Gore Bay Museum

Gore Bay Museum

Gore Bay

Tucked into a hillside in the town of Gore Bay, a complex of limestone buildings was erected in 1889 when the town became the judicial seat of Manitoulin Island: a courthouse, a land office and a home for the jailer—with jail cells—perched on the lower slopes of the West Bluff, visible from every vantage point.

Today, the large courtroom in the classical-style building at 27 Phipps Street still hears the cases for the District of Manitoulin every week of the year. The jailer’s home, a quaint farmhouse-style stone structure at 2 Dawson Street around the corner from the courthouse, now houses the Gore Bay Museum.

The former home of the jailer and his family, and the ‘lockup’ part of the house—four tiny jail cells with a high barred window, narrow barred cell door and barely enough room for a cot—were separated by a thick wood door. Nowadays, this part of the museum, home and jail, accommodates early settler artifacts, furniture, lace bedspreads and table runners, dolls, toys, dresses, hats and kitchen implements in its perfectly preserved, original rooms; a noteworthy collection honours the career of local photographer Joseph Wismer with exquisite prints made from his glass negatives taken between 1900 and 1930. The prisoners’ wood refectory table, off-limits to photographs, is a moving memorial to the men who carved their names on its surface.

A new wing, designed by architect Brian Garratt and built in 2005, beautifully accentuates the old jailer’s quarters, and has also expanded the museum’s role in the community as host to artist exhibitions, lectures, concerts, book launches and readings within the wide space and, in summer, also outside on the long, stone-column-lined ‘porch’ on two sides.

Recognized with the Ontario Historical Society’s 2014 Russell K. Cooper Living History Site or Heritage-Based Museum Award for ‘heritage-based excellence in programming, ingenious problem solving, or site development,’ the Gore Bay Museum has presented unique cultural offerings for over 30 years.

Since 1987, Nicole Weppler has been the director of the museum, overseeing continual improvements as well as the building and programming expansion that then led to the development of a ‘satellite’ site on the waterfront, the Harbour Centre, dedicated to showcasing local art and artists in their studios, galleries and shops and the William Purvis Marine Centre on the third floor.

“Nothing beautiful happens without a multitude of people helping,” says Ms. Weppler, who works with the Museum Board of Gore Bay’s town council and many community volunteers to stage multiple events–with homemade donated catering–every year to benefit the community and raise funds for the preservation of the historic museum building. For the last three years, Cheyenne Barnes has been the able summer intern greeting visitors, clearly enjoying the “great environment and people experience” and showing her anime-inspired drawings in the gallery gift shop before she heads to Laurentian University in the fall for zoology and music studies.

This summer, until September 30, the large, modern space is showing two local artists’ fine works in traditional and modern media: ‘Confluence’ is an exhibition of brushwork paintings in Japanese Sumi-e inks and Chinese watercolours on Japanese and Italian fine art paper by Lynne Gerard. The artist, whose studio and shop is in the Harbour Centre, merges her considerable skills in painting, poetry and calligraphy to create each artful, enlightening meditation on birds, horses, ravens, hummingbirds, a bicycle ride home after work, life, art.

Another gallery is dedicated to the memory of Donald Moorcroft (1935-2015), a photographer who summered for years at Ice Lake; a former professor of physics at the University of Western Ontario, he was a hobbyist at first. On Manitoulin, he said, he could “suddenly see what was in front of my eyes.” His work is of deep contemplation of patterns, textures, landscapes and feelings in Nature: lichen as you’ve never seen it, mesmerizing veins in rock, a forest melting in golden fog.

Slipped in behind the gallery is the ‘dental office’ with two dental chairs and all the grim accessories necessary to the gruesome procedures available then. There’s a ‘grocery store’ display with cash register and typewriter on the clerk’s desk and boxes and cans of popular old brands of household goods stacked on the shelves.

