A Weekend in Killarney, Ontario

Yes, a trip to Georgian Bay means venturing into Ontario’s backcountry, but that doesn’t necessarily mean roughing it. Really.

As soon as we arrive in Killarney, we feel like we’re on the set of Planet Earth. A fox and her pup, oblivious to our presence, frolic in the greenery. We soon spot beavers, deer, porcupines and a curious black bear cub. No wonder: With 1,600 square kilometres of wilderness but fewer than 1,500 human residents, the area – on the north shore of Georgian Bay, an hour south of Sudbury – leaves ample room for fauna. We get our fix of the quintessential Canadian outdoor experience by kayaking, sailing, hiking and canoeing among Killarney’s white quartzite mountains, pink granite ridges and glacier-blue lakes. But we admit that the best natural resource may well be the town’s fish ’n’ chips. 

In their heyday two billion years ago, the La Cloche Mountains would have put the Rockies to shame. Diminished in size but not in appeal, the hills now form the backbone of Killarney Provincial Park. On a hike through hemlock and hardwood up to the Crack, a favourite lookout atop a quartzite ridge, it’s easy to see why the rugged landscape inspired members of the Group of Seven. A.Y. Jackson, for one, not only painted here, but also lobbied to save the forest around Trout Lake (now called O.S.A. Lake, after the Ontario Society of Artists) from logging and succeeded in planting the seed for what is today Ontario’s most spectacular wilderness park.

On Killarney Mountain Lodge’s Gourmet Kayak & Cruise, we motor an hour east of the village to Philip Edward Island, where we don flotation devices and spray skirts and paddle around Georgian Bay’s pink-granite archipelago in sea kayaks. Back on terra firma, our skipper cooks up a hearty shore lunch of barbecued filet mignon and pan-fried potatoes and veggies – just the boost we need for another expedition on the water before heading back to town.

“We don’t want to change the lodge’s informal feel,” says Maury East, who together with wife Annabelle runs Killarney Mountain Lodge. Indeed, the 46-room property – built in the 1950s and complete with a pool, a sauna and a dining room that serves up lip-smacking home cooking – retains an old-fashioned timber charm. “Our approach is to make nature available in a practical way,” says East, referring to the lodge’s guided day trips. To us, that means stepping out of our rustic lakeside cabin and onto the smooth rocks on the water to crack open a bottle of champagne at sunset.

“People are willing to wait up to an hour for their food,” says Ross Herbert, the fourth-generation owner of Herbert Fisheries. Lo and behold, when we descend on his red school bus turned fish ’n’ chip takeout at the town dock, hordes are lining up for the batter-kissed, caught-fresh-daily whitefish. There’s even a couple who, acting on a hankering, piloted their own plane from New York City just for lunch. But watch your back or greedy gulls will swoop down to snatch a piece before you can say “tartar sauce.”

After racing to the summit of Silver Peak, we worry that we’ve spent more calories than we’ve consumed. To fix the imbalance, we head to Channel Marina, which owns bragging rights to the most ice cream flavours in town (16), including Kit Kat and triple-chocolate brownie.

Photos: Tourism Ontario (Georgian Bay); Alejandro Palavecino (Killarney Provincial Park, Gourmet Kayak & Cruise); Susan Nerberg (Killarney Mountain Lodge, Channel Marina)