Everyone who has given advice to us to about where to go in the North Channel has put Baie Fin (Bay Fin) at the top of their list. We were determined to see what the fuss was about. But before we got to Baie Fine, we had another list-topper to visit: Collin’s Inlet.

We left our perfectly quiet anchorage and reconnected with the small craft channel that is marked just outside of all the rocky areas along the shoreline. We were fortunate to have perfect weather for this stretch. We turned in as we passed The Chickens (with 30,000 islands in this area, they had to be creative) and entered Beaverstone Bay. We meandered around deserted, tree-filled islands and saw boats tucked away in the most private of anchorages.

Eventually, we entered Collin’s Inlet, a narrow passage with rock walls on both sides. It was awe-inspiring. Pictures don’t do it justice. We took a couple videos, and then we put the cameras down and just looked. It’s a long passage that eventually leads back out into open water. I know I keep writing about the beauty of these places, and you might think they all look the same. But they don’t. There’s something that stands out in each of them that makes them special or different.

This segment of awe-inspired wonder will always be connected to the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate, which was happening on the radio as we traversed through paradise.

After we came out of Collin’s Inlet, we were back on open water for a little bit until we were able to turn into Killarney. Going through Killarney cut a bit of time off our route, which otherwise would have taken us a couple miles around the end of a point. We passed a couple of popular Looper marinas, and we were happy to see some boats we know.

Killarney is what separates Georgian Bay from the North Channel, and we were excited to make the transition. We cruised across Frazer Bay and entered Baie Fine, one of the largest freshwater fjords in the world. I had never been in a fjord before, and now I want to see them all. Tall walls of rock towered over the water on both sides of the boat. The total distance is about seven miles inland with anchorages along the way and ending in The Pool. We took the big boat about halfway in, dropped our anchor,…and dragged. It turns out we dropped our anchor on a fallen tree, which came up when I pulled the anchor up to reset it. I couldn’t lift the anchor with the 15 foot tree on it, so Owen had to help. Once the tree was back in the water, we tried again, and we had a nice and snug anchor on our second attempt.

We had a quick lunch and dropped the dinghy to explore the rest of the fjord and to take a hike up to Topaz Lake. In the dinghy, we cruised the narrow channel and passed the Evinrude cottage, where the founder of Evinrude, Ole Evinrude, used to bring his big ol’ boat and hook it up to the cottage to provide power to the little house on the island.

There was a little dock to the left and a place to beach the dinghy. We encountered a man coming back from the lake who had just made the trek. He said he didn’t know if there was another way, but it was a tough walk. He was 70, though, he said, so we shouldn’t have a problem. It WAS a tough walk! But the lake at the top was a great reward. The skies were cloudy, but we could imagine what a pretty color the lake was when the sun was shining against the water and its quartz walls. There were teenagers jumping off the tall rocks into the water. We took the path around the lake for even more nice views and found some wild blueberries.

The hike back down to the dinghy was much easier. We continued on in the fjord to The Pool, the end of the road where there were several boats anchored. Then we motored back to the boat. We were tired, and we knew we would sleep well tonight!