McKay's Harbour - Hike 47

Finally after a long almost 2 year hiatus from hiking the Bruce Trail I got back out on the trail this past weekend and continued my south-north end to end hike.

My younger son and I parked our car at the Lion's Head Motel and got a ride out to our start at the 66.4km mark of the trail. We carried full packs (large pack about 30lbs and lighter pack about 20lbs) with the plan to hike to the McKay's Harbour wilderness campsite and then hike into Lion's Head on the Sunday.

It wasn't long after leaving Barrow Bay that the trail climbed up onto the escarpment heading north east out through the Lion's Head Provincial Nature Reserve. Here are photos from various look outs along this section of the trail.

At the 74.3km mark of the trail, a side trail climbed further down the escarpment to the wilderness rest/camping area at McKay's Harbour. Basically a flat wooded area along the shore with a number of areas in the cedar woods to pitch tents. The rest/camp area even has a small sandy beach area. We pitched our tent and set up, boiling water from the bay for dinner and drinking water.

Beautiful sunset, starry night sky and sunrise over Georgian Bay.

The Sunday we headed out for Lion's Head - the trail followed the cobblestone beach for awhile and then climbed back up the escarpment and kept generally climbing past a number of lookouts (looking west towards the village of Lion's Head and north along the escarpment) all the way to the Lion's Head Lookout (an incredible and spectacular rock lookout - at least 200 feet off the bay). Here are photos from this section including some stunning photos from the Lion's Head Lookout.

The trail continued but headed inland through some beautiful deciduous forests and eventually came back out on roads going into Lion's Head. We hiked past the town beach to our car and headed out.

Great to be back on the trail and although the distances were relatively short for this weekend this section of trail is very technical and challenging!

Completed: 807.2km