Day 40 – Hiking Day 33 – Sunday October 15 2017

Day 40 – Hiking Day 33 – Sunday October 15 2017
Iroquoia Section K14 Jones Rd to Niagara Section K65 Quarry Road
Distance –  30.54
Time  - 9:10














Today’s hike was not chosen for its beauty, nor its trail! Sorry!! But I may as well say it as it was!

The day started off straight up the Escarpment. The first 9.5k were through a scrappy forest over clay mud paths across the ravines, so, trail on a slant; the footing was slick rock jumbles, roots to kill, and in some cases badly maintained trail so that we were plowing through growth up to our shoulders including nettles, and burrs; it didn’t seem to matter where we were, the top, the middle, the bottom of the Escarpment. Then we had stints on the road and through Beamer Conservation Area which were quite manageable.  Around 14k we were back on the slippery paths in the scrappy forests.

 Around 22k we entered a severely damaged forest which looked as if a hurricane may have gone through at one stage. The winds were high – gusts up to 90 k – and we narrowly missed a branch falling, a walnut falling (they are hard!!), a tree falling (makes a horrendous “thud”), and ourselves falling down the perpendicular Escarpment sides. The sky darkened, the winds raged through the trees, and the rain poured on us. It was over in a flash! 

Around 24k, and shortly after the sudden storm, we met Robin’s daughter Tamara and friends Chris and Lydia. It lifted our spirits. We had a lovely walk together through the nicest part of the trail we had had all day. They saw all the elements of the Bruce and had been able to shelter from the wind rush in a winery.

On the way back to the B & B we stopped for a well deserved coffee at Tims. Went out to the Jordan Inn for dinner after we had cleaned up, and rolled into bed to sleep.

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