Whitby Harbour to Corbett's Creek

• Posted on October 1, 2007 at 9:04 PM
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There won't be many more days like this past Sunday!! Mikey and I decided to stay close to home today and put in at the Whitby Harbour. Whitby has a very well protected harbour with easy access for canoes and kayaks. It does cost $3.00 to park your car, but we enjoy the convenience. Once on the water we travelled by kayak out past the lighthouse and headed east. There was a gentle SSE wind and very pleasant swells of about 0.5 m. It takes about an hour of easy paddling to get to Corbett's Creek. On the way you pass Heydenshore Pavillion, some decent clay cliffs and a few cottages/homes very close to the water. Behind the cottages is theexcellent birding site called Thickson's Woods. To describe this privately owned but open to the public forest would take another blog, so I won't even try. Thickson's Woods continues out onto a peninsula that ends at the mouth of Corbett's Creek. In high water you can paddle up the creek and take in a ton of water bird sightings. Today we did a beach landing since there was a bit of surf and just got out for a stretch. Across the creek is the site of the famous Camp X that trained spies during WWII. It was a beautiful day and we just enjoyed watching the gulls and two incredibly blue, Great Blue Herons. The paddle back was relaxing and quiet. It is sometimes hard to believe when you are out on Lake Ontario that you are so close to the city. Many people think the Lake is dirty and smelly. We rarely see any of that. In fact, quite the opposite. We find Lake Ontario gorgeous most of the time. We were only out for 2 and a half hours this day, but the effort was well worth it. Next time I'll try to remeber the camera!