A lot of the time, the names assigned to islands make sense - for example, I have seen snakes on the Snake Islands, Wreck Island really does have a wreck on its shores, and there's a fish restaurant on Fryingpan Island. So I was curious about the Umbrella Islands - particularly so since this website claims that the islands are shaped like upturned umbrellas floating on the water. Helmuth had heard a rumour that the origin of the name was the shape of the biggest island - which was supposed to be shaped like an upside down umbrella, high edges and bowl in the middle. Of course, these sorts of claims and rumours must be investigated.
The Umbrellas trip - on the July long weekend - was a GLSKA C-2 trip organized by Sam. Our plan was to put in at Woods Bay early on Saturday morning, head out to the Umbrellas for two nights, and then either come back, or, more likely, find a spot for the third night. With that in mind, Sam stopped by Pete's Place Access for Massassauga Park, but the parks people were still sleeping at 7:45 on Saturday so we couldn't do that. We decided to phone in from the water if we needed a site for our last night.
We - Helmuth, Sarka, Sam and I - started our trip by weaving through the channel east of Moon Island. This was fun, but on the hot side since Moon Island prevented the Bay breezes from finding us. We stopped for lunch at Mainland Point, and then tried to go around Sans Souci Island on the north. We hit a very shallow patch, and, while Sam investigated if this was a dead end, watched giant tadpoles.
It was indeed a dead end due to low water, but we backtracked and went around the other side, between Sans Souci and Fryingpan Islands. The slightly overcast day turned to beautiful sun, and we made the 7 km crossing from Running Island. We had ideal conditions, and managed the crossing in an hour (I played with my GPS and discovered that my powerstroke only increases my speed to 8.5 km/hr from a cruising speed of 7 km/hr. Sam's power stroke with his wing paddle topped out at at 11.5 km/hr. With a loaded boat.)
The Umbrellas didn't look like upturned umbrellas floating on the water, they just looked like random islands on the water. Not to say that they weren't special, they just didn't resemble umbrellas. The first island we checked for camping seemed like it would do, and we staked out spots, but just as we were about to start setting up we decided to explore another island which would provide more shelter since the sky was starting to look more ominous.
The second island was a better option, since it had a good tarp hanging tree (and it looked increasingly like we would have need of a tarp) and some very sheltered spots in a group of trees in the very middle. Sam, Sarka and I set up in the trees, but Helmuth chose the much more exposed shoreline. We had a lovely little rock beach for parking the boats and sheltered cooking.
That evening, the air was perfectly still and had a heavy feeling. The bugs were the worst I've experienced so far this year, and I resorted to taking an antihistamine so I wouldn't do the funny bite-scratching dance. It rained intermittently, but the wind never really picked up enough to blow the mosquitos away, so it didn't really matter if we were huddled under the tarp or sitting on the exposed rocks - we were bug dinner either way.
It rained a lot that night, and though it was dry when I got up, Sam and I retreated to the tarp during breakfast. It was a scheduled layover day, but it's not much fun to sit under a tarp with bugs. Thus we explored.
Our first order of business was to check out the biggest island in the group - it's full of no camping signs, something about the Georgian Bay Land Trust. Of course, it is also full of spots that would make good campsites... I looked for evidence of the upturned umbrella theory and ventured inland. I found some remains from a building and a bunch of poison ivy, but nothing that would have put umbrellas in my mind...
We returned to camp for lunch - and by this time it started clearing up. After lunch, we explored some more. Helmuth wanted to do some more on-foot exploring of more islands. Sam, Sarka and I followed the chain of rocks north to the Chancellor Islands, and Sam played at being an ornithologist - he observed that baby seagulls can swim but not fly, and that seagull flocks will swoop at you if you get too close to the chicks.
We also noticed that the chicks are smart enough to do sharp turns - something sea kayaks don't do quickly - to get away from us. After the seagull investigations, Sam turned his attention to cormorants. I've never been fond of the ominous black birds, and poking around a cormorant rookery did nothing to change my opinion.
