We only had a short distance to get to The Pool which is where we wanted to anchor for the night. There were about 7 boats already in The Pool- either anchored or stern tied. We had a few potential spots to stern tie, but saw a little bay further back we wanted to check out. No one was in it, it wasn't too deep, and we dropped anchor. Ar some point, someone commented about how Mary Ann Cove was more pool-like than The Pool.
Everyone got dressed, put on sunscreen, and bug spray, and hopped into the Chicken. We packed a few snacks, towels and water, and set off for the dock for the trail to Topaz Lake.
There were 2 docks and one said it was private, so we went to the other one. When we pulled up there were 2 giant spiders on the side of the dock, so we disembarked on the other side of the dock, then moved the Chicken because we saw it also was a private dock. Oops.
There were teenagers in an Outdoor Ed canoe gym class from Kingston. They passed us on the trail on the way up and beat us to the lake.
The trail was up and down hills (some people may call it the mountain, but it wasnt very big), soggy, and some parts were blocked by downed trees, so we had to hike up a hill and around them and get back on the trail. It was a much easier hike than the Huron Trail, maybe it was because we were without bikes.
We also came across our neighbors from the anchorage last night- thebones who lent us their pump. They came over on their tender. Once we got to the lake, one of the neighbors told us to get into the lake to go on a different trail. He said to Luke, "Careful, eh?" and Luke was excited to get his first actual "eh" of the trip.
Everyone got to the bottom near the water and left their clothes, phones, hats, sunglasses, backpacks, shoes, and socks on the rocks and set out in swimsuits. The water, again, was warmer than water at home. We tried to figure out why this would be the case, but couldn't come up with a valid reason. Ours is snowmelt. Canada is frozen more than us in the winter so the water would be snow/ice melt as well. Ben said that for every 1,000 feet of elevation, the air cools 5°F. BUT we weren't even at 1,000 feet above sea level here. In any event, Topaz Lake was refreshing and beautiful. We spent some time floating and soaking there before drying off and putting everything back on.
As we were leaving the lake, there were several small groups of people coming up. They were from a cruise. It just so happened to be the same ship from Harold's, but a different group of people. So, apparently on Mondays they go to Harold's and on Tuesdays they go to Topaz Lake. We figured it was an excursion option from Killarney Mountain Lodge, or similar.
On our hike back, we saw the fork in the trail for Artist Lake and saw that we weren't that far from it on the map, so we ventured toward it. It was not the same quality as Topaz Lake- it was mossy, full of weeds, and you couldn't even see the water! We turned back and finished the hike at the dock and got into the Chicken.
We tendered back to the Cartermaran, took a few pics of her in this beautiful area, and spent some time swimming, jumping off the boat, fishing (Luke reeled in his first fish, but he said it didn't count because Moose pretty much set it up completely for him), and taking turns on the SUP in The Pool.
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