Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Storm Haven






Most folks stick to the simple loop out to Indian Head Cove, the Grotto, and Marr Lake -- lots fewer make the short hike farther east. The trail follows the higher beach ridges and then climbs into the woods and along the cliffs (with some great views), before dropping back down to the cobble beach at Storm Haven.

There were boulders and collapsed chunks of the escarpment in both directions. The beach ridges extend back up the slope and into the trees, the old ridges dating from the higher lake levels of thousands of years ago. The dolostone ledges are thinly bedded and break into angular flagstones which work their way down the beach as talus. They gradually merge with the wave-rounded cobbles that mark the lower beach. It's all the same basic stuff. In the middle, you end up with a nice mixture of angular bricks and rounded cobbles.

The deepest portion of Georgian Bay (170 meters - 560 feet) is located not far from here, and within a couple of kilometers of shore, indicating that the cliffs we see above lake level are just the upper part of a much more extensive landform.

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