It’s island day! Yesterday night I booked my ferry to Manitoulin Island, for a total round trip cost of $130. Not too bad, but it does get more expensive in the peak summer season. I also got pretty lucky, the ferry had only started running for the year two days prior, and the only alternative to the ferry would have been driving 660km (7 hours) around Lake Huron and over a bridge to the island. My booking was the second of two daily sailings to the island, with the first being at 8:30am and mine being at 1:30pm.
I needed to be there an hour early, but I figured two hours was best so I had time to explore the town and have extra time incase something took longer than anticipated. It was an hour and a half drive to Tobermory, so I left around 10am. I could definitely see the geography change as I moved north, with farmland and sparse trees giving way to denser forests and rockier terrain. All in all, it was a very nice drive with basically no traffic, so I was able to admire the landscape around me without worrying about someone wanting to go 40 over the limit and tailgating me before I can find a spot to let them pass (I say from experience).
I arrived in Tobermory around 11:30am and parked in town where I walked into a little gift shop to see if I could get anything I liked. I found something that didn’t break the bank but was pretty unique, and went back to the car. I was still earlier than the required hour for the ferry, but I figured I’d get in line anyway and take the extra time to clean the inside of car, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. When travelling, you tend to just put things wherever and think to yourself “I’ll put it away properly later”, but as can probably be expected, you never really put it away later. So, while waiting in line I took some time to properly put things away into side pockets in the car, the trunk, and some stuff into a box of “won’t touch until I’m home” items, such as gifts and used disposable cameras.
On schedule, the ferry arrived and we waited for it to unload before driving on. It’s a very interesting vessel, docking backward into the berth and opening its rear hatch all the way up to allow vehicles in and out. It’s also laid out differently to BC Ferries vessels inside, where rather than having 2 or 3 full width vehicle decks, it has one full vehicle deck and then two lanes that go up along the sides of the boat, for extra vehicle space. The ramp up to those spots is really, really steep, and my car was not too happy about it, but made it up successfully. I was the second person in my lane, and after parking, got my stuff packed into my backpack and headed upstairs.
Due to Transport Canada regulations, passengers can’t stay on enclosed vehicle decks during sailings, and while on BC Ferries you rarely experience this because only the lower truck and overflow deck is enclosed, this vessels vehicle decks are all enclosed and so no one can stay in their car. This wasn’t a huge issue for me since I was interested in what the upper area of the boat looked like, compared to on BC Ferries where I’ve seen it so many times that I’d rather just stay in my car and nap or something.
The boat does lean to the right a bit, which is slightly unnerving, but nothing of major concern. The ferry is also a bit cold, and they could probably do with turning the heat up by two or three degrees. We arrived at South Baymouth on the island a short 2 hours later, after an uneventful crossing. I was a bit curious as to how I’d be getting the car down from the spot they’d parked me, since it looked like the parking isle just, ended, and I could look off it down to the cars below. It turns out, the spot I was parked was a giant ramp, and once the cars below had disembarked, the entire row we were on lowered down front first to let us off. It was almost as steep as when I got on, but I kept my foot firmly on the brake until I needed to move, and successfully made it off the ferry.
When you come off the ferry, you’re immediately hit with a stop sign as you go to turn onto the main road, and because there were no cars on the main road itself, everyone was treating it more like a yield, slowing down enough to look, but not actually stopping. From the perspective of people getting off the ferry, there are two lanes in our direction, and one lane coming toward us, divided by a solid double yellow line. This fact though, did not seem to stop the driver next to me from getting into the wrong lane and driving into oncoming traffic for almost a kilometre before realizing and moving back over, despite my attempt to let them know by honking a few times. Thankfully there was no traffic coming the other way, and everyone was going slow enough that it’s very unlikely any kind of accident would have occurred, but it was still a bit odd.
I stopped at the gas station just a little bit up the road to fill up on gas before heading further into the island. It’s a small gas station with only four older pumps. I pulled up behind someone else who was there and fiddled around with my stuff for a moment, when a man walked up to my window and asked if I’d like it filled up. I’m not used to full-serve gas stations, but I said yes as I felt it was rude not to, and they don’t charge for it, so why not. It feels a bit awkward sitting in the car as he’s filling it up, especially since afterward I have to get out to pay inside anyway.
While at the gas station a woman commented on the price of gas ($1.41 CAD/L), to which I replied saying that’s nothing compared to where I’m from (though since the consumer carbon tax was removed, gas has dropped significantly in BC). We talked about BC for a bit, and I learned she’s actually on her way there now to see family in Vancouver. After a very quick chat, she headed on her way and I went inside to pay and use the bathroom.
