The Crack - Killarney Provincial Park

A recent addition to Killarney Provincial Park is The Crack Access Trail. Previously, hikers wishing to travel to The Crack needed to hike 18km (9km each way) along the La Cloche Silhouette trail from the George Lake campground.

This new trail starts off easily enough from the parking lot off Highway 637. It follows a fire access road for 1.6km until it meets up with the La Cloche Silhouette Trail and Freeland Lake / Kakakise Lake portage. The path soon comes to Kakakise Creek with a bridge built over a beaver dam and then comes upon Kakakise Lake proper.

Kakakise Lake

After crossing a swampy area over a series of narrow boardwalks the real climbing begins. Passing Kidney lake on your left the flora soon changes from principally deciduous in the lower terrain to more coniferous as you climb. This is not due to any temperature induced elevation change, but due to a change in the soil. The deciduous trees prefer the deep, rich soil of the lowlands, while the coniferous can adapt to the thin soil covering the quartzite rock.

The view from the top.

Looking over the Crack.

There are many outcrops of this stunning white quartzite and several areas where you are walking over the bare rock. In these places look for rock cairns to guide your path as there are few large trees for the blazes. The climbing remains steady for most of this area until you come across the Crack itself. This is, quite literally, a crack in the quartize ridge enabling hikers to access the top. Expect to climb over car sized boulders using both your hands and feet to make it through.

Killarney Lake (foreground), O.S.A. Lake beyond.

Once at the top the view is incredible with vistas in all directions. Georgian Bay is visible to the south but the best view is to the west. Here you will look between the Killarney Ridge (to the south) and the Blue Ridge (to the north) with beautiful Killarney Lake and O.S.A. Lake in between. Further past O.S.A. lake you might be able to get a glimpse of Baie Fine, a freshwater fjord off Georgian Bay.

The full route (GPS measured) was 3.5km one way for a 7km return trip. The first half is typical southern Ontario hiking and is quite manageable. The second half is much more difficult but is one of the greatest hikes in the province.




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