The weather forecast doesn’t look great but today is the only day we can get the water taxi to Beausoleil Island of the Georgian Bay Island National Park.  We pack water, snacks, fleece, windbreakers and rain slickers and head for the dock.  Our Captain greets us in great spirits with a forecast of mid-afternoon showers…along with the comment they had a “torrential downpour” out there yesterday.

Eleven in total pile onto the flat bottom, open sided shuttle boat and don our fashionable bright orange life jackets. A quick nature talk forewarns of Massassauga rattlesnakes, a black bear sow and twin cubs, and a mama moose and her little one.  No problem.  Hope we see one or all.   The motor jumps to life and off we go.  There is a light mist that stings against my skin when we are at speed.  Fifteen minutes and we are climbing off the boat.

We are at the North end of the island.   Magnificent boulders of the Canadian Shield leap out of the water.  Lichen and moss cover the pink and gray shapes.  Trees and shrubs erupt from cracks and any where else they can find a toehold.  Visibility clears as we start around the Cambrian trail where there are lovely vistas of the surrounding islands of the archipelago.  We drop into an area of low brush.  Mosquitoes immediately swarm us buzzing everywhere.  Yuck.  Oh yeah, and it starts to sprinkle.  We walk on through the lush undergrowth (among its annoying residents) protected from the intensifying rain by the thick canopy.  The DEET comes out, ok that’s better.  Boardwalks protect the marshiest ground.  It is soggy but lovely.

The rain lets up as we begin to climb back up onto the enormous rocks nearing Fairy trailhead and the route toward Fairy Lake.  Sprinkles start and stop as we move along the gigantic rock outcroppings.  This is ancient metamorphic rock that bears the scars of glaciers that have moved across it.  Pretty amazing.

The rain stops. From our rocky perch we see Fairy Lake, still and silent; ringed by the contrasting colors of rock and vegetation that also reflect in the surface.  A beaver hut rises above the surface.  Our reverie is short lived as droplets disturb the surface.  Rain intensifies and we look for shelter, Kent one way and I the other.  I hug close to the trunk of a mighty pine and appreciate the protection of it’s boughs as the rain falls in sheets.  The rain eases and we both emerge to head on down the trail.  This walk along Fairly Lake is renowned as one of the prettiest on the island.  Looks lovely to me.  Sprinkles start and stop as we pick our way through puddles, squishy moss, and rising water back toward the pick-up point taking a little time to enjoy the peace and beauty along the way.  A Great Blue and a Loon family make appearances.

Our taxi arrives and we are on our way back home. A bit of sunshine would have made this place easier to enjoy but I’m glad we didn’t miss the opportunity to see it even in the pouring rain.