Category Archives: Muskoka Activities

Catboat, Lake Muskoka, Muskoka Activities, Sailing

Afternoon Sailing on Lake Muskoka

In between cottage showings and listings, on one of the busiest days of the summer -Saturday of the July 1st weekend – I had a small window of time to go sailing. The weather has been beautiful and quite windy for days, and Saturday was no exception. I had to reef the sail and would have tied in a 2nd reef, but by that time we were on our way back downwind.

Obviously excited to get in some sailing time.

Catharine was in the process of selling a great place on Moon River. Fortunately Neysa and Bentley were up for a quick adventure. We sailed upwind from between Pine & Birch Islands, north of Beaumaris, then back.

Neysa & Bentley. Bentley sniffing out some Island BBQ’s.

Now that Bentley is starting to enjoy the sailboat more – the boat treats from Lenore certainly helped – we have to be careful about exposure to the sun. We applied sunscreen to Bentley’s muzzle, but he kept licking it off!? Tips on using sunscreen on your dog. We did our best to keep him shaded but he had other ideas.

Bentley after licking off the sunscreen, tries to catch some rays.
Invasive Species, Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Volunteer, water

Habitat Types in Muskoka

Think of Muskoka, not as a single habitat, but a mosaic of different inter-dependent habitats.

I just finished editing, and posted a video on YouTube. Dirk Janas of Beacon Environmental presented at the Muskoka Watershed Council‘s Muskoka Stewardship Conference.

In about 40 minutes you’ll be able to tell all your friends how a bog is like a fen, but is different from a marsh, which is different from a swamp.

Buying a cottage, cottage for sale, Gravenhurst, Gull Lake, Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Properties

Gull Lake Cottage or Home

June 29: There is a huge price adjustment on this terrific property – now just $525,000

We have a great property listed for sale on Gull Lake; an easy walk to downtown Gravenhurst. It’s a perfect 3 +1 bedroom year ’round family home/cottage, and it has a bunkie with two more bedrooms and a bathroom. It has been meticulously maintained by its owners and is under $600,000.

Beside the dock, one of the only sand beaches on Gull Lake.

Almost all furnishings are included – even an antique snooker table with cues, snooker and eight balls.

The cottage is heated with natural gas forced air, boasts a natural gas fireplace, sauna and has municipal water!  Large sundeck with screened Muskoka Room allows for magnificent views.  Gull Lake, which is connected to Silver Lake, has miles and miles of boating and beautiful Muskoka Rock, Pines and blue water.

Narrows from Gull Lake to Silver Lake
Gull Lake is only 90 minutes from the GTA

Additional details on this property are here.

cottage life, Muskoka Activities, Sailing, Uncategorized, water

Triathlon Season in full swing here in Muskoka

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We have some great events in Muskoka each year. Among them are some really well attended and managed triathlons.

Chris is entered in three: Gravenhurst, Bala and Bracebridge. We were out the other night, Chris doing the hard work, while I kept the sailboat alongside. You might recognize the route: west between Pine Island and the mainland cottages near Touchstone.

Kirby watching for good form – hey, a Lab ought to know!

 

Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Lakes, Skeleton Lake, Stewardship

Skeleton Lake Fish Hatchery

We had a number of meetings of the Muskoka Watershed Council today. Lots of great projects underway intended to benefit our environment, and all of us who reside here or visit. Included in the full council meeting was a presentation of the Skeleton Lake, Lake Plan in development by the Skeleton Lake Cottagers Organization; wonderful to see the inclusive plan to preserve this, still quite pristine and unique Muskoka lake. Information specific to Skeleton Lake, or any other of the lakes in Muskoka is available on the Muskoka Water Web in the lake data sheets link. Please be aware, if you are not linked-out already, there is an important page to explain how you interpret the water quality data.

Our meeting were held in the Raymond Community Centre, hosted by the Township of Muskoka Lakes. After the meetings we visited Fish Hatchery Park at Skeleton Lake.

Entrance to Fish Hatchery Park

Located just in from 141 of Fish Hatchery Road, the park has an entrance on either side. To the left follow the trails along the river to the falls. To the right the entrance leads to Skeleton Lake and the dam. Although not used as a fish hatchery for a number of years, the park is a great place to take a hike.

