On a cool and greyish day at the end of January I drove to Cooney Bay to hike along the beach and up the bluffs.    the road was very bumpy with deep puddles, but with slow driving I arrived at the parking area.     My hike was along the shoreline on sandy, then gravel, and then rocky shingle along the lakefront.    Tranquille River was frozen over with water running under the ice making the crossing difficult.    I got my feet wet going both ways.

There was a steady wind out of the southeast, but there were geese and ducks on the water.    The shoreline is sandy near the outlet of the Thompson River, but size of the rocks gets larger as you hike around the bay, a bit demanding on the ankles.

I scrambled up the bluff.    From the top, the view looking west followed the lake shoreline to Battle Bluff and beyond.

From the eastern edge of the bluffs the views showed all of Cooney Bay, Tranquille, and the Thompson River Estuary.

The hike out and back was about 3.2 km, but its a slow hike with uneven footing and a rough route up the bluffs.    An upcoming hike will start farther east and follow the river shoreline down through the Estuary to the lake, then back on the road.