The climbing on Manitoulin Island is about a 1.5 hour drive from Sudbury. The known climbing is located at the cup and saucer trail system. The potential
of these cliffs rivals the best of the rest of the escarpment down south. Not only is there hundreds of meters of 15-25 meter high cliffs,
there is apparently a large amount of boulders in the area as well. There are some route descriptions on rockclimbing.com, which don’t really give
enough information to work as a guide. From the information, and signs of climbing at the cliff, it's obvious there's been a fair amount of development
at the area, when this development took place is unknown at this point. And if you react poorly to poison ivy, you should probably avoid rolling around the ground, apparently its pretty abundant around the trail system.
Getting There: Head west on Hwy 17 until reaching espanola, and turn south onto Hwy 6. Drive south onto the island until reaching Litte Current. From Little Current, drive west on road 540 in the direction of West Bay for about 20 km until reaching Bidwell Road, turn left and park in the parking lot just off the hwy. There are two cliffs which we'll call the east cliffs and the west cliffs.
East Cliffs: Follow the blue trail as it veers off from the white trail and follow it as it begins ascending the break in the cliffs about 1.5km in. Climb up the steep section of the trail until you see a faint trail breaking left along the base of the cliff. Follow this trail along the base of the cliffs where you'll run into all the climbing on that side. Careful as the trail can be steep and slick in some spots. Alternatively the cliffs can be accessed from rapelling from the top from the white trail, except this can be a little dicey since some of the bols are a couple of feet from the top of the cliff.
West Cliffs: Take the white or blue trail from the parking lot until the intersect at the top of the cliffs, then take the blue trail along the west cliffs. Either take the adventure trail down along the base of the cliffs, or rappel down from the anchors, most of which can be found around the West Lookout.
Guide Books: I don't know of any guidebooks listing climbs for manitoulin. The following topo is in development and will be updated as the time rolls on and we get out there climbing some more and more. Manitoulin Topo
Camping: Apparently there's camping in M'Chigeeng, which is just a bit south of the climbing area
Links:
Camping on Manitoulin Island – some contact information for campgrounds at M'Chigeeng
Rockclimbing.com Some information on the routes and getting to the Cup and Saucer trails.
Manitoulin Gallery