Step over the door sill that separates the gallery from the home and jail to be transported into Gore Bay and environs of the late 1800s. In the warren of original rooms, upstairs and down, little dioramas are created, each a surprise to come upon. A child’s bedroom resonates with the care of the painstaking hand work in the lace bed cover and embroidered nursery rhymes. In the jail, one cell is exactly as it was then, cot overlooked by barred window; other cells are arranged as curio cabinets of fascinating relics of bygone days: clothing, dolls, wash bowls and jugs ordered from the Eaton’s catalogue.

At the Gore Bay Museum, the legacy of yesterday seamlessly melds with contemporary artistic expression, tomorrow’s cherished heritage.

Gore Bay Museum, 2 Dawson St, Gore Bay. Tel: 705-282-2040. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 4 pm, Sunday 2 to 4 pm. gorebaymuseum.com

Harbour Centre, 40 Water Street, Gore Bay. Open Tuesday- Sunday 12 pm to 4pm. gorebaymuseum.com/harbour-centre

Article by

Isobel Harry

Isobel Harry

Isobel Harry is a photographer and writer who has also worked extensively in the field of human rights advocacy. Her photos have been widely exhibited and she has published articles in many magazines; as programmes director and executive director for PEN Canada for twenty years, she worked on behalf of the right to freedom of expression internationally. Now living on Manitoulin Island, Isobel works as a freelance writer and photographer and is a frequent contributor to the weekly Manitoulin Expositor newspaper and the annual This is Manitoulin magazine. Her interests lie at the intersection of arts, culture and human rights.

Noble Nature Trail

Noble Nature Trail

Difficulty ★    •    Approx. 2 – 4 Hours

  • Car Park
  • Public Toilets
  • Pet Friendly
  • Wheelchair Accessible
About the 
Noble Nature Trail

The Noble Nature Trail is an easy to moderate trail that offers a 1.1km stroll east from its starting point at the intersection of Water and Bay Streets on the Gore Bay shoreline up to and along the East Bluff overlooking Gore Bay and the town. The Noble Nature Trail ends at the Harold Noble Memorial Park which offers a high vantage point that provides outstanding panoramic opportunities for that perfect photo of the Port of Gore Bay and its busy harbourfront.

You may wish to bring:

  • Water
  • Snacks
  • Camera
  • Compass

Tips from a Local

The trails on Manitoulin Island have some of the best views around. Bring along a camera to capture your trip and leave the trails exactly as you found them so others can enjoy the hikes. Remember: take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Sheshegwaning – Nimkee’s Hiking Trail

Sheshegwaning - Nimkee's Hiking Trail

Difficulty ★★    •    Approx. 3-6 Hours

  • Car Park
  • Public Toilets
  • Pet Friendly
  • Wheelchair Accessible
About the 
Nimkee's Hiking Trail

North of Silver Water, off Hwy 540, the Sheshegwaning First Nation is developing a 20km trail, which can be enjoyed in several sections, some offering wonderful views of the North Channel. There are facilities for camping and picnicking, Trail maps are available at the Band Office or at the Gas/ Convenience store at the trailhead. Allow 3 to 6 hours.

You may wish to bring:

  • Water
  • Snacks
  • Camera
  • Compass

Tips from a Local

Manitoulin hikes can to have a lot of elevation changes over rough terrain. Be sure to pack plenty of water for each person and carry it in a backpack or other hands-free carrier. That way, you’ll have your hands ready to help navigate the trails.

Misery Bay

Misery Bay

Difficulty ★★★★    •    Approx. 2 – 4 Hours

  • Car Park
  • Public Toilets
  • Pet Friendly
  • Wheelchair Accessible
About the 
Misery Bay

Misery Bay Provincial Nature Reserve is a 860 hectare provincial park on the south shore of Manitoulin Island, a ten minute drive west of Evansville. There is a trail network of eight trails totalling approximately 16 km (one way) and ranging in length from 0.2 km to 4.8 km (one way). The trails feature mixed woodland, old beach ridges, and rare alvars. There is a visitor centre/interpretive centre to educate the public about this unique area. There is an easy loop of 4.1 km from the visitor centre consisting of the Lakeshore and Wolf Den Trails.

For more information visit the Misery Bay website.

