Killarney Provincial Park

We only spent two days in Killarney Provincial Park, but it was incredible. After visiting the information center, we took Leika on a run on a trail called The Crack. The first 3km of the trail was probably the most flat and well maintained trail we’ve been on thus far. As we approached the turn around point, ‘The Crack’, it became very steep with lots of large, sharp boulders. We slowed our pace as we had to scramble up boulders for most of the last kilometer. As always, I was worried about Leika, but the rocks didn’t seem to phase her. Before getting to the look out, you had to walk/climb through a 4 foot-wide crack with 30-foot high walls on each side. It was really beautiful. Once you climbed out of there, you needed to scramble up a few more rocks, from where the view was spectacular! The weather was absolutely perfect and we could see for miles. We relaxed on top for a few minutes and started on the run back to the car. We then went to another trail, Chikanishing, that ran along Georgian Bay, and we spent a few hours walking along the coast and relaxing on rocks that stretched out into the lake.

The next morning we set out very early on a run to Topaz Lake, a very deep lake named after the color of the water, which the ranger said was 5km away. Turns out it was closer to 10km. Each way. It was such a great run though! We were out early, so there was no one else on the trail. As we rounded a corner, we suddenly saw a black bear running away from us into the bushes. We quickly called for Leika, afraid of what she may do… she was too busy chasing a chipmunk or squirrel to notice the bear so we were relieved but more alert. After searching for the last 5km, we finally reached Topaz Lake to catch our breath and relax for a few minutes. The run was great and we could definitely feel ourselves getting stronger over the past few days and weeks. Back at the parking lot, we were surprised by a family of bears near our van! A mom with her 3 cubs were playing in the parking lot. It was really interesting to see – the cubs were playing with one another and the mother kept a very close eye on us, standing between us and her cubs. Only after a few minutes did they run off, which is interesting because bears are generally scared of humans – so it’s not a great sign to see a mother with her cubs somewhat comfortable in a parking lot with humans around. Anyway, it was fun to see. We said goodbye to Killarney and headed northwest towards Lake Superior Provincial Park.