On the way to Killbear Provincial Park, we stopped at Norse Brewery. Kind of out-of-the-way but we don’t get this way very often so what the heck ! Big building and like I said, kind of in the middle of nowhere. The young lady working there was really nice and we tried 3 beers. They have a Golden Ale, Red Ale and a Dark Ale. Not too bad, we ended up buying a case of a variety of the three. They have a Viking theme going on which is fun. You can try on a Viking hat and they had Viking styled necklaces too.
It was next to impossible to get a good photo of the Killbear sign; no matter what time of day we drove past it, it was shadowed.
Got to Killbear and stayed at Blind Bay, site 727. There are very few hydro sites. I believe the park has 7 campgrounds with over 800 sites and only about 150 have hydro. We booked 5 months to the day that we came here and there were no power sites left. Not a big deal; our site was pretty nice and there was no one behind us, just forest and the sites are fairly well spaced in this campground. I read that Blind Bay is the quietest campground in the park, that person must have been here in the dead of winter. I also read some reviews from people who stated this is a “party” park and they didn’t understand the attraction. I wanted to see for myself but since we did stay here for 6 nights, I tend to agree with these people. Kids running around the campground roads at midnight to 2 a.m. screaming and yelling. Some campers thought we’d all enjoy their raucous hip hop music, all day and into the evening. We did not enjoy it and I love music but for me, when you are camping, it’s a time to enjoy the sounds of nature. I find we are inundated with music wherever we go; whether you are put on hold on a phone, in stores, even driving you can hear other people’s radios as they whizz by. So I like to camp to get away from typical “city” noises. Some of the other campgrounds are packed; I don’t even know how some of the bigger trailers even got into their sites.
We did some bike riding different times and one day we stopped at the Visitor Centre and walked the Lighthouse Trail, which is a short trail leading to rocks and you guessed it………a lighthouse. One of trips out and about we went through all the other campgrounds, I think we liked Blind Bay the best.
There are two General Store type stores on the road into Killbear Park. We stopped at both and both have a good selection of items, ice cream, food, souvenirs etc. I got a kick out of the owners dog at the one store. Just chillaxin’ in the sun.
Lots of raccoons in Blind Bay and we had two that were always around our site and looking for a handout, which they did not get. One day the people beside us went out and left food/dishes on their picnic table and the raccoons had a great time over there. And nope, we didn’t chase them off, if people are that dumb to leave food out, well what can I say? Lesson learned……….
They do have deer in the park and apparently someone saw a moose. We just saw deer and raccoons. The park is huge so to go to different areas to do the trails, visitor centre or different beaches, you will need to drive or bike. The Visitor Centre is quite nice. There are four trails to hike and they do not allow biking on the main park road but they have a nice recreational trail that runs parallel to the park road.
Georgian Bay has a very rocky shoreline and it can be quite windy so we didn’t canoe here at all. We noticed at the beaches that a lot of people had ropes on their floaties and attached them to the shore. You never know where you could end up with the wind !
It’s only about 40 km to Parry Sound so we went for the day to do some errands and book a cruise on the Island Queen which does tours of Georgian Bay. After we booked our cruises, we ate at a restaurant across from where booked our cruise. The name was Bay Street Cafe. Our server was not very attentive, friendly or anything else and the food was bar food but some of the worst I have had. And I love bar food. But not there !
We also stopped at Trestle Brewery and tried some beer. Nice location on the river just below the train trestle going over the river. Great outside area and the inside was nice. The servers were a bit off, the one we had was super annoying. There was hardly anyone in there but she was over at our table every 3 minutes. Want anything else? Are you done? Do you want a menu? Do you want your bill? Are you sure you dont’ want anything else? When are you leaving for God’s sakes? You know, those kind of questions when we were just trying to enjoy our time there. Andddddddddd.. ……. we took Trum in for photos and he sat on the bar and at our table. I was thinking people would think we were weird for bringing him into the brewery but no, what was weirder was that no one noticed. I know if I saw two adults with a stuffed monkey on their table, I would most definitely be asking questions ! I would want to know the story behind it. Anyways, they had 4 beers; lager, IPA, APA,and rye porter. We did not like any of their beers. And no, i’m not just sayin’ that because Trum Dum didn’t get any attention. lol
We did our boat cruise on a Saturday and it was a beautiful day and we had really nice seats on the top of the boat. There were two closed in levels and then the top-level. It was a 2 hour cruise and we really enjoyed it. Some of the cottages were beautiful and some you could only get to by boat. Must have cost a lot to transport all the building materials. Lots of little islands with cottages on them. It was an enjoyable morning. We booked another cruise for another day, a different type of cruise……..more later.
After our cruise, we stopped at a restaurant called Trappers Choice. I recommend this restaurant; the two servers were awesome and the food was really good. A great lunch.
We stopped at a used bookstore downtown called Bearly Used Books. I was in seventh heaven as I read a lot……..A LOT. I took in a couple of my books that I had finished and received $1 each for them. The books ranged in price from $1 and up. I bought a bunch of Lee Childs and Michael Connelly books for 1 or 2 $ each. This bookstore is huge and a better selection than a lot of libraries. We went twice and we came out with bags of books. The staff are wonderful, we asked them about a couple of authors/topics and they knew exactly where to go without looking it up. I wish I lived closer.
Sunday we did a second cruise through the Island Queen Boat Lines but it was a smaller boat, maybe holding 25 people. The idea was to go on an approximate one hour tour and end up at Henry’s a local fish and chip restaurant on one of the islands and then of course head back. I liked the scenic views better on this trip then the other boat cruise. We arrived at Frying Pan Island to eat at Henry’s. Nice spot and the meal was pretty good. You ordered and paid ahead of time and the choices were fish/chips; hamburger; chicken nuggets. Clint had the hamburger, fries and coleslaw and I had pickerel, fries, coleslaw and beans. It was supposed to be a 2 /12 hour trip but we were actually gone over 3 hours. Fine with us, we didn’t have anywhere to be.
Parry Sound is a nice town, we stopped at a local museum and there was a fire tower, which Clint had to climb. There was also a lovely pond with pink water lily’s and lots of frogs. Cute park.
Later that day, Ricky Raccoon and his little friend Rhonda came walking through our campsite. They were hanging around every day. So cute.
We also drove to Oastler Lake Provincial Park, cute park, sites are pretty close but they have a nice beach. We saw Massassauga Provincial Park as well from our boat cruise. The only way to get to this park, which is a back country park, is by boat, canoe or kayak.
I’m glad we came here but I don’t think I’ll come back, it’s an okay area but I guess not for me. Off to Awenda Provincial Park now.
Trums Travels 