McCrae Lake is a wonderful area that has easy
access for canoers, kayakers and hikers to enjoy the beautiful,
wild nature of the Canadian Shield and Georgian Bay. You may
park your car at the parking area and enjoy excellent access to
both the 5 Winds hiking trail and the McDonald Lake canoe launch
point. Either way it'll be a great day.
Please NOTE... this is a very accessable area
and it will be crowded in peak season, week ends and
holidays. Always practice CITO.
Parking Area: N44
55.325, W079 46.636
CANOE or
HIKE?
We placed 3 caches in the area
on April 26th, 2009. Of the three, one needs to be hiked to,
one can be canoed or hiked to and one will likely need to be canoed
to unless you feel comfortable wading a fast stream. If you
wanted to try all three by hiking you would require a full day and
should be prepared to cover more than 16K. I would reccommend
an overnight stay. By canoe you can reach the furthest cache
in about one hour and spend some time exploring the very
interesting area for a while. There is a beautiful cliff top
view of the bay and there is one shrine and a cliff side crucifix
that must be a couple of Meters in size. Maybe you'd like to
continue on to Georgain Bay? You can continue to follow
the trail and explore more of the Georgian Bay coastline
if you have managed to get over to the final cache. If
you are canoeing, you can continue heading about NW between Bone
Island and the mainlnd up to the mouth of the Musquash river to
explore the old Muskoka Mills and a little further upstream you may
want to have a look at the 3 Rock Chute on the Gibson. Lots
to see and do here. Make it a day or make it a
week.
"McCraezy
on the Bay"
The third and last cache we
placed while on this trip. This cache is near the
falls/portage from McCrae Lake into Georgian Bay / Lake
Huron. We spent about 2 hours or so checking out the area,
collecting trash (CITO) and eating our lunches. We also took many
photos of the falls, rapids, cliffs and local attractions such as
the cross and the shrine. You could pitch a tent in a couple
of spots here if you were so inclined, we
saw several established places for them. The cache is a
Medium Size Ammo can with minimal swag items in it (I guess I
put it all into the McCraezy Falls cache) hidden in an
area that should be just far enough way from the falls to
be somewhat muggle free. There was a very
nice Geocoin that I grabbed in the USA that wants to get to
all the worlds oceans so of course it could not miss the chance to
come here. Anyone going to "Wachay
on the Bay" geoevent may want to pick this one up or pass it
on.
