Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: Never Trust a Young Person on the Amount of Time it Takes to Hike a Trail!

Baie Fine & Little Current City Docks August 7-9, 2016

We didn’t have that long of trip today so we decided to head out a bit later and go into Baie Fine first. We plan to anchor in a cove about halfway down the channel. Offload the dingy and take it to The Pool that looks like a fjord. If possible, all but us dogs (we aren’t nuts!) are going to hike up a dry riverbed to Lake Topaz, which is suppose to be incredible for swimming and photographing.

Never believe young people who say it will take 20 minutes easy hiking! Maybe for those that are part mountain goat. It took M & D’s group a good 40-50 minutes to hike up this dry riverbed, then, up a path probably cut by animals who have four legs (bears and deers) to reach the the lake overlook/trail head…Again, the path down to the lake from there was for the sure footed or crazy…
(We only had two in our party, Bob and Kevin that would have successfully been able to do it.) Since we all opted out and we were on a time crunch to get to the Little Current swing bridge opening at 5, so did they.

Everyone we met who had gone there and swam said it was so worth it, but they were all 10-30 years younger than any of us!!! Kept thinking how much Milena, Bek and Houdini would have loved it!!!

We do have some amazing photographs to show for it & the dingy ride there was lovely!!!

The Doyle’s from Miss My Money, (Gold Loopers, they have done the Loop more than once) joined us on the hike up, so it was fun to chat with them as we climbed…

M & D’s dingy is hiccuping badly, they are thinking bad gas or loose cables since we had the carburetor rebuilt in Cocoa. Bob thinks he might be able to fix it…sure hope so!!! I don’t enjoy riding in it when it has a mind of it’s own!

Mom is making me drool on the ride over to Little Current on Manitoulin Island. She put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot and it smells divine to me!

We so look forward to seeing these big guys marking our way

Just some of the beautiful rock formations that we see here

Their own little island

Rafting off before we take our dingy to The Pool

This photo doesn't do the water color justice

Loved Moondance contrasted against the evergreens

Hiking up the Riverbed

For those of us who have been there, it reminded us of Lake Tahoe

Again, the color doesn't compare...topaz or azure is more like it!

One of the camping resorts that reminded us of Northern Aire

Coming into Little Current we backed up the 5 O'Clock Traffic

Definitely, one of the largest swing bridges we have passed through

So much for keeping it open 15 minutes, if no one is coming they close it!

Barely, made it in time for the 5 PM swing bridge, but we made it. Little Current is the largest city on Manitoulin Island & the name is incredibly ironic since we haven’t had these strong of currents since the ocean!

We have passed through it on our way to Toronto in years past, but never spent any time here…

Right now weather looks good for the next few days, so it shouldn’t keep us from following our plans. Bob and Liz came over for dinner which worked out well since we were all too tired to go anywhere!

If we leave tomorrow, we all agreed it wouldn’t be before 10. We want to do a couple anchorages before moving onto Drummond Island to check back into the states. If we can get reservations on Mackinac Island for the weekend, we can meet other looper friends again… Maybe Chasin 80 and Jammin Jane? Hoping Lone Star will eventually catch up with us somewhere too.

We awoke late this am…mom especially slept in and I did with her. Brandy, Liz & Bob’s old boxer is having a really bad day, so we are staying here. Not sure what we will do since a vet is so far away???

Mom and dad got their reservations for Mackinaw, DeTour and Drummond for next Thursday to Tuesday. Afterwards, they took off to see the town and pay for today. It took them 4 tries before we found the dockhands to pay…pretty laid back here!

M & D got their haircut while listening to all the town gossip…too funny! …the typical warm, charming and friendly people here. Phreddie Shore, the hairdresser told M & D where she lived and to go help themselves to the herbs on her deck… Dad is thrilled with his haircut! Mom’s is kinda of short, but she said it will grow our perfect…

While at the Anchor Inn having lunch, they ran into Syl and Jim from Fourth Quarter. They are loopers who are struggling with their dingy too.

They returned from town with some fresh veggies…not one of their more exciting shopping trips…but a nice town none the less.

We watched Victory, the big cruise ship use her powerful bow thrusters and just push herself off the dock as if there was NO wind pushing against her! Incredible! She headed to the swing bridge that appeared not to be wide enough for her, but she cruised through, no problem!

Since M & D had a large lunch, they opted for a bit of cheese, crackers and fruit for dinner before they could get to it. Syl and Jim wandered by and stopped in for a chat. Then, Hamp and his buddy came by and gave us the key to getting Lily to pee & poop on the boat. :-)

(They have a Springer too, and have crossed the Atlantic Ocean with her.) Canned Tuna in Oil. You can bet I’ll be trying it, the next time we try to anchor out if there doesn’t appear a good place to take her into…

We finally got to our light repast on the bow as we watched the sunset…delightful!

We are all still very worried about Brandy, so we aren't leaving yet. Thanks to Kevin’s friends who live here, Liz found a vet close by that Kevin’s friends use. They are taking Brandy there this morning. They will come back with her with meds or she will be put down and sent to their home after her cremation… We are all praying the later doesn’t have to happen since she has made it this far and they are less than a couple weeks from home.

Dad was taking me off the boat this AM and discovered that our aluminum steps had broken at one of the weld points last night. (Probably when we took a big roll before we went to bed…)

Dad walked over to the Napa place to see if they had any welders that they could recommend.

Within 5 minutes of his phone call Jack Bolduc was here to the rescue. He and dad took off with our steps… In less than an hour dad was back with the steps better than ever!

Once again mom and I are thanking our lucky stars…

Meanwhile, she and I made barbecue of our leftover pork tenderloin from the other night. Slowly, our freezer is going down as we use our supplies.