Images of the Bruce Peninsula

It's kitchen witch day - I'm catching up with all my domestic, food-related chores. The bread's in the oven, the granola is cooling and the yogurt is incubating. I still have to weed my postage-stamp sized garden, but that can wait until after supper.

These are photos I took on the Bruce - at Cyprus Lake campground and on the trail. I tried to put them in some sort of order and it didn't work. Oh well.

This is Cyprus Lake at sunset. As peaceful and calm as it looks. On the second day, the wind around the lake was furiously whipping the cedars around, but when we got to Georgian Bay, it was calm, clear and warm. Such a small body of water, and it seems to have it's own weather system.

I love this lake. I could sit by the shore alone for hours (and I have, but not this time, as I was alone with two kids). You can hear the loons best in early evening, and in the morning just before dawn.
There is a trail that goes all the way around the lake. The trail is also the campground access to the Bruce. The cedars are small here, but bent and twisted by the wind into odd shapes, bowed and bent with the forces of the elements. We have a special tree, that we call "the sitting tree" where we have all - now including both my girls - have had our pictures taken at one time or another.






My little one, getting as far into the icy waters of Georgian Bay as she dared. It is usually cold. The day we hiked out it was freezing.

She's almost five years old, and a little trooper. She hiked almost six kilometers that day, over two boulder beaches, and up a few cliffs.






A wildflower meadow on the Horse Lake trail.













Walking the trail. It was not very warm that day.














A wild lily of some kind, close to Cyprus Lake. We did not see any yellow lady slippers (endangered plant that can be found in the park). Nor did we see any Massasauga rattlers (thank goodness!)










View from the first boulder beach we traversed, near Halfway Rock.













This is the second boulder beach that we walked. E and my nephew stopped and tried to make inukshuks, but we were chased away by blackflies.












The Grotto. It's been a few years since I've climbed down there. Water levels have dropped in recent years, but there used to be quite a few divers who would travel under the rock and make their way inside. Three years ago I swam around the outside of the grotto and sat in the cave. The water was much warmer on that trip. By the end of August, it's usually tolerable.



And now I'm home. I was busy - two kids and no other adult makes for a trip with very little alone time. But I did get the opportunity to sort through a few things, through late night campfires and early morning journalling. I know what I have to do. It won't be easy, but I think that in the end, everything will be okay.