Cormorant rookeries really are disgusting places. The smell was awful,and I don't think it had much to do with the rotten eggs (somebody has clearly been oiling eggs - there was spraypaint on many of the nests, and most of the eggs Sam investigated were simply rotten). Compare the rookery to the beautiful lichen-covered rocks near it...
The weather continued in its unsettled fashion - we went from bright sunshine to ominous conditions while making dinner. I chose to cook under the tarp - a decision I did not regret, since it started raining while I was doing it. After that, though, it cleared again, and we watched a nice sunset over the big island. Sam predicted that this was it for the rapidly changing weather since the wind had shifted to a brisk westerly, and he was right.
We woke to a bright morning with a cool wind and whitecaps. We planned to go to Wreck Island for lunch, and do a shorter 4 km crossing to Rigby Island. We had big following waves, and I thought it was super fun.
We made our way along the outer islands to Wreck Island, with big rollers from the side. I think we all loved the conditions - Helmuth had proclaimed the previous day's flatwater as "boring" - and we even hit a section of clapotis going into one narrow channel (Sam's attention to his hat almost caused him to flip there - apparently the new wing paddle is not so good for bracing).
Last time I was at Wreck Island I took a million pictures, but I didn't see the wreck (it's on the north side, in the channel between Wreck Island and Bradden Island). You can see most of the hull of the Waubuno, which went down in a storm in the late 19th Century - the ship disappeared, and the wreck - which is only part of the boat - was not found until the next year. You can paddle right over top of it, but it was too rough for me to be able to take useful pictures.
We had lunch at the day-use site on the island, and then hiked the interpretive trail. Like last time, there were no pamphlets, so the interpretive stops were somewhat meaningless. I think I took a lot of the same pictures - and the weather was pretty much identical to the time I was here in May - but this time, there were lots of annoying powerboat-types to avoid (some allowed their children to pick huge bunches of the irises that grew along the shores. Others stretched out on the dock in pink bikinis while playing their stereos).
Helmuth departed right after lunch, but Sam, Sarka and I were determined to spend another night out on the Bay. Since Sam hadn't managed to talk to the Pete's Place people, we decided to phone the park office. I managed to get a cell phone signal, but it kept breaking up, and I couldn't get more than two minutes into the conversation. We watched a snake swim, and then kept paddling - either to find a cown land site or a better phone signal.
We were cruising through the channels on Sharpe Island when we saw the MNR crew working on one of the sites. It was a nice site, and the crew agreed to radio the park office to see if it was booked that night. It wasn't, so we gave the crew our names and a credit card number, and they agreed to register us when they got back to the office. We drank the last of our beer, had snacks, swam, and napped for the rest of the day.
Site 330 is a stunning site - unfortunately, like many of the sites I've seen in Massassauga, it is frequented by a different sort of person than you meet on more remote crown-land trips - we were in a dead end bay, but several motorboats came to troll right in front of our site. Worse, though, were the piles of toilet paper near some of the best tent spots at the back of the site (the cleanup crew had evidently missed these). This on a site with a thunderbox, I don't get it.
We had a wonderful evening - Sam overcame his fear of being the only man on a trip now that Helmuth had left, and we made a fire and sat up emptying the various flasks until 11 p.m. The next morning, we took it easy - but we got up so early that we were up and ready to paddle out by 8:15 all the same.
So the Umbrellas - maybe they don't look like right-side-up or upside-down umbrellas floating on the water (no more than any other islands, anyway). They're still a nice place to visit, and the swimming there is extraordinary - you could easily spend a day island-hopping in your bathing suit. We saw two parties of daytrippers in powerboats, but they were far enough away that we couldn't hear them and they didn't stay long anyway. On the topo, only the biggest island is shown as treed, but in reality most of the bigger island have copses of trees (Tree Island looked particularly enticing, though somewhat exposed). On looking at the map again, if I use my imagination, I guess the shape on the map - at least that of the eastern islands - resembles an umbrella. At least as much as the big dipper looks like a bear, anyway. And, umbrella-like or not, this was a good trip and a fun way to spend the long weekend. Thanks Sam.