Canadian Xpress August 2022 Monthly Challenge: National Parks X

[Marc Wheeler]

Closing out our National Park Tour, we make the ultimate GA tour of several Ontario Provincial and Canadian National Parks in Ontario that should cover a minimum of 260nm.

Departing from Toronto Billy Bishop, we head towards Wiarton passing over Mono Cliffs Provincial Park. As the name suggests, the park has several cliffs faces along the Niagara Escarpment itself. Along the Cliff Top Trail is a sturdy set of stairs which descend about 30 meters (98 ft) down the rock face to a wooden path that runs between the cliff face and a small outlier, providing excellent views of the rock, ferns, and cedars.

Passing Wiarton we fly over serval Provincial Nature Reserves, of Hope Bay, Lions Head, and Smokey Head-White Bluff. Before we enter Bruce Peninsula National Park.

Located on a part of the Niagara Escarpment, the park comprises 156 square kilometers and is one of the largest protected areas in southern Ontario, forming the core of UNESCO's Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. It was established in 1987 to protect the rock formations and shoreline of the Niagara Escarpment. The park offers opportunities for many outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, and bird watching. The park has trails ranging in difficulty from easy to expert and connects to the Bruce Trail. Bruce Peninsula National Park is known for its crystal-clear blue waters, cobblestone beaches, rocky cliffs, and karst formations.

Clearing the peninsula, we find ourselves over Fathom Five National Marine National Park. A National Marine Conservation Area in the Georgian Bay part of Lake Huron, that seeks to protect and display shipwrecks and lighthouses, and conserve freshwater ecosystems. The many shipwrecks make the park a popular scuba diving destination, and glass bottom boat tours leave Tobermory regularly, allowing tourists to see the shipwrecks without having to get wet. Fathom Five also contains numerous islands, notably Flowerpot Island, which has rough camping facilities, marked trails, and its namesake flowerpots, outlying stacks of escarpment cliff that stand a short distance from the island, most with vegetation (including trees) still growing on them.

Heading out over Manitoulin Island, we pass over Misery Bay Provincial Park. Misery Bay is a freshwater bay on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. It is noted for its alvars, and large dolomite pavements ground flat by glaciers. It also contains grykes and ecologically significant wetlands.

Your mission is to fly from Toronto Island (CYTZ) to Sault Ste Marie (CYAM) ) with any Canadian Xpress general aviation freeware or payware aircraft that you have the rank to fly and are rated for operations for these airports.

Join Canadian Xpress today in order to participate as there are some great prizes to be won including any Aerosoft download product from https://www.aerosoft.com/

The August 2022 Monthly Challenge is open to all Canadian Xpress pilots from August 1st until August 29th, 2022 so join Canadian Xpress today by visiting  https://canadianxpress.ca. 

*Canadian Xpress accepts 50% of your VATSIM, IVAO or other virtual airline hours with no limits.