MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2018

80 ML BLUE SUMMER 2018 44 This shouldn’t feel like wilderness. We’re not far from the busy supermarkets, highways and LCBOs of the Bruce Peninsula in August. Our phones are consistently showing two or more bars. But looking around, we see nothing but deep water and blue sky. Our route is well-travelled, but only by waterfowl and the MS Chi-Cheemaun ferry. We’re paddling from Tobermory to South Baymouth, shadowing the route of the Big Canoe across the unsheltered stretch of water that divides Lake Huron from Georgian Bay. This shouldn’t feel like wilderness, but it does. Paddling from Cove Island to Yeo Island—the middle section of the trip, where there is nowhere to hide if the weather blows up—we see no land save a dark rim in the distance. As Yeo becomes visible after a few hours of steady paddling, its thickly forested, rocky shoreline is a welcome sight. As we paddle around to a The Crossing: Tobermory to South Baymouth For most of the trip we see no other watercraft apart from the Chi-Cheemaun passing periodically in the distance, its engines rumbling like a low muttering voice from a parallel dimension. ALL PHOTOS BY SCOTT PARENT WEEKEND TRIPS