(Continued from Part 1)

On this second trip to Cockburn Island, we had half the passengers, so there wasn't such an event down at the docks to get everyone's stuff out of the boat and into the waiting car. Before I knew it, we were free to roam around and stretch our legs a bit.

If you're wondering about a history lesson or an introduction to Cockburn Island, I covered those things during my first visit.

The last time I was here, I was focused on trying to see any type of bird slightly more interesting than the gulls down at the dock. As we went from beach to beach and abandoned house to abandoned house, I couldn't believe the total absence of bird life.

Fortunately, this time there were a lot more birds hanging all around the main village of Tolmasville, plus pretty much whichever beach we visited. Horned Larks (above), Northern Flickers, White-crowned Sparrows and Common Mergansers were all more exciting than the lone Blue Jay I managed to spot during my last trip here.

Down on Sand Bay Beach on the south side of the island, I noticed this American Giant Water Bug, aka a Toe Biter, as we walked along.

Kingsley noticed him too, but thankfully the two parted without any paw biting (or beetle biting).

Goodness was it nice to be back in the Cockburn Island Suburban with a few road sodas in the cooler, taking in all of the colourful leaves, different birds, and mysterious side roads.

As much as I had that preamble about telling Isy I don't want to spend every other vacation heading here, one of my favourite things I've done in the last decade has been rolling around with her and Kingsley on these sleepy roads.

Along our way we noticed that the old schoolhouse had a new for sale sign.

While I'm not in the market for a property on Cockburn Island, peering into the window, I liked the look of things.

One of the reasons I was okay with this trip was that we still couldn't go to the States. Or we could have back in August, but then there were lockdowns, then some promise, then more lockdowns, and yadda yadda yadda.

I was pretty set on gambling on being allowed to cross because I needed to get back to America, but on the other hand, I could see Isy's point that maybe we didn't want to be stuck vacationing in St. Stephen New Brunswick after miscalculating when the border would open back up.

Feeling a bit sour about not being able to head Stateside, I begrudgingly consumed coffee from this Drummond Island mug (Drummond Island is the nearest American island and Cockburn Island's neighbour).

Being unable to visit the States meant it was a must-do that we head to the old dock on the island's western side and wistfully look over at Michigan. There aren't a lot of vantage points you can easily reach on the west side of Cockburn Island, but dodging the lumber trucks was well worth it after a year and a half without visiting the U.S..

I obviously posted a picture standing here as close as I could get to America during current restrictions. Nailhed had a pretty funny comment about my shoulder-length, overgrown hair - asking if it was like a playoff beard that I wasn't cutting until the travel ban was lifted.

Anyway, Biden announced the next day that the travel ban would be lifted on November the 8th.

It's probably swimmable, right? I suppose my body would probably wash up by November 8th.

Speaking of those logging trucks, on each of my visits there's been this warning and chatter of how you need to watch out for them, how they have the right to certain roads and won't slow down or take care around any vacationers - which led us to rush back to the car when we heard a lumber truck moving down the road.

The driver ended up giving us a friendly wave and it was no problem at all. Plus it was neat seeing the painted Cockburn Island logging logo on the side of the truck.

Coming back from the dock with plenty of time before dinner, we decided to take some unfamiliar road instead of backtracking.

We went by a few things that Isy recognized, but obviously all of this was new to me and I was in heaven. Absolutely loving the off-the-beaten-track place where I found myself as I took it all in with Isy behind the wheel.

Oh what do we have here? Getting off the beaten track was paying off even more.

This abandoned house was much more of a home than a cabin. While I know it's cliche to picture past lives when visiting abandoned structures, I couldn't help but think of the isolated and distant life lived here back up in the woods.

There was some recent animal activity in the house judging by the droppings, so Isy and Kingsley dipped out while I took a bit longer to look around.

This gnarled wreck looked interesting and now that I can look up "Thames Freighter" (the words on the front), I see that this was maybe a Ford Thames 400E van? Which was only sold in the UK, Australia and Denmark, but somehow ended up here? Neat!

Isy brought her inflatable stand-up paddleboard, which for me, meant some downtime on the beach with Kingsley. I actually went out and played around in the waves as well, which were surprisingly warm for Lake Huron in October.

Another item on the docket was checking out this abandoned house that's very close to the one little village here on Cockburn. Isy had seen it in my last update and didn't even realize it existed, as she doesn't feverishly study the passing landscape for abandoned structures like some of us do, lol.

(I won't mention here the time she spotted an abandoned house I totally missed one birthday weekend.)

Of course we also had to pop into the woods behind the house where there's these even older ruined structures.

I asked Isy if she was comfortable walking back to town with Kingsley alone as I wanted to wander down a path into the woods and do some light bushwhacking and exploring of new areas.

I didn't end up needing to do any bushwhacking as there was either a trail, or it was that typical Ontario forest of tall trees and limited shrubs, where it was easy enough to meander along in the general direction I was heading.

Along the way I found yet another abandoned building - an abandoned hunting blind!

Overall, this ended up being yet again a great visit to Cockburn Island. And while I feel like I may have started to really deplete the stock of abandoned buildings, I could still go for cycling all around the island and exploring more of the coves, clearings and creeks.

Maybe coming here every other year wouldn't be so bad.

Anyway, it was time to head back to Manitoulin Island and continue on with the next leg of our journey.

Continue to Part 3...