Baie Fine “The Pool” – Baie Fine “Mary Anne Cove” (on the hook)

After this many days in the back country,with no cell service, in Northern Ontario you have lots to catch up on.  I’ve done my homework everyday but just couldn’t hand it in.  Do I get a pass?

We spent the day enjoying the beauty and making new discoveries.  When we had our motors and gen  off and sitting still in the little bay off the pool we heard waterfalls.  You can only hear it in quiet.  A new exploration!!!!  We took the dingy over to the spot where the sound was coming from.  It isn’t obvious at all.  We think it is a drainage area for Lake Topaz because it is above us over the bluff.  The pictures will remain in our memory because we did forget the camera.  It was a beautiful wooded area that not many people have found.  Most boaters are cruising by and miss this gem.  It is 2 small coves just out of the pool.  We anchored there for the night.  If we didn’t have quiet we would have missed it too.

Our next stop is just down Baie Fine to Mary Ann Cove.  The charts show shallow waters but it must be about 15 feet deep.  There were 6 boats already here.  We found what we believe to be the best spot in all of the North Channel, thus far.  They cliff on the west side is so deep that if you wanted you could almost back in directly to the cliff and hop off.  We didn’t go in that far but enjoyed our new found backyard.

The travellers in the North Channel mostly have chain anchors, except for the odd sailboat that has to pull up the anchor by hand.  The other common practice is anchoring out normally, backing into your spot and then using rope or two ropes around trees on shore to stop the swing.  Everyone has a dingy too.  Haven’t seen a sailboat or cruiser without one.  Only the cottagers with their day tripper boats are without.

While here in Mary Ann Cove we decided to take Low Voltage our dingy over to the famous Caslin’s Peak.  It is about an hour trek straight up a dry stream bed to the most spectacular view of the islands.  If you can get there you must go.  Pictures just don’t do the scenery justice.  On the peak is a fellow who had his ashes buried into the rock cliff.  “Cork” was his last name.  He has been here since 1950 and his wife joined him in 2001.  The trek back down is less strenuous and you will see things you missed.

Now what to do?  Our backyard was so perfect for us that we decided to have an open campfire and cook dinner on the flame.  Scott and Aiden gathered the wood and watched it while the wood turned to embers for cooking.  They only thing I had that was able to cook on the open flame was back bacon, or Canadian bacon for our USA friends.  It has become the best way to eat back bacon.  So good!

The sunset was a salmon coloured sky with the campfire burning and reflections on Mary Ann Cove were just gorgeous.

By the way, this was a tribute to our friend Marianne, who Aiden has become very close to, as he said that we have to mention her in this blog and let her know that he was thinking of her while he was here.

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