Day 24 – Hiking Day 21 – Friday September 29 2017

Day 24 – Hiking Day 21 – Friday September 29 2017
Blue Mountains Section K 20.4 Hamilton Bros Side Trail to Dufferin Highlands Section K 53.9 1st Line EHS
Distance – 24.03 
Time  - 6:55










We are in touch with a couple of police who did the end to end through hike in June. Unfortunately, they had awful weather with rain every day. Well, we got to experience a little of that today. It was raining when we started so we set off all rain-suited up. The rain turned into a heavy downpour, then stopped, and continued intermittently most of the day. Ray once again hiked in to meet us about 3k from the end, and we finished the hike in the dry with sunshine. Temperatures were cool around 8C with a short peak up to 15C when the sun was shining, then back down to 8C for the end. The winds howled through the trees but were even worse on the road and final cross country as we hiked down to the car. The rain didn’t really interfere with our spirits or hiking, we just kept on trucking.

This was a reasonably short hike alternating between cedar, maple, and birch forests, and a couple of “middle earth” forests which seemed really dark and creepy given the black clouds and from which we imagined Orcs appearing from behind the trees. When we descended the escarpment, the area was fairly swampy with some large ponds of water one of which we had lunch beside. We had some tough walks “trail blazing” through overgrown paths through fields and other overgrown area. All in all, the scenery was lovely, and it was fun walking in the rain and the strong winds.

We had a fair amount of the Bruce Trail rock which was made reasonably slippy with the rain, and some beautiful examples of the deep crevices that we experienced in the Sydenham Section. Towards the end of the hike we came to one of our “anticipated” boulder fields decorated with bright green moss. It was at the end of this that we met Ray, so he was lucky and avoided picking his way across one way and then returning back over it.

We only met 2 other people today and they were doing an end to end in the opposite direction. It is always fun to meet other hikers and exchange stories.

Tonight we are headed out to dinner at Café Tremont in Collingwood, recommended by a friend of Robin.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 43 – Hiking Day 36 – Wednesday October 18 2017

Image
Day 43 – Hiking Day 36 – Wednesday  October 18 2017 Niagara Section K 18.2 North Side of Glendale Ave. 50 m east of the Welland Canal Fifth Bridge to K 0 Southern Terminus Cairn Distance: 18.2 k Time: 3:00 We did it!! What an exciting day! It was a beautiful sunny morning and dressed in clothes suitable for running in 18C and our running shoes laced up, we drove ourselves to the start of the last 18.2k on the Bruce Trail and set off. Running the last day was a perfect idea! It felt so good not to have the weight of hiking boots nor a pack nor poles! We felt free and strong. The route was kind to us. We ran along the side of the canal, past the edge of the golf course…we actually tried to run on the golf course cart paths but when we got some really strange looks from a group of golfers we realized we were on the wrong route and went back to find the blazes….then it was up to the top of the Escarpment (yes, a steep climb, but the Escarpment is only about 200 ft high here, so
Read more

Day 36 – Hiking Day 29 – Wednesday October 11 2017

Image
Day 36 – Hiking Day 29 – Wednesday  October 11 2017 Iroquoia Section K121.8 Kelso Road to Iroquoia Section K 93 Colling Road and Guelph Line Distance –  28.11k Time  - 7:45 Evy’s friend Dave drove us to the start today. It was full rain gear. It was only raining very slightly when we set off and continued to rain lightly on and off all day. When we finished, there was a much bigger downpour. We were lucky once again! Temperature was cool, 6C to 12C. Today was a beautiful hike. We started out at the base of the Glen Eden Ski Hill in the Kelso Conservation Area and slowly climbed up onto the top of the Escarpment passing some old lime kilns on the way. Then we headed into an amazing forest. Most of the day was spent in golden forests at the top of the escarpment on quite civilized paths, but, of course, we did have our fair share of Bruce Trail rock, the “gnarly rock” and climbing up and down the Escarpment on the rock and walking over the greas
Read more

Day 29 – Hiking Day 25 – Wednesday October 4 2017

Image
Day 29 – Hiking Day 25 – Wednesday October 4 2017 Caledon Hills Section K44.3 5 Sideroad to Toronto Section K  16.0 Willoughby Road Distance –  28.98 Time  - 7:30 Jock drove us to the start point for today, a mere 6 minutes from the B & B. We were prepared for rain and decided to split the odds: I put my rain jacket on, Robin left hers off. We reckoned that we had a 50/50 chance of having to stop to either take my jacket off, or to put Robin’s on. I lost. We stopped very shortly after the sun came out and I took it off!!  That said, the sky did dither between opening up and dropping a bucket over us or moving the black clouds along and bringing out the sun. It wasn’t until we were almost finished that we put our rain jackets on again, and were sprinkled with rain as we walked along. However, when we got back to the B & B, it poured. Nice timing!! The trail today was not too hard, no gnarly rock to contend with, and lots of ced
Read more