You may wish to bring:

  • Water
  • Snacks
  • Camera
  • Compass

Tips from a Local

Some of the longer hikes on Manitoulin can take hours to complete. Pack some trail snacks in reusable containers to keep your energy up and make sure to not leave any scraps on the trail.

Gore Bay Boardwalk Trail

Gore Bay Boardwalk Trail

Difficulty ★★★★    •    Approx. 2 – 4 Hours

  • Car Park
  • Public Toilets
  • Pet Friendly
  • Wheelchair Accessible
About the 
Gore Bay Boardwalk Trail

The Boardwalk Trail follows the town’s waterfront and connects with the Noble Nature Trail. It travels 1.2 km along the shoreline west to Fish Point Park, where the Harbour Centre Gallery and Split Rail Brewery are in the neighbourhood. The Boardwalk Trail offers an easy and accessible route along the length of the town’s waterfront will bring you to the newly constructed breakwall, providing an opportunity to get further out into the bay. Picnic areas are available along this trail as is direct access to the many downtown businesses and services.

You may wish to bring:

  • Water
  • Snacks
  • Camera
  • Compass

Tips from a Local

The trails on Manitoulin Island have some of the best views around. Bring along a camera to capture your trip and leave the trails exactly as you found them so others can enjoy the hikes. Remember: take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Codmothers

The Codmothers'

Family Dining • Takeaway

  • Wheelchair Accessible
  • Licenced
  • Wheelchair Accessible
  • Licenced

About The Codmothers'

This fully licenced family restaurant in the hub of Gore Bay is open daily and, in the summer, also serves meals on its spacious deck high above the main street where diners choose from their own special menu.

The Codmothers' on Facebook

Contact Information:

55 Meredith Street, Gore Bay

  • 705-282-1212
  • 705-282-1212

North Channel

North Channel

Keen fishermen may find:

  • Perch
  • Muskie
  • Pike
  • Bass
  • Walleye
  • Salmon
  • Rainbow Trout
  • Lake Trout
About the 
North Channel

NORTH CAHNNEL—The North Channel is defined by Manitoulin Island: this famous waterway is, similar to Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron but if there was no Manitoulin Island, there would be no North Channel.

The North Channel of Lake Huron, to give it its proper moniker, is an extension of the St. Mary’s River, the outflow from Lake Superior to Lake Huron at the “Twin Soos” in Ontario and Michigan, not too far to the west.

It is much broader, longer and interesting than the St. Mary’s River, but the two are connected in that way that water likes to flow downhill.

On its eastern end, find the historic and picturesque village and Port of Killarney (in 2020 celebrating 200 years as a community) on the Killarney Channel which, in turn, flows into Collins Inlet and then it’s all Georgian Bay.

The majority of Manitoulin Island’s port communities are on the North Channel: Little Current, Kagawong, Gore Bay and Meldrum Bay. From late spring through fall each year, their docks, marinas and shipwright shops cater to cruising clientele. These are both sail and powerboat enthusiasts, in craft of all sizes, who are drawn to the North Channel because, well, they consider it the finest cruising grounds in the world.

While that may seem like a larger-than-life claim, consider also that Manitoulin Island itself is the largest Island in fresh water in the world, so the area can lay claim to double superlatives, courtesy of Mother Nature.

This fine cruising is the result of a number of factors but the primary one is the hundreds of islands that are not only picturesque but provide the challenges to navigation that sailors enjoy. Among them there are literally thousands of sheltered natural harbours that invite holidaying mariners to drop anchor, have a shore lunch, explore a bit, stay a while.

These islands are primarily Crown (i.e. public) lands. The ones that aren’t are easily identified by the fact that someone will have built a cottage (camp, as they say in Northern Ontario) somewhere on them.

For more than a decade now, North Channel sailors have been drawn into an even closer community by means of the Cruisers’ Net, a morning VHF signal broadcast on Channel 71 daily in July and August beginning at 9 am.

