Note: Rain date is Sunday, September 17, 2023

This is the first “official” field trip to this new reserve acquired in August, 2022. The reserve is located at the far eastern end of Thunder Bay. The reserve has no road access. The total lake frontage is about 3,200 feet, with area around 80 acres.

Preliminary visits have established how to get to the reserve and what to expect there. More visits before the field trip will add to this.

While shallow, sand bottom water access to the shore of the reserve is available, doing so with a group would require extensive preparation and logistics and the dangers of wind and waves before and after make this unfeasible as there is no launch point within a reasonable distance of the reserve.

Our field trip will therefore access the reserve by land. A dead end road terminates about 400 yards from the nearest corner of the reserve. We will walk from there along an old survey line which runs along the southern boundary of the reserve. It’s another 400 years or so from this corner to the waterfront.

The waterfront of the south part of the property is rocky, changing to sandy further north, with alder bushes growing close to the shore, depending on water levels.

At the south end, the land is mostly dry and sloping towards the lake; further north it becomes wetland closer to the Blende River.

This field trip can be considered moderately difficult, with slopes, rocks and downed trees and wet areas along the way. During this trip I expect we will cover 3 to 5 kilometres.

Meet near the old gas station beside the LCBO/Landmark Inn at County Fair Mall at 10:00 am. The drive to the start of the hike is about 40 minutes.

Pre-register at mcarter@tbaytel.net