The falls at Fish Hatchery Park

I only had a BlackBerry with me for the photo, so imagine what you can do with a bit more control. Bring your camera along and go for a hike to the falls!

Muskoka Activities

Make sure your batteries are charged first!

Maybe it’s just me. Does it seem that Hydro One have outsourced reliability… to their customers, slowly over the years?

Think back twenty or thirty years; power failures – that’s what we used to call them – were really rare. Weren’t they? Now they are referred to as power outages, and they seem pretty frequent. Now, cottage buyers think of it as a real plus when a cottage has a back-up generator because the power fails …often. We buy generators and have battery power supplies for our computers because we expect many incidents a year.

Click to visit the Hydro One Storm Centre
Hydro One Storm Centre

Hydro One has an app now to provide information about power outages. Although referred to on the page as Hydro One Storm Centre, there are a few power interruptions of late that have had little to do with storms.

Although the page states that the app is available for smartphone and tablet devices, it’s not an iPad app – but there’s an iPhone app that you can 2x on an iPad.

As long as your device has cell coverage, it’s great not to have to use the phone to get the updates on the … outage.

Lake Muskoka, Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Volunteer, water

Moon River Walleye Fishery

Here’s another video for the Muskoka Watershed Council‘s YouTube channel.

Eric McIntyre, of the Eastern Georgian Bay Stewardship Council discusses spiking water flow downstream from Bala Falls, its devastating implications to Walleye reproduction and the current status of the agreement between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Power Generation.

2005 water flows, highly detrimental to Walleye reproduction have now been improved somewhat.

Eric spoke at the Muskoka Stewardship Conference.

In the video, there’s some interesting detail about Walleye habitat, the Moon River Walleye fishery and the need to control water levels in Lake Muskoka.

Oops, not a great spot to pitch your tent!
Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Volunteer

Troubling Times for Our Turtles

Did you know that it may take 60 years of egg laying for a female turtle just to replace herself!

I just finished editing, and posted a video on YouTube. Glenda Clayton is a very warm and engaging presenter who presented at the Muskoka Watershed Council‘s Muskoka Stewardship Conference.

In 40 minutes you’ll not only be able to identify Muskoka’s turtles by species, but be more apt to help “wheelbarrow” them  across the road.

Assisting a snapping turtle across a roadway. The back-end is the good side.

So, you’re all up to the cottage for the summer, one of the kids finds a turtle and wants to keep it as a pet. No matter how wonderful they may look and how convincing the argument to adopt may be, NEVER, NEVER allow this to happen. With predators as well as cars at every corner, the odds are so stacked against turtles that we need them ALL in the wild reproducing.

So cool! Hard to resist keeping a guy like this as a pet, but please don’t – don’t, don’t, don’t!
Lake of Bays, Muskoka Activities, Muskoka Watershed Council, Stewardship, Volunteer

Andrew Daniels Fish Stewardship Program, Lake of Bays

I just finished editing and posted a video on the Muskoka Watershed Council‘s YouTube channel. George Daniels has obviously been a driving force behind some terrific conservation efforts on fish habitat in and around Muskoka’s Lake of  Bays. After the death of George’s son Andrew, a couple of Andrew’s buddies launched the Andrew Daniel’s Fish Stewardship Program.

George presented the program at the  Muskoka Stewardship Conference.

In the video, you’ll learn about many of the initiatives taken on by volunteers, local business, government and NGO’s – great stuff! You can pick up a fish ruler and poster at all of the Lake of Bays marinas.

Lake of Bays fish poster.

 

Muskoka Activities, Volunteer

Winter Carnival Bed Race

This year’s Winter Carnival had lots of events throughout the weekend. One of the highlights for the crowd was definitely the bed race.

All out effort for the last seconds...

Catharine and 3 colleagues pushed Chris for the 4 blocks, defeating a very fit and capable team (see below) in their heat, and were declared Most Outrageous Team!

Don't let the floppy feet fool you, these characters are very serious about their sport.