We are spending all of today in Chimney Bay. It filled up with locals who are here for the weekend and truth to tell, it has been kind of fun. We are surrounded by anchored boats and dinks on the move. Several of the bigger boats are rafted up. There was even an Ice Boat that came by and asked if we needed to buy any.
Since most of our destinations will also be spots locals tend to flock to on weekends, we have decided to wait until Monday to move again. It seems anywhere we head will be full until late Sunday afternoon. Finding a spot to land might be a hassle and this trip has already filled the “hassle” quota.
We took the dink over to the island to walk some of the trails. Not being sure where to land, we pulled up to a dock that was pretty well packed with trawlers. When asked where we should park the dink, a gentleman on the dock made a gesture that we interpreted as meaning on the back side of the dock. After tying up, we chatted with folks on the boats for quite a while. They were all locals and shared a bunch of information of possible destinations and places of which to be aware. They also gave us the local take on some of the restaurants mentioned by the guide books. I don't much care about restaurants unless ice cream or rum are involved. We are about out of ice cream, and rum. The availability of such essentials may well determine our route over the next few days. (The ice boat carried neither, a business opportunity lost in my humble opinion.)
When we asked where we should go to pay for entering the park, we were told the only fee involved comes with putting your boat on one of the docks. When we asked about the dink they smiled and offered that, if a park ranger came by, they would claim the dink as one of their own. No worries. We were also told to be careful of rattle snakes along the way. Cool. It's been a while since I have seen a snake in the wild.
It was a pretty good hike. The watch I wear tells me a little bit about me being fit. It tracks my heat's BPMs, counts the steps I take, and does a bunch of other stuff I don't pay any attention to. According to it, we took 11,474 steps. It even buzzed a little when we got to 10,000. I guess that is some kind of a goal it has set for me, not that I care. But in all those steps we didn't see a single rattle snake. We did see a porcupine. When it heard us coming up behind, it puffed out into a volleyball-sized walking prickly bush. I'm pretty sure it was the only one I have ever seen outside of a zoo. We also saw several piles of bear scat. I didn't know they had bears on the island but we didn't see one of those either. Still, it was a fun walk on a path that barely earned the name. There were a few small bridges and steps but, for the most part, it was pretty raw going with lots of rocks and some steep bits that required care. My two mountain bike racing grand sons in St. Louis would likely hoot with joy and head down them at full song. For us slower moving types, walking sticks are recommended; both for footing and for fending off snakes. Not sure it would help much with a bear.
When we got back to the dink we found ten or so folks all sitting around on the dock chatting. They were all locals. We were informed by one that parking a dink on the dock could result in a ticket. One is supposed to beach one's dink when accessing shore. I didn't see any beaches around but I have seen a couple of dinks tied up near shore rocks. I'm also told one isn't allowed to tie your dink to a tree so I guess one putts around until a suitable rock can be found. Since I am way more fond of trees than I am of most people, I'm kind of okay with that rule. And if I do find a ticket on the dink some day? l live on a boat. I don't live in Canada. Good luck trying to figure out where I am. Doing so will likely cost more than the ticket. But give it your best shot if you feel you must.
All it all this has been a really interesting, low key day of exploring a new place and meeting some nice folks. Days like this are why we came this way.
No comments:
Post a Comment