From there I had a mission: The Mounted Animal Nature Trail. I couldn’t find anything concrete about it online, other than the website for Gordons Park, which referenced the song, but didn’t have much more information. Though, it did have an address, and it was only 15 minutes from the ferry dock. So, I headed that way and quickly found myself at the park. It didn’t look how I was expecting it to look, and it felt like I was just driving up to someone’s house. There were two people out front and when I pulled up and rolled the window down, one came over to talk to me.
It turns out that the Gordons moved away about 5 years ago, and took many of the taxidermies with them only leaving a few behind at the park. While the trails still existed, the remaining animals had been moved inside the small nature conservatory building, which was still open to the public. Despite the trail being gone, I still wanted to go and look at the animals, since those would have been the same animals that were there way back when the song was initially written.
It was a short 30 second walk from where I was told to park to the building, and as I walked inside, a fly hit me directly in the throat. Other than that, it was quite a nice space, with the taxidermies along the right wall, some information about astronomy on the left wall (as the park also has an area for dark sky stargazing, being the darkest spot in all of Ontario apparently), and rocks and minerals on the far wall. I spent a few minutes inside and took some photos, before heading out, looking around a bit more, and walking back to the car.
As I was waiting in the car, the man I talked with earlier approached with a woman I hadn’t met yet. He told me that he figured he’d go get the person with more knowledge about the place incase I wanted to learn more. We had a good 5 or 10 minute chat about the history of the place and what they’re up to now. As mentioned previously, the Gordons moved away about 5 years ago and sold the park to the new owners, who renamed it to the Manitoulin Ecopark and Dark Sky Preserve. Additionally, they have no idea where the Gordons moved to, just that they were told it was “somewhere tropical”, which is a stark difference from the snowy, cold winters of Ontario. Apparently it’s their make-or-break year, where if they don’t do well enough with visitor numbers, they won’t be able to keep the park open any longer.
After this conversation, I headed out up north a little bit longer to a town called Manitowaning, where they had a small lighthouse I thought would be interesting to look at. I didn’t have enough time to go all around the island, and with the weather being a bit moody, I felt I should save the west side of the island for another trip when it’s a bit warmer. I arrived about 15 minutes later and pulled over on the side of the road near the lighthouse. It’s nothing grand, but I felt it would be interesting nonetheless. The information board in front was quite worn out and hard to read, but I was able to discern that the town was the port for two main ships that would arrive on Wednesdays, dropping off people and supplies to the island. When the ships would leave, they would have a friendly race out to a marker further offshore before heading their individual ways. Due to this race, smoke and soot would be billowing from the ships which would blacken the sides of houses nearby, and anything else that happened to be in the way, including laundry, which people avoided doing on Wednesdays due to the ships.
After that I was getting tired, so I looked around on the map for places to sleep. I once again didn’t really want to find a spot to camp, especially since it seemed there wasn’t many places I could go that weren’t private land, or accessible only through private land, so I decided to find somewhere cheap to stay the night, and conveniently the best looking one was only a minute up the road in the same town I was in. It was called “My Friends Inn”, and had great reviews online. The hotel booking websites listed it as $150 after tax, but I figured I’d go in and ask at the desk because it’s right there.
When I got there, they had a doorbell to ring, upon which a woman opened the door and was immediately exceptionally friendly. You could be having the worst day ever, show up to this inn, and immediately have your mood turned around by just being around her. We got the booking sorted out, in which she only charged me $115 since it’s the off season, so it’s a good thing I didn’t book online! We also talked about Vancouver Island and BC, and I learned she’s never been to BC but has always wanted to go. She also wants to take the train to get there, which I highly encouraged her to do, as someone who’s done it before (though I don’t remember much of it). The inn is also run by her and husband, which is how you know it’ll be good.
Upon entering my room I was greeted with the most cozy motel room I’d been to so far, if not ever. Everything was incredibly clean, the bed was super comfortable (even more so than the $1000 a night hotel I’ve been to in London), and the light bulbs were a warm colour, rather than the cold white colour that most places use. The only thing I couldn’t find though was towels for the shower, which was a bit weird. Though, she had said that if I needed anything at all to just come back and ask, and so I did. She said they should be behind the door, but happily gave me two more towels just in case they weren’t. In my infinite wisdom I hadn’t looked behind the door, and lo and behold when I got back to the room and looked behind the door, there were two more towels right there.
The only thing that wasn’t great was the internet, clocking in at a snails pace of 2mbps down and 0.5mbps up. Though in practice I found it was enough to watch videos at 720p, and to do some work, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. Using said internet, I spent the rest of the evening watching YouTube videos (I’ve been very into Project Kamp lately, you should definitely check it out) and working on my OpenStreetMap business data tool.