by Rob Muylwyk
This was the third year in a row that Šárka Lhoták had organized an overnight trip to the Umbrellas and Cathcarts, island groups south of Parry Sound; but it would be the first time that her group would actually make it to the Umbrellas. A mismatch between conditions and skill levels meant that the crossing had to be aborted on the previous attempts. We were to meet at 9 on Saturday morning at the Wasauksing Marina, the Spring Rendezvous spot for 2002-2005, now sadly becoming quite dilapidated. It’s almost a 4 hour drive for me so I decided to come up on Friday afternoon, hoping that some of the others would do the same, if only to share the steep camp site fee; no one did. I pitched my tent in the centre of the Oak Point campground, as much as possible equidistant from the many piles of garbage. The local bears had already had their way with it: foam plates with clear bear bites out of them are not a pleasant sight! By the time I had cooked dinner and admired the sunset, a nasty thunderstorm came and hung around most of the evening. As I tried to sleep, I was startled several times by the sound of bear bangers, coming from the nearby cottages or even the campground next door. “Great”, I thought, while making sure that my own bangers were at the ready, “now the bear is mad and on his way here!” Being on a garbage dump, I soon had a bad case of PBS (“Phantom Bear Syndrome”) and spent the rest of the night in the car, not at all comfortable, but at least I got some sleep…
I woke up to the sound of birds announcing a beautiful sunny day, both the rain and PBS having subsided. Around the agreed time Šárka, Doug and Dave came trickling in. After first paddling to the other shore to admire the crimson red cardinal flowers, at their peak this late in the summer, the four of us were on our way. That’s right, just four paddlers, rather a small group, considering how often one hears complaints about trips being full. We followed the route south through the pretty Surprise Island channel to Good Cheer Island, where we were cheerfully surprised by an extended family of some twenty baby mergansers. Our last stop before making the 4-kilometre exposed crossing to the Umbrellas was at the Boyd Group, the southernmost point when we were on this trip in 2006. The wreck of the Emma was still there, lying just under the surface. Emma was an 89-foot steam yacht, built in 1894 and used in the tourist industry. She caught fire in July of 1912, and burned down to the waterline. Her hull drifted to the Boyd Group, making it an interesting snack spot.
We started our crossing, fully exposed to the west wind that was picking up, and experienced some pleasant wave action. At one of the smaller Umbrellas, where camping is allowed, we ran into a gathering of motor boaters and their dogs. A woman of this group asked us if we were on our way to the Cathcarts, an unexpected question. We landed on the main Umbrella Island, right in the bay formed by the handle of the closed umbrella, on the northwest side. We enjoyed our lunch with a clear view all the way to the Western Islands, 14 kilometres to the south. I startled a 3-inch spider hiding in the bush that we were picking raspberries from, or did she startle me? Picking more raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries and blueberries, we ate our way around the island, to the two signs erected on the north side. 
One told us to keep the island pristine and not camp on it, the other educated us: Umbrella Island was purchased in 1997 by the Georgian Bay Trust Foundation, and it was dedicated in 1999 by Hillary Weston, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario at the time.
With gratitude to the GB Trust we packed up and aimed our bows north toward the Cathcarts for the last 9-kilometre leg of the day. The wind had increased to 20 knots and we got to play in 1-metre waves, fun to lean into. At Lally Island, the south eastern island of the Cathcarts group, we were welcomed by Sam, as well as by Max with a friend, who had already set up their tent. Lally looked like a perfect place to make camp, which Sam and our group then did, using lots of good size boulders to secure the tents in the now very strong wind. Lifting the lid on the nearby thunderbox revealed a sign stating that we were using it courtesy of GLSKA; well done GBC, Melissa and Chris!
We did our cooking and socializing in the shelter of the trees. Afterwards, one of us decided to make a fire to burn the wet newspapers in his leaky rental kayak, ignoring our explanation how wood found on the island should be left alone, in order to eventually enrich the soil, of which there is precious little in the first place. Once the fire was blazing away in the wind, this person decided to go on a walk around the island, necessitating us to remind him to kill his fire before leaving. Šárka, Sam and I preferred to admire the rising full moon instead of tiptoeing through the poison ivy in the descending darkness. Sleep that night was early and easy, with the soothing help of the noise of the blowing wind.
On Sunday morning it was calm, allowing us a lazy breakfast at the water’s edge. After we admired a partly submerged large moose skeleton, we left at 10:30. We paddled around the Cathcarts in clockwise direction, Sam and I taking the outermost route through waves breaking on the shoals. Halfway the 6 kilometres crossing to the Snakes, Sam said goodbye and split off to Red Rock on the way to his cottage. We found a group from White Squall camped at the west side of Snake Island, so we landed on the northeast shore, and walked around the island from there, eating lots of berries and adding cranberries to the list found at Umbrella Island. We admired interesting rock formations and zebra-striped gneiss rocks. After a refreshing swim and attempts to do the new style breast stroke, made popular by the Beijing Olympics, we enjoyed our lunch in the sun. When we finally departed, we had spent a very pleasant two hours on the Snakes. We then paddled back to the marina without further rest stops, where we unloaded, enjoyed a short swim, and said our goodbyes. After the really awful cottage road, I ended back in “civilization” (Tim Horton’s in Parry Sound) where I gave up after a 15-minute wait and started the long trek home sans coffee. Thank you Šárka for another great Cathcarts weekend!
