Kayak Wingfield basin to Dunk's Bay
Saturday, May 29, 2004
route:
length: 30.0km, 1 day
difficulty: beginner
organizer: Just us two
participants: Peter Jaspers-Fayer, Werner K
offsite report: www.uoguelph.ca/~pjf/Scouts/BrucePenninsula/Kayak/
OR try the Wayback Machine
report:
I'm new to open water, and, at the end of the day it was painfully obvious that I had some muscles that were not used to this kind of strain.
We set off from camping a friend's lot West of Miller Lake, and next morning quickly drove to Wingfield Basin lighthouse on the NE corner of the "squared-off" top of the Bruce Peninsula. A quick carry down the stairs and onto the boulder beach, and we were in the water.
It was a fine day, sunny, clear. We visited the "Gargantua" in the basin before getting down to serious paddling.
The N. shore of the Bruce is beautifully wild, the shoreline ranging from baseball to car-sized boulders. There are not many places to put ashore.
We stopped for lunch at the "grotto" (known to many hikers in the trail from Cyprus Lake). Landing was tricky, but luckily, there was just the right amount of wave action to lift a well-timed kayak up and onto a nice shelf of rock with minimal scratching of the gelcoat.
The afternoon's paddle was a bit tougher, as the wind came up (from the West, a is usual here), and made for tough going, with little possibility of rest. By the time we put ashore on the nice beach at Dunk's Bay, I could barely lift my arms.
All-in all, this would have been a much more enjoyable trip going the other way (East), but logistics of car-pooling dictated otherwise. Even so, for my first day-long trip with my new Nomad kayak, it was beautiful, and well worth it.
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/PJ |