Roy Eaton, himself a veteran North Channel sailor, is the instigator of this useful service but also the voice behind the mic who daily provides bits of useful national and international news, relays important (sometimes urgent) messages to, among and from mariners, weather reports and more. Roy Eaton broadcasts from the second floor of the Anchor Inn Hotel in downtown Little Current and, on most days, he is surrounded by boaters in port who come up to say hello to him, and to one another, in person. Mr. Eaton receives thousands of call-ins each summer.

A port is a pleasant, and often necessary, place for boaters to occasionally visit and the North Channel, on both its Manitoulin and North Shore coasts, is home to a number of them so the mariner, while enjoying the rugged splendour of the Channel’s granite and sometimes quartzite features, is never too far from the services of a marine community.

Manitoulin’s North Channel communities have already been named. They are all well-established towns and each one has its own charm and culture.

These Manitoulin port towns and their North Shore counterparts have not only a vested but, in fact, an historical interest in serving and servicing the yachts that play in the North Channel together with their captains and crews. All of these communities were established from the water well before the roads were built (remember the port of Killarney is almost 200 years old and it had no road access until the mid-1960s!)

The docks that lined (and still line) their waterfronts were the means by which people and goods arrived at and left these communities, so their primary orientation remains very strongly to their waterfronts.

In Little Current, Killarney, Kagawong and Meldrum Bay, the traditional business district faces the dock and the water.

Gore Bay is slightly different in that the waterfront street isn’t the main business street, which it parallels. (That long-ago decision gave Gore Bay the chance to have businesses on both sides of its main street, an opportunity that was denied to those other port towns that chose to build their businesses directly facing their waterfronts.)

Each of these towns is continually upgrading its waterfront infrastructure in order to better serve the yachting community whether individual boaters and their craft are transients, headed the next day to the next port or are “seasonals” who lease a berth in a public or private marina for the season and venture out for North Channel adventures, and to visit other ports, as often as they are able.

On the North Shore side of the North Channel, the ports and marinas can be found at Spanish, Blind River, Richard’s Landing and Hilton Beach (both of these last ports are on the westerly St. Joseph’s Island) and at Thessalon.

As noted, the Port of Killarney anchors the North Channel on the east and the Port of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on the west.

For boaters who are also anglers, the North Channel is a giant fishing hole where every game species is there for the catching, together with sturgeon, a protected, endangered and non-game species.

Every species has its own habitat, of course, but yachting fisher people can down-rig for salmon and lake trout and look for bass near shoals, pickerel (walleye), pike, perch and muskellunge (muskie) at their appropriate depths and also set their lines and bait deep for whitefish.

Pleasure boaters exploring the North Channel can expect to see a Great Lakes cruise ship, heading east or west and hosting 200 or more passengers from all over North America, Europe and beyond who have chosen to enjoy the magic of this famous waterway from this elevated perspective with dinner and drinks always nearby.

The Port of Little Current is the only Manitoulin North Channel community where these ships dock enroute to their turnaround destinations of Chicago and Toronto.  They also dock at the Canadian Soo. Just like pleasure boaters, the cruise ships coming or going from Little Current must wait for the iconic swing bridge to open (to ‘swing’ on its central pedestal) and so leave motorists to watch as craft of every size pass through the North Channel at its narrowest point.

Nearby places to stay, eat and play

The North Channel has some boutique features for the exploring yachters: Baie Fine northeast of Killarney, the Mississagi Straits that divide Manitoulin at its most westerly from neighbouring Cockburn Island (also a part of the District of Manitoulin) and where French explorer and adventurer LaSalle’s ship Griffon was quite possibly smashed into kindling against far Western Manitoulin’s rocks and shoals over 300 years ago. That particular mystery is ongoing although the old Mississagi Lighthouse, built right at Manitoulin’s western tip 140 years ago, still warns mariners about the same dangers that likely met La Salle’s ill-fated ship. Other lighthouses along the North Channel are at Strawberry Island just east of the Little Current swing bridge, a range lighthouse in Kagawong and the Janet Head lighthouse near the Gore Bay harbour as well as the Killarney lighthouse.

