Day 13 – Hiking Day 12 - Monday September 18 2017

Day 13 – Hiking Day 12 - Monday September 18 2017
Sydenham Section K69.2 Side Road 22 just east of 6th Concession to K44.2 St. Vincent-Sydenham Town Line
Distance: 27.18 k
Time on the trail: 8:55










We took a taxi to the start and were on our way by 9:45. We had thunderstorms overnight together with heavy rain so when we set off it was really wet in the bush. The day started with the gnarly forest that we had left the night before but soon we were hiking through land that hadn’t been “weed wacked;" at one point the pretty yellow flowers were taller than Robin, at others the tall grasses would hook our feet and try hard to trip us up. Soon we were out on the concession roads some dirt and some paved. That was the first 13k. The second 13k was spent in the forest; a mixture of gnarly forest and inviting walking trails. Just when we thought about lunch the rain poured down, but we rather enjoyed it as it cooled us down and actually quelled the onslaught of mosquitoes while it was raining. We didn’t put rain wear on, and other than making the already slippy rocks and roots more so, the rain became a non-entity in our hike.

We were quite confused by the Bruce Trail App which seemed to be ambiguous over a route closure notice. It either meant the route was closed, or the route was closed to dogs. None the less we set off on the second half of the day and finally came to a Route Closure sign which told us that the trail was closed and we should take a side trail back to the concession road and then walk down the concession road to join the trail. By the time we got out on the road we had hiked 26k so we decided to call the cab and head back to our original stopping place on the concession road. We met the cab half way making careful note of our last footstep on the amended trail so we know exactly where to start on Wednesday.

Our B & B hosts gave us a warm welcome when we returned and we had lovely showers to freshen up and then headed down to Norma Jeans for a delicious steak and some wine.

In the meantime, Ray was flying from Vancouver to Toronto International where Peter met him and they apparently headed to the pub in Uxbridge for dinner. Robin and I are looking forward to seeing Ray tomorrow in Owen Sound.


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