Hike # 32 & 33 Birthday Hike - Guest Blog by Karen Goncalves

Day 1: 13.8 km

Day 2: 14.5 km

We once again hit the trail on October 17 and 18, 2019, enjoying an incredible two days of glorious fall colours, crisp temperatures (perfect for hiking) and beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately, our resident photographer, Allison, was not able to join us so our pictures are certainly not up to the usual quality.

October 17 was cool with a fine mist of precipitation throughout the morning.  By the afternoon, the air was dry but the ground still wet.  The bounty of fallen leaves covering the trail required extra vigilance, not only to figure out where the trail was, but also not to slip.  The wooden boardwalks and bridges were the hardest to negotiate without slipping.

We had our first encounter with a coyote on the trail when we were amazed to see it about ten feet in front of us walking along the trail.  Because of the fairly strong wind through the trees and the fact that we were downwind, the coyote hadn’t noticed us.  Once we had all seen it, Valerie clapped her hiking poles together and yelled.  With a quick glance behind, the coyote left the trail and ran away through the brush.  By scaring it off, we were hoping it would not become comfortable around humans and possibly get shot.  Suffice it to say we were thrilled with our encounter.

Apart from being slippery, the hike was relatively easy and we all felt rejuvenated and satisfied when we finished.

We enjoyed a lovely evening at a friend’s cottage on the shores of Georgian Bay in Meaford.  Plenty of food, wine and cards kept us up into the early hours of the next day!

After a hearty breakfast, plenty of coffee and a quick clean up, we hit the trail for our second day.  The weather was glorious – perfect temperature and wonderful sunshine.  Day two was more challenging with some steep climbs but there was also plenty of road walking on unpaved farm roads.  One industrious dog attempted to herd us into the sheep farm we were passing.

We met an interesting fellow hiker from Cambridge who had started his hike in Tobermory and was hoping to make it to The Blue Mountains before his vacation ended.  He was well equipped and provided some great information on what we could expect as we inched ever closer to our end destination.  Although he had planned most of his overnight resting places, he did say that one evening he had been forced to pitch a low impact camp on the trail.  I couldn’t help but think that there was a better chance of a zombie apocalypse than there was of me staying in a tent by myself at night on the trail!  The Blair Witch Project would have been on auto play the whole night in my head.

We ended our hike with a huge feeling of satisfaction and contentment and eagerly wait for next year when we will continue our adventure anew.

Bundled up for a cool rainy hike

Happy Birthday Karen!

Beginning of Day 2 - nicer weather

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Apple pie trail

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Karen enjoying the hike

Interesting stump

Valerie and Karen

Only 211 km left to go?!!

Nancy and Valerie

pretty colours

Up and over 

Golden trail

Walters Falls

Valerie and Nancy on the rocks

Trail almost hidden by fallen leaves

Soy Beans?

Hike # 30 & 31 Mothers Day Weekend

Hike # 30 - km 80.8 to 92.5 in the Beaver Valley

Hike # 31 - km 92.5 to 107.5 in the Beaver Valley

Happy to see the sun shining, coffee in hand,  we set off on the two-hour drive north for our two days of hiking.  Our first stop was where we would end that day at the Epping -John Muir lookout.  A gorgeous view that I would never tire of looking at – big sky, valleys, and hills and just a hint of green beginning on the trees.

Epping -John Muir Lookout - the end point of day one 

Due to limited parking options along this stretch of the trail our planned hike for Saturday was only a short 10.5 km (because of trail re-routes it ended up being 11.9), but we planned to take advantage of an early finish and explore the town of Thornbury.  I am glad we had the time to poke around the shops and galleries there. We will return and next time I will buy the sky high lemon pie!

Happy that the sun was shining and we were hiking 

The trails were less muddy than two weeks previous and the signs of spring more obvious.  The trillium were coming out, but not yet at their peak.  The forest floor was dense with trout lilies, patches of wild violets, and many other wildflowers just emerging.  The tree buds were still just starting, but a few warm days will encourage them.

Lovely trillium basking in the sun

Burgundy beauty

The lack of foliage made it easier to spot the many birds along the way.  Two birds I have never seen before were the red breasted grosbeak with it's striking black and white feathers, and what I believe was an eastern kingbird.  We also spotted red winged blackbirds, a downy woodpecker (or two), an oriole, nuthatches, and many more.  While we did not spot any larger wildlife other than a glimpse of a very quick and nimble deer, there were many signs of life in the forest including a hole near to a stream around which were scattered at least a hundred snail shells (mink? river otter?) and the skeletons of what we think were two deer.

We found two of these right next to each other - deer?

The trail took us up and down and up and down as it is apt to do, but we also had some nice long stretches along the top of the escarpment.  Most of the trail was relatively easy footing although there were some very "squidgy squadgy" patches and some areas that were rocky.  In one such area we found the trail took us through a crevice which was fun.  Easy to miss if you are not paying attention to the blazes.  

Through the escarpment crevice

Mossy tree 

Heading down the valley

Trees for miles

Escarpment views

As always, the views from the top of the escarpment were breathtaking and, for me at least, such views bring a deep sense of calm and peace.

Rare photo op

Sky views

Valerie waiting for us to catch up

Narrow stream and marsh marigolds

Views views views

Beaver Dam

Can you spot the Oriole?

Day two - grey, cool, muddy

Pretty creek

More views

Webwood Falls

Cool root system of a long dead tree

We are slowly, but surely making our way through the second half of the trail closer to our goal by a few more kilometres.  Though it seems we are making slow progress, we are still moving forward, still striving toward our goal of completing the trail end to end.  That is enough.

A funny bird tale

In tree above the parking area a vocal cardinal sang out to us and fluttered about, once or twice landing on the car and seeming to be quite taken with his reflection in the side mirrors. We thought little of it - other than to find it cute - as we set off for the day. 

Many hours later after completing the days hike, we noticed the flicker of red near the car. The cardinal was still looking in the mirror and flitting about. On closer inspection there was evidence that the cardinal had been there for quite some time! As we considered this strange behaviour we surmised that he was either very vain, lonely, or that he thought his reflection was a competitor invading his territory. Although we chuckled at the bird’s antics, at the same time we felt sorry that he had had such a stressful day aggressively trying to get the “other cardinal” to move on. 

Poor thing. I hope he moves on to another area before peak season when more cars are parked there creating more phantom cardinals.