In addition to food, fuel, medical needs (there are full-service hospitals in Little Current and Blind River with 24-hour emergency service, and medical clinics in Killarney, Gore Bay, Thessalon, and Richard’s Landing) and all the shopping required to make any vacation voyage a pleasant one, there are two large shipyards in Little Current: Harbour Vue Marina and Boyle’s Marina and in Gore Bay, Fogal Marine Services provides service to yachters. There are boatyards in Killarney and Sault Ste. Marie.

But a yachter need not come with his/her own boat. Canadian Yacht Charters (CYC) in Gore Bay leases sail and power craft, both crewed and bare-boat, to accommodate boatless folks wanting a taste of the North Channel’s grandeur.

Another favourite destination, and a mid-point in the long reach of the North Channel, is the Benjamin Islands: quartz outcrops that nature painted a unique hue. It’s a natural gathering spot for boaters and a destination that veteran and novice boaters alike tend to work into their itineraries.

In fact, you can enjoy the North Channel for most of a day strictly as a passenger aboard Le Grand Héron, the North Channel Cruise Line’s spacious, licensed cruise boat that makes scheduled sightseeing trips all summer long throughout the week. One goes to Killarney, another to the Benjamin Islands, another to Baie Fine and there are several special events as well. Little Current is the home port for Le Grand Héron.

Just as it was and is for Indigenous people who have canoed the North Channel for thousands of years, for the Voyageurs during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who used huge freight canoes to carry trade goods west from Montreal and furs back from the west and north to Montreal, the North Channel is a useful east-west waterway for the modern-day yachter; one that also happens to present incomparable natural beauty, all services required for the boating community and the opportunity to become, even for an occasional season, part of the fraternity/sorority of boaters for whom the North Channel is one of the most special places on earth.

The North Cannel Marine Tourism Council officially represents the waterway and the public and private sectors that provide service to its mariners. Please contact them at www.thenorthchannel.ca.

Lake Wolsey

Lake Wolsey

Keen fishermen may find:

  • Perch
  • Pike
  • Rainbow Trout
  • Bass
About 
Lake Wolsey

Perhaps the most striking thing about Lake Wolsey is that it is not, properly speaking, a lake at all. A man-made causeway divides it from the North Channel, but since the lake is still connected to the big water by a narrow passage under Indian Point Bridge, it would really be more accurate to call it a bay or inlet.

The other striking thing about the ‘lake’ is that it helps form the narrowest part of Manitoulin by cutting a deep five-mile notch in the shoreline. The remaining distance between the southern tip of the lake and the Island’s south shore is a mere mile and a half.

Looking at a map, it seems obvious that this narrow strip of land was once used as a portage. Not only is the bay located directly below the lake called “Portage Bay,” there is also a tiny lake between Lakes Wolsey and Huron the “Portage Lake.” A stepping stone, as it were in the trail, or more accurately, a brief respite from the trail. Presumably first nations canoeists would have broken up the slog by a short glide on this small lake.

I brought my canoe when I visited Wolsey, thinking I would explore the south end of the lake and look for evidence of this historic trail (if not actually attempt to tote my canoe across it). And I did, indeed, eventually find evidence of the portage, although it wasn’t through my particular effort on my part or help from my canoe, which stayed firmly attached to the roof of my vehicle the whole time I was there.

What can I say? Well, it was choppy on Lake Wolsey the day I visited. It was also an extremely hot day. Wading in the shallows and sitting in the shade seemed far preferable to me than bucking around in the waves and attempting a bush-crash portage.

Wolsey Lake is easy to find. Simply drive west of Gore Bay on Highway 540 until it appears on your left. Crossing Indian Point Bridge, a massive headland is visible west, while the wind-scuffed sprawl of Wolsey Lake can be beheld to the east.

This scenic view is all that most people know of Wolsey Lake and environs. It’s all I knew, anyway. But there is much more to experience.

If you want to put a boat in for a tour of Wolsey, the place to do it is immediately after you cross the bridge: on the north side of the highway there is a picnic ground which includes a boat ramp. You will actually be putting your boat into Campbell Bay, part of Bayfield Sound, but from here it takes no time to zip around and go under the Indian Point Bridge into Wolsey.

