Day 29 – Hiking Day 25 – Wednesday October 4 2017

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 cedar and mixed forest paths, farmers’ fields, meadows, and dips down to whispering streams. We past by the edge of a restored gravel pit, the beginning of the Humber River, and the beginning of the western edge of the Oak Ridges Moraine Trail. We only had about 13 hard steep climbs, which made us realize that 1 rest day isn’t enough to refresh the legs!! At the start we climbed up to the top of the escarpment and a broad view to the east.

There was a lot of road walking, but most of it was through interesting areas. The worst was walking along Highway 9. It was a shock emerging from the serenity of the forest to the noise pollution of the highway: big container trucks, dump trucks, and cars all flying along the road like lemmings towards the cliff’s edge. Scary stuff as seen from our "time warp!" The other road walks were often on dirt, and we saw some beautiful country properties, with lovely gardens, horses, and homes. Just about at the end of the hike we came to a house that Jock had told us was Elton John’s home (he has 13 according to Jock). Jock was going to call ahead and tell them we were coming, but when we knocked on the door, no one answered. Guess no-one was home!!

We did not meet a soul on the trail today. No one! But, we did meet a bunch of wild turkeys. They slowly meandered over the road in front of us and into the woods.

In the evening Suzanne drove us into Orangeville for dinner at the Barley Vine Rail Co. The food was quite good, the service very efficient, and the atmosphere not too bad! Lunches are made, we are in our pajamas, and lights out is very close.