We spent several days in Midland while Owen worked. We were at the Bay Port Yachting Centre, but there is a more popular marina for Loopers right in downtown Midland. We liked the amenities at Bay Port (a pool! that we didn’t use, but a pool!), but it was a hike to restaurants, stores, groceries, and other stuff that make a stop more enjoyable.

On the other hand, we had great boat neighbors. They are future Loopers, and they offered to take us places and gave us fantastic advice about Georgian Bay. We altered our planned route based on their advice!

Friday after work, we made the short run to Beausoleil Island. It had been sunny all day, but the skies opened when we turned on the engines. Our neighbors helped us with our lines, and we were off.

We hoped to tie up to a dock in Ojibway Bay, but it was full. Instead, we found an anchorage near the park entrance and campground. It was a little more crowded than our usual type of spot, but it was fine. We dropped the dinghy and went to the island, paid a small fee for beaching the dinghy, and went exploring.

Some friends had already been there and said they saw a rattlesnake in the park, and there were snakes IN and OUT of the water (why do people go here?!). There were also bears and mosquitoes.

We armed ourselves with Deep Woods Off and hiked away. We encountered two groups of people who each said they saw rattlesnakes. We didn’t see any of those, but we did see toads, chipmunks, squirrels, millipedes (even the bugs are in metric here!), and a deer. Owen was most excited about the deer.

The island is long and narrow, but it has three distinct sections: a lower woods that was very much like the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, a long flat section full of hemlocks, and then a northern rocky landscape. Each one was special in its own way. We really enjoyed our walk.

After eight miles, we were back at the dinghy. There were even more boats in the anchorage and many, many campers lining the shore. When we got back to the boat, we noticed a haze along the shoreline from all the campfires.

Back at the boat, we turned on the generator and made dinner. It was noisy enough in the bay that we didn’t worry too much about the noise. Another boat near us was blaring music, and our generator wasn’t louder than that.

Beausoleil Island was a great choice, and our sore feet are going to remind us about it tomorrow!