Not far past the picnic ground is a restaurant, GG’s, and it is in this approximate spot that an historic Ojibwe and Odawa community was located, called Obejewung, the native word for the narrows separating Wolsey Lake and the big water, alternately translated as “at the place where the water rises” and “the place where the water runs in.”

In the 19th Century, the First Nation community spanned some 700 acres and numbered 43 individuals, according to Exploring Manitoulin, by Shelley Pearen. The population presumably swelled when, as Ms. Pearen writes, natives from the Magnetawan River arrived around 1874.

The residents of Obejewung were “admired by their neighbours for their elegant canoes and their ability to skillfully manoeuvre the sturdy but delicate craft,” notes Ms. Pearen. It’s a detail that I found particularly intriguing, because if these people were noteworthy canoe builders and paddlers, it lends credence to the theory that a portage would have been used to get from Lake Wolsey to Lake Huron.

Largely because of my fixation on this portage, I decided to turn off on Indian Point Road, your first left after the causeway, and head for the south end of the lake. A tourist camp ground called Lake Wolsey Obejewung Park is located here.

A seasoned camper says the fish don’t bite quite as much as they used to, and he did show me a picture of a 14-pound pike he caught a few summers ago.

“I was trolling for rainbow with eight-pound test and no leader when I caught it,” he noted. He says it’s not unusual for pike that size to be hooked in Wolsey, “but it’s rare to catch and keep them when they’re that big.”

The camper’s family told me about a nice sand beach that can be found on the steep, eastern shore of the lake. Near the beach is a series of natural springs.

Painted turtles are also abundant in this spot. Baldheaded eagles, golden eagles and ospreys are often seen on the east shore as well.

Wolsey Lake is one of the Island’s largest and deepest lakes, next in line after the “big three” of Manitou, Mindemoya and Kagawong. It stretches five miles in length, and reaches depths of up to 110 feet, according to a camper who preferred to be known only as Big John. My friendly camper told me they’d “never seen anything deeper than 80 feet,” but Big John maintained that he’d hit a spot with his depth finder had registered at 110’, theorizing that “it was a crack or something.”

Out front of the public beach, however, it’s extremely shallow. The day I was there, about 50 people, toddlers, teens, adults, were relaxing on the beach and wading out through the tepid water to reach a deeper, cooler spot. I waded out into this bathtub myself and snapped a bunch of pictures of cooling-down kids. Many of them were heading for a swimming raft located a couple of hundred yards from the beach.

While standing thigh-deep in the warm lake, surrounded by kids and rubber rafts and a couple of stationary personal watercraft, I gazed over at the reedy end of the lake, speculating about where the portage might have started, telling myself that if I was a thorough journalist, I should really go back to the car, get my canoe, and do some paddling and bush-crashing.

Instead, I decided I had a touch of sunstroke, stepped out of the lake, checked my legs for bloodsuckers (there weren’t any, nor did I really expect to see any, it’s just a reflex), and started walking lazily back to my vehicle in bare feet.

That’s when I found the “nature trail.” It was located at the back of the campsite, just beyond a ball diamond and a washroom facility. There was a sign, somewhat faded and battered, at the trailhead. Here’s what it said:

“This section of the trail was cleared previously to the coming of the white man. It is believed to have been the Indians’ land route to their hunting and fishing grounds near Lake Wolsey, portaged overland to Portage Lake, and on to Lake Huron.”

Okay, so I’m aware that tourist spots often play up these bits of folklore without spending too much time in the archives or doing much fieldwork. The nature trail wasn’t very long; it didn’t get me anywhere close to Lake Huron.

Still, I took the experience of that trail as further indication that a portage once ran from the bottom of Lake Wolsey to Lake Huron. Maybe not in this exact place, along this exact trail, but here somewhere.

Nearby places to stay, eat and play

One day, I told myself, I will return and portage this area just like the Odawa and Ojibwe had.

Ah yes, one day. In the meantime, I sauntered over to Lake Wolsey Obejewung Park snack shack, got myself a burger and a Coke and drove slowly home, dreaming about future adventures.

