Sunday…
The usual morning. Get up, eat, figure out plans for the day. We checked the weather in the park office and there was a 40% chance of rain. Something we can work with. There was a risk of thunderstorms as well, which was no surprise from the warm and muggy weather we were having. We double checked our information for Silver Peaks, and decided to make a go for it.
Silver Peaks require you do paddle about 40 mins to the a trail, according to Jeff’s Maps. Something I’ve been studying for a while. Then you hike a section of the La Cloche Silhouette trail before heading up to Silver Peaks. The hike itself is about the same length as the Crack. Our main worry was if our son would be able to handle two major hikes back to back. As you can see, he was ready to go!
I do not have much in the way of photos for this hike, but hopefully will get a video up and going that Dan took on the GoPro. There is very good reason for this. Remember that rain percentage? It turned to 100% chance on this hike. About halfway to our destination, the rain started to peck a little. Something we would be able to handle, as hiking in the rain won’t melt you. We had stopped just at the base of the hike for a quick snack before we would start the ascent to the top. This trail was like a dry river bed. Even Hayden commented on how it would be cool if it was a river…. (insert foreshadowing here!)
We had not seen anyone on the trail, but knew there were people somewhere, as there was 4 canoes at the start of the trail. As we got closer to the top, we had six girls coming down the trail saying we were almost there. Then we found one more gentleman, and said we were two minutes from the top. Then the rain started, and also a clap of THUNDER! This sent immediate safety protocols going through my mind. We are about to go to the highest peak in Killarney when there is thunder (which means lightning is also possible). Oh boy. We booked it to the top of Silver Peaks, just long enough to do a quick glance around, get some GoPro video and back out of there. I really don’t remember if I was smiling at the view or not (video will later show that I was), because I was actually a little scared.
As we started off the main peak section my next thing I feared happened. There was a lightning strike, followed by thunder. DOWN NOW I yelled to Hayden and Dan. We have to get down now!!! There are parts that I really do not remember, but I was in the trees before I even blinked.
Once I felt a little more comfortable on the way down, we did stop to pose for a picture. Rain and all! Hayden did get his wish, the trail on the way down was a river. There were sections that went over our boots and we had no way to keep them dry. They are going to take days to dry completely and be worn again.
During the way down, I was timing the thunder as it was still going. It just seemed like we would have to wait this out. I was preparing my boys to that fact that I was ready to set up shelter and try to get a fire going. Even Hayden was curious if we were going to have to spend the night! We were hopeful that this wouldn’t happen, but I did have a tarp, emergency blanket, a life straw so that we would have clean water, a fire kit (with some of The Camping Family’s tips), and the guts to actual consider this as an option.
Once we finally reached our canoe, the thunder had subsided and it was 40 minutes from the last strike. We were off! I don’t think we have paddled that hard and fast before. I wanted to reach the portage location and our vehicle as fast as our arms would take us. We probably completed that 40 minute paddle in about 25 minutes! No kidding here! We survived.
We had just talked about how we haven’t seen any wildlife on this trip and then a pack of wolves ran across the road in front of us. The vehicle behind us stopped and we backed up a bit to get a couple of pictures. What luck! We have never seen wolves out in nature, just at the Wolf Center in Haliburton Forest.
Sunday night into Monday…
The rain lasted the rest of the night and into the morning. Our site was quite the mess when we got back, and the morning mess was even worse. It was a good thing we were packing up this morning. I wanted to head back into Killarney one final time to check out the Lighthouse. It was sunny and beautiful on the coast, while the rain was still going at the park. We even got to see a huge snake on the side of the trail before heading home.
One final stop to end this trip was to drop off the canoe back to Swift. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. Good thing we didn’t do any more touring around!
When I started to clean up the gear at home, I noticed that our first aid kit was wet. It was with us on the hike up to Silver Peaks, and everything in my bag was soaked to the bone, including this kit. It will have to sit and dry out like everything else, with some items needing replacement. I guess it’s time to invest in a waterproof case for our kit. (ohhhh gear shopping!!)
This last piece to our trip is the aftermath. My house is now a drying rack for all our gear, and my backyard on Tuesday was no different. I even had to put up extra string from the fence to the patio to provide more hanging space.
I hope you have enjoyed our adventure in Killarney. We will be going back again for sure! This time I want to do some canoe camping (and maybe hike Silver Peaks in the sun).
If you didn’t get a chance to read part 1 – you can find it here…