I am looking to find out any great multi-day kayak routes on Georgian Bay. I am not looking for outfitters or guides but just a suggested route from others that have paddled Georgian Bay. Any input and advice is appreciated.

Hi Chad,
I've done 3 trips on Georgian Bay in the past few years.
First trip was the Mink and McCoy island group on the eastern side. Enjoyed it for being my first trip to GB, but not as much as I've enjoyed the Bruce Peninsula and Killarney area.

In 09 we paddled from Lions Head on the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory and then out to Fathom Five marine park. There are a limited number of campsites available to kayakers, but it was adequate. There is a site called Reeds Dump on provincial land north of Lions Head, then a longish 23 mile paddle to High Dump in the BP National Park. Further on we camped at Storm Haven in the park before heading to Tobermory. Both of the sites in the national park have platforms and can be reserved in advance. The last night we camped out on Flowerpot Island, the only place you can camp in the marine park. That site has to be acquired the day of at the visitors center, which requires you to walk about a half mile from town. The entire shoreline of this trip was just beautiful with high rock cliffs, caves and rock beaches (don't expect any soft landings). Hiking the Bruce trail while there is well worth your time!

This past summer we continued our journey. 3 of us put in at Tobermory and crossed to Manitoulin Island, camping on Yeo and Rabbit Islands along the way. There was some disagreement about who's islands those were. Ontario parks says they are crown land and we could camp on them without permits (south of French River) but the first nation people claim them as theirs. Either way, we had no trouble at all and some first nation fishermen even brought us some fish the morning we were on Rabbit Island.
We chose not to camp on the east coast of Manitoulin because it is first nation land. They say you are welcome to camp there, but they have to know when and where and ask for $50 per person per night for backcountry camping. We decided to rent a cabin on Elm island off the northeast tip of Manitoulin from a local man. After a 3 night stay there we met up with 4 more paddlers (total of 7) and headed east along Badgely Island to Killarney.
The geology changes often between the Bruce Peninsula and Killarney and I never tired of the variety of rock formations. By the time you arrive in Killarney it has become pink granite, just beautiful. We continued to paddle on to the outer islands of Phillip Edward Island for another week of camping, including trips out to Hawk and Green Islands before heading back to Killarney, along Badgely Pt. and back to our take out on Manitoulin. We had managed to get some of the second group to bring our vehicle over on the ferry with them and we all ferried back to Tobermory, but I'd be tempted to paddle back the next time. The whole trip was gorgeous, we had pretty benign conditions, which doesn't often happen on GB and I'd repeat that 2 week trip in a second. Pics of both trips can be seen here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/shafra9
The first is Bruce Peninsula, Air, Land Water and the second longer trip is Tobermory to Killarney and Beyond.
Sorry to ramble on so long! Hope this helps and please don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have questions.

Thank you for sharing Sharon. I am very familiar with the Tobermory area and have been planning a kayak trip there visiting cove, bears rump, flowerpot and russel islands. My girlfriend will NEVER attempt the crossing to yeo island. ( her dad and his friend were rescued off the island 40 years ago by a Coast Guard helicopter after a storm destroyed their motor boat ). I really would love to make the crossing. How was the weather and time it took to cross to yeo? I am also going to killarney this year. I want to head south off philip edward island past the hawks and onto green, papoose and maybe squaw islands. Do you know of anyone that has gone past green island to papoose island?
Thanks again and sounds like your trip was awesome.

Chad,
The weather was foggy with following seas, maybe 1 ft., some 2 ft. at the most. I was a little skeptical as we set out from the north end of Cove Island since we couldn't see our destination...that was a first for me. We trusted our charts and compasses and passed the markers when we should have and landed on Yeo just where we planned to. The wind was not too much of a factor. I can't quite remember how long it took to cross. We had launched in Hay Bay rather than Tobermory so had a few extra miles just to get to the north end of Cove. We camped on the south west corner of the Yeo, great camp site, for 2 nights and circumnavigated Yeo and Lucas islands the next day. Day 3 we headed around the south end of Fitzwilliam and up the west coast to Wall and finally Rabbit, where we camped for 2 nights.

We did not go beyond Green Island and I don't know anyone who has. If I hear of anyone I'll post.

Planning to paddle GB again next summer, continuing the journey...hope to eventually paddle the entire bay. I think we've gotten a good start!

Sharon,
Thanks again for sharing your experiences. I would be nervous heading out from Cove Island in some fog, crossing the channel to Yeo. I am hoping to spend alot of time on Georgian bay this year. There are so many trips I want to do there. I have almost the month of Setember off work and plan on kayaking Georgian Bay for most of it.
Check out Papoose Island and Squaw Islands between Philip Edward and Manitoulin Islands. I think it is a very do-able trip providing I have some decent weather. I have a small obsession with going to Papoose beacause I don't think anyone goes there. I am sure people have kayaked there but I can't find any info on the net about it.
And thanks for keeping an eye out on any posts about it. It's greatly appreciated.