Slate Islands

When we left Rossport Wednesday morning, the skies were overcast.  By the time we arrived at the Slate Islands, a group of eight islands 23 miles south of Rossport, the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day.  According to Bonnie Dahl, “When you look at the circular shape of the Slate Islands on a chart, it is easy to see how they could have resulted from the impact of a huge (19 mile wide) asteroid. “ In the past these islands were the sight of extensive lumbering operations—the results of which are still seen in the lake bottom as deadheads and slash.  We set the anchor in Pike’s Bay with a trip line (an extra line attached to the head of the anchor) in case we got hung up on one of the above.  I was feeling a bit under the weather (turned out to be a 24-hour bug), so I stayed aboard later and Tom went fishing.  Upon returning, he told me he guessed we’d have to have peanut butter and jelly, and then smirked and pulled up this beautiful trout.  Later that evening, he watched as a bald eagle swooped down to help himself to the filleted carcass.

Dinner!

Thursday dawned sunny!!!!  We took advantage by dinking around the inner waters of the islands and stopping for a hike.  Soon after we returned to Raydiance, a female caribou strolled along the beach.  She was molting and so skinny her ribs were showing.  Caribou supposedly are abundant in the islands, but this was the first one we saw.

Unhealthy looking female caribou

View of the Slates

Approaching the Slates

Voyager canoe

An outfitter from Terrace Bay, Ontario brings people and kayaks or canoes to the Slates and comes back at an arranged time to pick them up.  We met two couples who had done this when we went hiking at a meadow area. The large Voyager canoe was manned by three families from Thunder Bay.  By staying in sync with their paddling,  they could really move through the water.  I think there were eight people in the canoe when this picture was taken.

 Early Friday afternoon,  Daydreams and Waterford arrived.  They joined us for cocktails that evening with the understanding that we were heading by dink to the meadow around eight.  Earlier in the day while on a solo dinghy ride, I had run across one of the men we had met at the meadow the day before.  He said they had been visited by a male, female and calf the previous night.  We actually arrived a little later, but we did see a much healthier female.  We waited around for the rest of the fam, but apparently they didn't get the memo.

The Krogan crews on caribou patrol.
Jan is crouched down near the bow,
but she is there!

A much healthier looking female
caribou grazing in the meadow.