bread. We had two interesting constraints to work with: no gluten, and no dairy. I actually found those constraints easy to plan for, frankly because they eliminated so many options.

This was my first field test of the Ice Mule Boss cooler, which I had strapped on the deck on my kayak. They claim that it’ll keep ice for 5+ days - in practice, we were able to keep ice through 3.5+ days (in the middle of July!), which I think we could have stretched a bit had we flash frozen some of the food.

As much as the Canadian Shield makes a good hard surface for cutting veggies, we aimed to minimize prep and cleaning with simple single-pot recipes. Chili pressure-cooked and frozen in ziplock bags, BBQ pre-cooked and vacuum-sealed, and Jordan’s more decadent (and trip-winning) Dan Dan Noodles with sauce pre-made.

Meal Plan
Day 1: Beef Chili (Josh’s home-made pressure cooker recipe)
Day 2: Brisket Tacos (meat from Adamson BBQ, with peppers, shallots, and tortillas)
Day 3: Dan Dan Noodles (Jordan’s go-to, with ground pork, rice noodles and a peanut/soy/sesame sauce)
Day 4: Pulled Pork Tacos (again from Adamson)

Pro Tips

Designing the route to have less and less distance each day made the experience a lot more fun - we powered through the first bit, and really got to relax through the lazy bays of Philip Edward.
Stressing about trip planning? Get your travel pals to sort out their own (simple) breakfasts and lunches, and only plan for group dinners. People tend to enjoy the freedom to eat at their own pace earlier in the day anyways.
If you’re going to run the rapids in the Lower French, consider poly boats. It can be shallow and rocky at certain parts, and you don’t want to punch a hole in your craft before you get to the good stuff.
Cell reception (as of July 2019) is pretty scarce. Once you approach Killarney it gets stronger, but assume you won’t have bars unless you can find a high point or you are beginning to approach the western end of Phillip Edward.