Manitoulin Island

Our goal for the first leg of our Fall trip was almost in sight. We were heading for the Mississagi Lighthouse and Campground on Manitoulin Island. Manitoulin is the LARGEST freshwater island on the globe.  Who knew?  But first we had to get to the island. We had two choices. Drive all the way around Georgian Bay OR take a ferry. I bet you can guess option which won…the ferry of course!

Where IS Manitoulin Island?  It’s forms the barrier between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.  The ferry ride to get to the Island is the longer of the 2 red lines.  The bridge to leave the Island was the shorter of the two red lines.  We stayed at the red pin drop.  If we didn’t take the ferry, we would have had to drive all the way around Georgian Bay, north of Toronta.  We’ve done that before.  It was time for something new.

We had reservations on the 7:00 a.m. ferry out of Toberymory on the Bruce Peninsula to South Baymouth at the east end of Manitoulin Island. We would then drive to the campground on the west end of the island.

The ferry company will let you overnight in line at the ferry terminal. so that’s what we did.  Gotta love free overnights!

It is cheaper to unhook your car from the RV, so you see the Jeep and the RV separate. Your overall length is shorter thus saving you money. We were the first ones in line that night, especially since we had to wait till 8:00 pm to get in line. Vehicles trickled in all night to also get in line. A lot of people slept in their cars. I bet we were more comfortable than most!

The Chi-Cheemaun Ferry (picture borrowed from their website).  You enter the boat through the open bow.  During the busy summer season, it makes four round trips a day!

We had to be ready to go at 6:00 a.m.  We were but they weren’t, so we took a stroll.  You can see the bow is open and ready for the vehicles to come on board.

All aboard! I drove the Jeep onboard before they let Jim and the RV on. The Blue Flame was hard to miss!

This is the advantage of being first in line.  Guess who is going to be the first off with his nose pressed up to the stern of the boat?

As we were leaving, we ran up top to see the bow closing.

We spent the 1 hour 45 minute ride up top looking at everything. Lots of little islands surround Tobermory and the Bruce Peninsula.

Lighthouse on an island off Tobermory.

We quickly arrived.  Exiting the ferry, the Blue Flame was first off. The Jeep and I had to find Jim further down the road to hook back up. We had the foresight to utilize our walkie-talkies.

I bet you are wondering what does it cost to take an RV the size of ours on a 1 3/4 hour ferry ride. Here’s the breakdown. It’s not cheap, but it saved us hours of driving!  All prices are in Canadian Dollars.

1 Vehicle:  $44.95
2 Adult Passengers:  $33.00
1 High Vehicle:  $90.95
Vehicle over length an additional 23′:  $144.90

TOTAL:  $313.80 Canadian ($241 American Dollars)

Then began the long drive to the campground at the other end of the island. The roads were narrow, at times gravel, and very dusty.

Blue is going to need a bath after this road!  I told Jim these roads were practice for Alaska in a few years.

I took a picture of the dust cloud we kicked up via the side mirror of the RV.

The Jeep and tow bar was a filthy mess by the time we got to the campground.

The Mississagi Lighthouse and Campground was an interesting setup. The buildings were all original and being utilized for the campground.

The Mississagi Lighthouse.  It still glows at night.

The campground office is in the old Fog Horn Building.  You can see the horn at the far right.  Fortunately, it is no longer operational.

Our camping site was basically a large shelf of rock at the water’s edge. No hookups (again, solar panels for the win!), no close neighbors, just us and the lake. It is campsites like this that make the waiting around for a ferry and long, dirty drive worthwhile.

A Blue with a view.  This was our campsite.

Ok, I’m happy.  But I’ll never learn how to take selfies!!!  Why do I try?

With a lake breeze coming in the door, it was very pleasant.

But life does not stop when you are on a three month trip. For example, you still need to sometimes go to the office.

The “Office” was 2.3 miles back down that dusty road. There is a pull off there and just enough cell signal to fire up the hotspot and check email,etc.

We enjoyed our three days on the island.

Our patio.  Not bad.

Lake freighter watching. There was a rock quarry on the island. These freighters would go to the quarry and haul crushed rocks away.

A beautiful sunset over Lake Huron.

But our visit was over. It was time to leave the island. We opted this time to take the bridge to get off the island…again at the opposite end of the island.  And much cheaper!

The Little Current Swing Bridge. It’s one lane wide.  Jim easily handled it.

That concludes our first adventure.  It’s now time to race across Canada over to the Rockies.  How quickly can we cross a continent?

2 thoughts on “Manitoulin Island

  1. dominiquefeather

    Nice campsite on the island!!! If there is an adventure, the two of you will find it!!! We used to take the ferry to Ocracoke — I think about 5 of those ferries would fill the one that you took.

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