Lake Wolsey boasts other features: when Mike Meeker hung up his skates after a brief stint in the NHL, he researched the burgeoning European aquaculture industry and began Manitoulin’s first aquaculture operation on Manitoulin, in Lake Wolsey just south of Objewung Park. It’s still there, producing Rainbow Trout in its cages, but Mr. Meeker’s initiative led to several other fish farming operations in the North Channel and the industry remains a vital one.

On the other, Gore Bay side of the lake is Lake Wolsey Cabins, a tourist camp for fishing enthusiast, where fishing boats can also be rented. This camp also caters to ice fisher people in the colder months.

Ice Lake

Ice Lake

Keen fishermen may find:

  • Perch
  • Pike
  • Bass
About 
Ice Lake

A shallow, reedy, but surprisingly extensive lake located between Kagawong and Gore Bay. Ice Lake got its name for being the first lake on Manitoulin to freeze each winter and the first to de-ice in the spring.

Compared to such larger, deeper lakes such as Kagawong and Manitou, which don’t ice over until the last week of December or the first of January, Ice Lake firms up well before Christmas, “In recent years it’s been frozen by December 5,” says Bill Baker, who lives at the north end of the lake.

Just because it freezes quickly however, doesn’t mean the ice is safe to travel on. “It’s a lake we don’t use that much in the winter,” remarks Mr. Baker. “There are pockets where it’s not always solid.” He theorizes that gas released by the vegetative bottom is likely accountable for the soft patches.

This hasn’t stopped people from venturing out onto the ice over the years. Mr. Baker remembers seeing “a car out there when I was a kid, towing a couple of skiers.”

Most people are wary of the ice, though. “Old people have referred to teams of horses going through the ice,” says Mr. Baker, adding that his own mother, Ethel Prior talked about two young fellows who drowned in Ice Lake while skating.

The northern and southern portions of the lake are distinct, separated by a peninsula. The northern half is fairly broad and contains two islands (the larger of which, Goat Island, has had a baldheaded eagle nesting on it for the past few years), but extremely shallow throughout, just four feet deep on average; the southern portion is narrower; but twice as deep. It’s a weird shaped lake; the best thing I can liken it to is a dog’s leg.

It was fitting, then, that I brought my pooch along when I decided to do a tour of the lake. It was a breezy day, and I figured he’d be good for a ballast.

I originally planned to put my canoe in at the north end of the lake, where Highway 540 crosses a causeway and there’s a small pull-over spot, but after speaking with Mr. Baker, I learned that the real public launch for the lake is in the southern part.

So instead of following Highway 540 to the tip of the lake, I turned off on Robertson Road. This intersection was once the hub of the community of Ice Lake. While the community was never very big, it still appears on the Turners of Little Current map, and at one time there was a general store here, as well as a post office, which first opened in 1903. Farther down Robertson Road, a stone schoolhouse still stands, engraved with the date 1904 which is the community hall now. If you go the other way from that intersection, north, the roadway is called Beange Road and leads straight to Burt’s Country Meats, a unique organic farm abattoir and retail operation run by a husband and wife who successfully repurposed the family farm over a quarter century ago.

Before I got to the schoolhouse, however, I was arrested by a different stony sight: a farmer’s field humped with half a dozen large, tidy, circular rock piles. I’d never seen so many rock piles, or such symmetrical, aesthetically pleasing ones, in any one place, and I used to live in Rockville.

To reach the public launch, continue past the schoolhouse and then turn right (west) on Douglas Road. When it bends to the south, continue straight to the water.

There’s not much here, just a couple of resident boats (seemingly rentals), some reeds, and a spot to put your boat in the lake. While people have been known to back trailers into the water, most just bring 14-footers that they can slide in by hand and slap a motor on, as the water is quite shallow and the bottom rather soft.

Me, I slid my 16-foot motor-less mode of transport in, told my “ballast” to jump unto the front, and off we went. It was a beautiful evening, but breezy, as I had expected. I decided to head northwest, into the wind, so that coming back would be a, well, breeze.

