Day 39 – Hiking Day 32 – Saturday October 14 2017

Day 39 – Hiking Day 32 – Saturday October 14 2017

Iroquoia Section K38.7 Chedoke Radial Trail to Iroquoia Section K14 Jones Rd

Distance –  26.35

Time  - 7:45

We both agreed that we would not choose the hike we did today for a Sunday walk! It was messy! We seemed to be going through Hamilton and walked through some residential areas, saw views from the top of the Escarpment over to Hamilton…and also of the industrial areas, and under and over highways and a railway where the concrete structures were decorated with graffiti. 

Started out climbing back down about half of yesterday’s metal stairs and then heading across the side of  a wooded ridge; the footing was slippy, rocky, rooty, and was like walking over large marbles with all of the walnuts that were lying on the ground.  We had a long walk over the Escarpment Rail Trail. The trail follows the route of an abandoned CN rail line. Its surfaces varies but is good for walking, running, and biking and includes a section that has a tar and chip surface. It was pretty boring! 

There were also some senseless detours, for example, at one point the trail headed up the side of the Escarpment at a particularly scrappy part, and did a big semi circle over the slippy rocks and back onto the trail. We have tried several times to understand the “logic” of the Bruce Trail, but it escapes us. Robin suggests they are just trying to become a 1000 k trail so they can move up into the next category of world trails!! 

At another point, on one of these ridge walks, there was a messy conglomeration of fallen trees. We had to climb up the side of the ridge, over the slippy rocks which were now covered by branches of the fallen tree, climb over the trunk where there were no branches, holding the tough vine growing around the tree away from each other, and then scramble back down on to the trail. All this took quite a while!!

Part of the trail went through The King’s Forest and there were some quite pretty bowls in here, one with a huge waterfall in it, Albion Falls, and the other just trees. Soon though, it was back to the scrappy forest with rocky/rooty footing!

We had a sprinkling of rain and didn’t even bother to put our rain wear on. The temperature was very warm and humid – about 15 -18 C. We saw and heard, tons of birds, black, grey and red squirrels; we met a few people out for day hikes and a couple of volunteers who were checking out the trail for needed maintenance.

 At one point we hiked close to the side of the railway, and then, inevitably, had to cross it! No sooner had we stepped back on the trail than the biggest, noisiest, train rattled past! Phew, wouldn’t like to be on the track when that went by!!!

On the way home we bought a coffee at Tim's. and a salad in Longoes for supper and ate it at the house. The rain came down after we were safely in the car going home. 

 Now we are packing up as tomorrow we move on to Bonny Bank near Jordan. Tamara, one of Robin’s daughters and her boyfriend Chris are meeting us in the afternoon to hike. We are looking forward to that.

Update by Robin:

835k done. Still in one piece. About 95k to go. It has been a wonderful experience, but Elizabeth Gillis and I are looking forward to completing our Bruce Trail Adventure this Wednesday at Queenston Heights. We return to Uxbridge and look forward to having a pint or two at the Second Wedge on Thursday. Please join us if you can. Completely informal. Crow ( the lovely duo of Tamara Williamson and Patty Ewuschuk) will be playing. Elizabeth and I may say a couple words. And we hope to have a Bruce trail celebrity, a world record setter, join us - Adam Burnett. The man who did in just under 10 days what it is taking Elizabeth and I 36 long days to accomplish. Adam is the sister of Joanne, who is part of our wonderful group at Rise N Shine Stables. Hope to see you!!