Beausoleil Island is the largest island in Georgian Bay Islands National Park. Late in 2017, we decided to circumnavigate the Island and take in the fall colours on Georgian Bay.

From our experiences with previous trips to this spot, the biggest challenge is the parking. We have been lucky/smart to plan our trips in the offseason. In the fall, the Daytripper staff was nice enough to let us use their parking lot since there are significantly less people in the area. If this hadn’t of worked out, our backup was to park at one of the many marinas in the area.

Once we launched, we decided to circumnavigate the island in a counterclockwise direction. That way we would be paddling into the wind when we weren’t as tired. It ended up not being a factor, the wind seemingly died just as we rounded the point. Oh well, at least we planned.

After leaving the dock, we headed between Roberts and Picnic Island. When I do this trip again, I would recommend passing through Big Dog Channel and handrailing the island. It would have been much more sheltered from the wind and it’s the only opportunity to see the channel, on this trip configuration.

The open crossing from Turning Rock on Roberts Island to the Southern Point of Beausoleil is very exposed. There is nothing to block the wind from crossing over the entirety of Sturgeon Bay. We decided to paddle into the wind so that we got it out of the way at the beginning of the trip. After rounding the southern tip of the island, the winds died down. Magnificent fall colours filled our field of view while we handrailed up the outer coastline. To the left we could see Giant’s Tomb Island in the distance. It is really picturesque.

An interesting building sticks out of the trees after about 20 minutes of paddling, it looks like it came right out of an adventure novel. I didn’t realize it but you can rent this from the National Park and they shuttle you right to the door. We stopped to inspect it for a bit and decided that it would be a really cool trip in its own right, but it is time to move on.

Next up, we paddled towards the Gin Island Rocks. They are a set of small islands that are just off the coast, when you look at them, you get a pretty clear view of Giant’s Tomb Island. Which, is a place I am certainly going to visit in the future.

When you look to the right, you get a view of the Beausoleil Lighthouse. On the islands ahead, is the Brebeuf Island Lighthouse.

After about another hour of paddling, we decided to stop and have lunch. Something that we have gotten much better at over the years is out trip food. No more dehydrated salt bags for us, it was bannock, jam and fresh fruit for us.

After we started to paddle, again. We really saw how complex navigation in this part of the bay can be. Using our charts became a necessity, the next leg of the trip has four bays and dozens of islands, many that look quite similar.

This is what the area looks like on Google Maps.

We counted the bays as we crossed them: Lost Bay, Pirates Cove, Long Bay, Pirates Cove, Goblin Bay, Honeymoon Bay, Frying Pan Bay and then took a right into the main channel.

The channel is instantly a different feel, even in October, there was a TON of boat traffic. It was like kayaking on a highway. We should have poked up Little Dog Channel and rounded Little Beausoleil Island. We will know better next time. Our more direct route back to the daytripper took us straight down the Main Channel to the marina.

To see all of the pictures from this adventure, click here.

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This trip would require a minimum of level 2 or higher skills depending on the conditions.