Caledon Hills Section - Chinguacousy Road (2.8 km) to Willoughby Road (15.9 km) - October 31, 2024.

 Caledon Hills Section - Chinguacousy Road (2.8 km) to Willoughby Road (15.9 km) - October 31, 2024.


Hiking With Friends was not scared of taking on 13.1 km of the Bruce Trail in the Caledon Section this past week...eerily, we had been here just last spring and survived, so what could possibly behead us, uh, be ahead, of us today, on hallow's eve?..just ignore the fact that the route looks a bit like an ax...totally irrelevant...






Well the weather is certainly suspiciously warm and sunny for this time of year (says the guy who got to wear shorts for one last hike)...12 souls have appeared through the morning mist to gather on Chinguacousy Road, their pending fate unknown...Ken is pumped for this pumpkin parade to get underway along with Rhonda, Claudia (new friend- welcome!), Annette (H.C), Andrew, Marleen, Laura, Nancy, Doug, Sandra (Sweep), Marion (new friend- welcome!), Faryde and Ivan (also both new to the group...welcome!)...let us now go curiously into this super, natural world...








 Our hiking costumes blend in well with the environment so as not to draw attention and  raise the ire of any forest phantoms...








I'm sure those spirits would have heard us coming as we swished, swished, swished through ankle deep, freshly fallen, crispy and colorful leaves...and, as the day warmed even further, there were necessary costume adjustments as well...







It's been a wickedly good hike so far as we cross the abandoned railway tracks, that now only service some ghost town, and head down the hill to McLaren Road and the bridge over the Credit River...it's not the fork, but the knife that we keep an eye out for... 













It's the road we're on...











Well, it's been over six months and the trail re-route resulting from the construction on Dominion Street in Brimstone, which has deprived us of tackling the Devil's Pulpit (which would have been appropriate today) and viewing the Forks of the Credit, means the "lollipop" route into and out of the provincial park is still in play via Puckering Lane (which could be called "Tuckering Lane" cause that's what it does), and this unique signage that provides for pause and directional assessment is still in play...we are in northbound mode today...










It's a devilish descent to the bottom of the valley but we are rewarded with a smooth, wide path that will take us along the river for a spell...


















Most of us stop to enjoy our refreshment break at our traditional spot on the banks of the river...a few others decided that tackling the climb out of the valley first was the lessor of the two evils...

























Reunited again on the trail, we continue on our enchanting walk, finding a cauldron of bewitching elements along the way...magical mushrooms and charming snakes...











We are down to the bare bones of our remaining willpower on the last stretch of trail before we reach our dropped cars on Willoughby Road...hallowed ground in our minds...another magical day on the Bruce Trail has come to its uncannily wonderful conclusion...thanks for spending time with us...you were surely here...in spirit.


The End?



Or were there actually 13 of us at the start?


  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peninsula Section - Series #1 Covering from the Start at Wiarton (0.0 km) to Jackson's Cove Rd. (52.0)...with a visit in Sydenham Section to the Bruce's Caves

Image
  Peninsula Section - Series #1- Covering from the Start at Wiarton (0.0 km) to Jackson's Cove Rd. (52.0 km)...with a visit in Sydenham Section to Bruce's Caves - May 27-30, 2024. ---------------------   Day One - Colpoy's Bay (6.6 km) to Bruce's Caves (163.7 km) - May 27, 2024. The Hiking With Friends group was back up north for four challenging days of Bruce Trail adventure as our spring plan to tackle the Peninsula Section got underway...the first of the four hikes was planned from the parking at Colpoy's Bay, through the start of the section in Wiarton, with an added Sydenham Section walk to Bruce's Caves... This 5 hour journey over almost 16 km involved a modest 162 meters of climbing, and was a great introduction to peninsula hiking to those who were up here for the first time, with a chance to meet Wiarton Willy (the concrete statue version) and topped off by a visit to the iconic Bruce's Caves...the weather was threatening, but in the end, we had nar
Read more

Peninsula Section - Series #3: Covering from Cape Chin South (98.4 km) to The Northern Cairn (163.1 km) - June 23 - 27,2024.

Image
Peninsula Section - Series #3: Covering from Cape Chin South (98.4 km) to The Northern Cairn (163.1 km) - June 23-27, 2024. -------------------- Day One: Little Cove Road (156.4 km) to The Northern Cairn (163.1 km) - Sunday, June 23, 2024. Hike #1 of 5. It was a damp and miserable start to our first hike of series #3.  Joining the hike from Little Cove to the Northern BT Cairn were Andrew, Peter, Muris, Georgia, Barbara (HC), Rita, Laura and Nancy. The sun was shining as we finished the hike at the Northern Cairn. Then off to the ice cream shop for the end of hike treat! The rest of the HWF group arrived for dinner at Ship Wreck Lees.      End of Day One -------------- Day Two : Crane Lake Road (125.4 km) to Dyer's Bay (113.0 km) - Monday, June 24, 2024. The weather was beautiful.  Cloudless, moderate temperature, light breeze.  Perfect for hiking. While the End-to-End group hiked the Main Trail, Michael and Marlene hiked the side trails shown on the Map.   Meanwhile, back to the E
Read more

Iroquoia Section - Sydenham Road (58.8 km) to Grindstone Falls ( 71.2 km) - Jan. 25, 2024.

Image
  Iroquoia Section - 12.44km from the Sydenham Road Lookout to the Grindstone Falls, 25 January 2024. Unseasonably warm weather after vicious cold the week before.  Damp but no rain.  Fog.  Perfect weather for slip-sliding away on the Bruce Trail! It was so slippery that getting out of our cars was fraught.  There were 13 of us eager to get started - from left to right and barely visible apart from me (Doug) and my nostrils were Steve R, Barbara, Lesley, Liz, Nancy, Grace, Sandra, Andrea, Rita, Josie and Frank.  Marleen was in there somewhere but hiding! Yours truly was the coordinator, Sandra was the sweep.  I, Frank, Josie, Lesley, Liz, Nancy and Sandra contributed photographs.  Such a lot of photographs gerblunden *# !  Being the blogger is hard!  Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?  KEN!! Off we went!  All of us were wearing icers.  It was  drizzling a little which is why our hoods were up. Our first bridge picture.  Just entering the Royal Botanical Gardens' Rock Chap
Read more