Lion's Head Backpacking

 On the August Civil Holiday long weekend, some good friends of mine Pete and Natalie wanted to go on a spur of the moment backpacking trip.  We ended up going to Lion's Head part way up the Bruce Peninsula on the eastern side. It's a fantastic quick trip to do at the last moment, primarily because there is a nonreservable camping spot at the tip of Lion's Head called McKay's Harbour on the Bruce Trail which is maintained y the Bruce Conservancy.
Lion's Head affords awesome views of the Niagra Escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay.  I went to Adventure Guide looking fora new backpack beforehand.  I was wanting to get an Osprey Exos 48 backpack, since my oldschool Lowe Alpine 75+10 just doesn't cut it for quick backpacking trips, it also is heavy,  and overpadded unlike the modern packs.  Instead, i ended up getting an Osprey Talon 33 pack, good for day hikes and weekend ultralight backpacking, since they didn't have any Exos packs in stock.  the Talon 33 is a brilliant pack; I may do a review later, but t is just large enough to pack my Hennessey hammock, Jetboil and a few items of clothes, provisions for a weekend and my hydration pack.  We made a bit of a mistake of parking on the Scenic Caves Road.  The problem with that is we ended up hiking a fair bit on plain dirt roads and the highway to get to Lion's Head itself.  It would have been better off to just park at Barrow's Bay at the root of Lion's Head.  In any case, it was a nice walk in the countryside despite the traffic.
Lion's Head is a little bit of a hidden secret in that most people go straight to Tobermory and it isn't very crowded. The hike around Lion's Head is fantastic with many and we had great weather.We got into the campsite around 5 o'clock and set up two Henessey Hammocks and a Bivy sack, ate dinner and went for a swim.  It was the first time using my Jetboil stove and I was very impressed by the efficiency of the thing - it boils a liter of water in a minute or so!  Brilliant. 

The campsite was already populated by a large group of some kind of semi-organized group as well as a few randoms.  Despite that, there was still quite a bit of room to set up camp in the wooded area, and there is a thunderbox up a bit on a ridge.  We went for a swim and the water was a lot warmer than I thought it would be, which was a good surprise.  The beach is really just a bunch of rounded rocks but good enough to wade into the water for a swim.
The weather forecast looked good when we left, but the wind started picking up and lightning started rolling in at around midnight as I was finishing the last of my backcountry rye and coke - Fourty Creek rye with some Nuun Kona Cola electrolyte drink tablets and filtered water; highly recommended lightweight cocktail I might add.
So I retreated to my hammock, gathering all my gear and putting it directly under my hammock.  It was quite windy and rainy for a bit, and a second wave of rain and close lightning hit early morning around 6.  Luckily it cleared up before I crawled (or fell, really) out of bed.  I hadn't used my hammock before in really rainy conditions but I was impressed with the lack of wetness both on my gear and in my hammock...  pretty awesome.
I had some Starbucks Via coffee and a Mountain House dehydrated meal in the morning, we leisurely packed up, checking out a juicy Monarch caterpillar on a lone milkweed plant by the beach.  Interesting fact - Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves.  Starting out around the rest of Loin's Head along the Bruce Trail, we made our way along the beach for a short stretch then started ascending the escarpment among interesting rock formations.  Back on top there's more than plenty amazing views again, and we were lucky the sun had burnt off much of the moisture, the sky clear again.  We could make out kayakers and paddleboarders way down on the brilliant aqua blue and ghostly white limestone coastline.

We came up to the Lion's Head Lookout, undoubtedly the most amazing vantage point for stunning views.  It's an exposed outcrop jutting out of the escarpment and affords amazing views in both directions of the escarpment as well as the coastline across the bay and Lion's Head village down the coast. It's not much of a place for those with fear of heights.  Lion's head is also a prime rock climbing mecca, so we could see groups of climbers hanging from the cliffs in some areas.  This place is getting somewhat close to a parking area near Lion's Head village, so the trail traffic was picking up with mainly day hikers.
Continuing along there's some pothole formations to check out, including the massive Lion's Head pothole and another feature called Giant's Cauldron which isn't quite as impressive, but a cool geologic feature nonetheless.  Now we started a trudge through the woods along some old roads/cart paths and it branches off to the left to get back towards the direction our car was in, past Barrow's Bay.  After a while we got to a place called Finnegan's Forest (or so the signs said), a large canopy topped open woodland which was pleasant with the breeze and shade, but the mosquitoes were a bit out of control so we quickmarched that section till we hit a parking lot, walked along a road and ate lunch since we were real hungry by that point.  Making our way onto the main highway 9.  We decided to attempt to hitchhike instead of deathmarching along the highway with our sore feet with not much luck until we talked a local resident in Barrow's Bay to give me a lift to my car so I could go back and pick up Pete and Nat, where we then made our way back to Guelph with delightfully and surprisingly light traffic.  Great quick trip, amazing scenery and good camping with little planning!