The Crack
Monday, October 6
We didn't get up quite as early this morning, as our objective was less committing, less complicated, and plain old less long. This morning we were going to tackle "The Crack". The Crack is perhaps Killarney's most famous and most popular hike. And for this reason, we had deliberately chosen to do it on a non-weekend day (this morning was a Monday morning).
The Crack is a craggy gap in Killarney Ridge, itself a part of the South La Cloche Mountain range. To reach it, you start off from a parking area immediately adjacent to route 637, not far west of the George Lake Campground. The hike is a there-and-back, and is about 3.85km each way. Because of its beauty, uniqueness, easy access and short distance, this trail gets a lot of visitation. In fact, the parking lot almost always overflows on in-season weekends, and the park has instituted a permit system. To get one, you must register at the park office at George Lake, up to five days in advance. If you are also a camper at the campground (as we were), the permit is no additional cost.
Since it was a Monday morning, we had no problem securing permits for our three vehicles (in fact, we had secured the permits back on the Saturday, when we had first arrived).
Off to the Crack
With permits on-dash, we headed out from our campground, turning left and heading northeast along highway 637. It is only about a six kilometre drive from the campground to The Crack parking lot, for which the entrance is on the north side of the road. As expected, there were only about 6 or 7 other vehicles in the parking lot on this early Monday Morning (I'm guessing the lot can hold maybe forty or fifty cars max).
Crack Trailhead Parking
The trail starts next to a cuple of large interpretive and informational signs at the eastern end of the parking lot. There was another set of warnings about not starting too late and about returning the way you came. I wonder if getting lost is a common thing for inexperienced visitors in this particular park.
The trail started off wide and flat. Smooth and with no rocks. In fact, it was wide enough that an ATV could easily drive down it - maybe even a car, if done carefully. I'm guessing this is a fire access road when needed.
Again, the day was still and calm, and warming up to the similar 20+ degrees we'd encountered all weekend. The fall colour situation was good too, although perhaps not quite as brilliant as the colors had been on the Silver Peak hike. Here things seemed a little more yellow-focused.
Smooth and wide
Twenty-ish minutes of very easy, slightly downhill hiking brought us to a bridge crossing of Kakakise Lake. The bridge was slightly tilted, owing to a decision by beavers to use it as the scaffolding for a full-on beaver dam; they had plastered mud and sticks underneath the bridge, and on one end this had been done to such an extent that the bridge was slightly warped upwards.
On the far side of the bridge, the trail parallelled the shore of Kakakise Lake for a while, crossing over some soft areas on well-built boardwalk. It was no longer a car-width trail here, having narrowed to a regular single-file hiking path.
Partway along the western shore of Kakakise Lake, the trail finally started to make its ascent. At first we were on soft slopes (a recent re-route, actually) in open pine forest, but after curving up and around, we started to encounter rougher trail. For some reason, the park had constructed especially massive cairns through here, although the trail seemed obvious. We started coming to small, sharp outcrops of white quartzite bedrock, sometimes requiring a move or two of easy scrambling.
The bits of crag soon gave way to extensive areas of open bedrock. The trail through here was marked with blue dots affixed to wooden posts. The rock here was indeed the same bright white quartzite as on Silver Peak. But unlike Silver Peak, it was not smooth and rounded, but rather craggy and fractured.
Up and down we went, over the fractured terrain. Up ahead, we could see a high ridgeline. Cutting through this ridgeline was a gap. That gap, we assumed, was "The Crack" of The Crack hike.
As we got closer to the ridgeline, the terrain got rougher. Lots of angular boulders, little ups and downs. We came to a narrow passage between two low cliffs, which I informally dubbed "The First Crack". Beyond this, the trail led up into a kind of amphitheatre, filled with large angular boulders that were rather awkward to navigate. On either side were very high cliffs - perhaps 60 or 70 feet high. I dubbed this area "The Second Crack". At the top of the amphitheatre, after scrambling through all of the awkward boulders, we came to a much narrower and darker cleft. This, I imagined, was the final and "real" crack of The Crack. Chris wanted to call this feature Hole-in-the-crack. Nice, Chris, nice.
courtesy JInnes
Andrew ascends boulder field
This final crack had no major obstacles in it, and was easy to navigate. Immediately beyond, markers guided us steeply upwards to the right, over terraces of bedrock to the top of the cliff immediately adjacent to the crack areas. Once atop this cliff, we turned to look from where we had come, and were greeted with an amazing view.
Spread out before us was an amazing vista towards the main line of the La Cloche South Range, with Blue Ridge on the right and Killarney Ridge on the left. Nestled in the middle of these two ridgelines were a chain of lakes, many dotted with tiny islands. Outcrops of white quartzite peppered the rounded hills, which continued off into the distance until they disappeared into the haze. Brilliant splashes of fall foliage covered the land between the lakes. Off to the left, now much closer and more visible than on Silver Peak, was the dark blue line of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. This had to be one of the best views in the park. No wonder it was such a busy destination.
We all sort of scattered to different viewpoints; Jenn and Rowan and Nick on the terraces facing the lakes; the Hatkos to the edge of the high cliff above the boulder field amphiteatre. I walked around for a little bit, exploring some of the other nooks and crannies of the lookout. It wasn't completely in the open, as it had been on the top of Silver Peak. Rather, there were clumps of trees with various bare rock lookouts in various directions.
Even though this was a Monday morning, there were still a fair number of other hikers up here with us at the lookout; perhaps eight to ten other people in total. I can only imagine what this lookout must be like on a busy sunny weekend day.
We had started this hike early because we had heard that rain was in the forecast for the afternoon. However, scanning the sky to the west of us revealed no hint of any incoming weather - just clear skies and gentle puffs of clouds. In any case, we had decided to head back to Ottawa today, and to avoid arriving too late, we wanted to finish the hike no later than noon, so that we could do the bulk of our drive back in the afternoon. And so, after getting our fill of snacks and of the scenery, we started our descent back to the trailhead.
Saying Goodbye to the view
The hike back down was uneventful. Care was needed when clambering over bouldery sections, but that was about it. We did note an ever-increasing number of late-start hikers, though, and were glad to have arrived early and had our relatively uncrowded experience at the lookout,
We arrived back at the parking lot at a minute past noon, almost bang-on to our prediction. Of note: the lot was now mostly full!
Back down to the smooth stuff
In summary, The Crack hike was great. It had been an excellent complement to the longer, more expedition-y hike from the day before. The terrain of The Crack contrasted nicely with the smooth summit domes of Silver Peak. My recommendation, though: do The Crack on a weekday, if you can. And if you can't, start as early as possible. Most folks are not keeners and I bet that if you started at 7am, even on a summer weekend day, you'd have the trail and the lookout mostly to yourself. In any case, highly recommended.
And so, our time at Killarney was now over. It had been an excellent introduction, and the appeal of this area - a unique combination of remoteness and beauty - is obvious.
With final handshakes all around, we all parted ways. I must single out and thank Chris and Gillian for arranging and feeding us that wonderful pizza dinner. Much appreciated.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - The Crack - click map to view
Start Time:
8:44a.m.
End Time:
12:02p.m.
Duration:
3h18m
Distance:
7.9 km
(4.91 mi)
Average Speed:
2.4 km/hr
(1.5 mph)
Start Elevation:
723ft
(220m)
*
Max Elevation:
1153ft
(352m)
*
Min Elevation:
601ft
(183m)
*
End Elevation:
668ft
(204m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
587ft
(179m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
640ft
(195m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