I aimed for something out in the middle of the lake that appeared to be either a sizable deadhead or an extremely large bird. I t turned out to be an empty 20-pound propane tank, with a small tern perched on top. I have no idea what the tank was there for, presumably marking a rock or hazard of some sort. My dog spooked the tern, and it took off, V-tail and bent wings flashing through the air.

The water was a murky, greenish colour, and at times, even well out from shore, I would look down and realize I was stirring weeds with my paddle tip. At other times, I could easily make out the mucky or pebbly bottom, even through the opaque water. And I was in the deep half of the lake.

Mr. Baker told me that the lake bottom in the shallower, northern end of the lake is actually deeded land. “An American company had the deed, something to do with some mineral in the lake,” he explained, adding that when he was on council for Gordon Township, “it came up for sale for taxes owing.” The municipality decided that nobody should own the bottom of the lake.

Me, I wondered: who would want to own the bottom of this lake? Is there a business possibility in bottling methane gas or something?

The top of the lake, now that was different. Looking around at Ice Lake from my canoe, I found the surface and scenery quite pleasing.

My mutt did too. He particularly liked the fake duck that we found. I’d call it a decoy, except that it was just a grey blob in the vague shape of a duck; it certainly wasn’t a hand carved, intricately painted facsimile. Still, my dog became briefly wound up over the plastic ducky and threatened to tip the canoe.

He also got a bit-wound up over the catamaran that zipped past us at one point, brightly coloured sail puffed in the wind, I paddled as close as I could to snap a picture, and my dog thought that this meant he might have a chance to jump aboard the sailboat. “Lie down,” I ordered, pointlessly. “Sit down,” I begged. “Be a good ballast,” I implored.

Instead the mutt remained, of course, perched on all fours, body straining forward, ears perked up and flapping around crazily in the wind.

This slick-looking catamaran was bearing down on us, big colourful sail puffed professionally in the breeze. Here we were, zigzagging around in a scratched-up canoe. My sail, such as it was, being this recalcitrant canine.

 

Nearby places to stay, eat and play

Fishing boats were scarce on the lake while I was out there paddling around with my ballast/sail in the bow, but I did encounter one just as we were leaving. They were putting their aluminum boat into Ice Lake just as me and the mutt were taking our Kevlar craft out.

When I asked the fishing boat individuals what there was to get in Ice Lake, he responded: “There’s bass, perch, pike and barbus.”

I thought about that for a minute. I recognized most of the words, but not all. Finally, I ventured: “Um what’s a barbus?” By the time I asked the question I was picturing some kind of exotic, great tasting fish that only exists in the shallow waters of Ice Lake.

Bob, one of the anglers, said “A catfish”, “Oh” I said.

I’ve since looked up “barbus” is my dictionary, and couldn’t find it, but I did find “barbate”. My dictionary says it means “tufted with long hairs,” so maybe “barbus” really is a catfish.

I didn’t stick around long enough to find out if they caught a bass or perch or pike or barbus, but it was interesting to me to find out that people really do come here to fish. And sail. And do other summer things including staying at the lake’s single resort, Evergreen Resort.

Indeed, Ice Lake has something for nearly everyone, young and old. There is a kid’s camp something nearly unique on Manitoulin, called Strawberry Point Christian Camp. It’s access off Robertson Road which is down the east side of the lake from Highway 540.

It struck me as a bit ironic that this lake, named for its propensity to freeze up quickly, is mostly avoided in the winter because of the bad ice, while in the summer months a lot of people evidently enjoy its warm shallow waters.

I know my dog did. It took me forever to coax him from the canoe and convince him it was time to go home.

The Inn at Gore Bay

The Inn at Gore Bay

North Channel

A boutique motel (deluxe rooms) offering an unparalleled view across the bay towards Gore Bay’s historic downtown and busy waterfront and marina. Located in a beautiful park-like setting with a swimming beach. 

On site is our associated restaurant and dining room. The town’s delightful boardwalk curves around the end of the bay and gives guests of The Inn at Gore Bay easy scenic direct walking access to and from the interesting shops downtown. Golfing 5 km away. 

Phone 705-282-3375
Website www.theinnatgorebay.com

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