Sat, May 31 2008 - Hiking the Valley (View Original Event Details)
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If you don't think city hikers are real hikers - think again. Even though the weather folks had been threatening us with horrible thunderstorms for days and days, eleven people showed up for this 15km hike. prepared for the worst. After my email of the night before, I was fully expecting to be there by myself, encouraging the squirrels to walk along with me. Indeed, when I woke up in the morning, the sky was very dark and that grey/green colour, usually reserved only for Tornado Alley in places like Kansas or Oklahoma. But around 8-8:30, a little patch of blue peaked through and it set the tone for the whole day of weather.
We hiked through the woods to the Goulding Estate, part of the old Massey Estate (yes, that Massey) and looked at the grounds and the tudor mansion that still stands there. Several people were bitten by mosquitos in the forested backyard of what was once part of the Massey's experimental "Dentonia Farm". Nobody had bug spray but Fidelia had after-bite lotion, which was gratefully applied as we stopped at the last bathroom station near the O'Connor bridge.
The pace was set - an average of about 3.5-4km/hr - and we finished the hike in really good time. There were some blisters along the way and it got pretty hot in the valley but everyone kept up and got a good bit of exercise out of it. Gloria's dog, Trubble (who was absolutely no trouble at all - quite the opposite!) seemed a wee bit tired at the end. That is the most rewarding thing of all and hard to do - tiring out a dog. Okay, maybe being annoyingly in the way of all the aggressive bikers (often going way too fast on narrow, populated pathways) on the trail, might be slightly more rewarding than even tiring out a dog. It's a toss-up.
We parted ways on the bridge on Queen St. and seven of us went to the Oyster Bar for food/drinks. Later, at 3pm on the dot (the time we were to supposed to finish), the rain started and stopped again, several times. Because we'd finished early though, everyone was either home or inside somewhere - dry. Weather gods: elephant juice! (Inside joke from the Oyster Bar - see below)
This was another good group and another good day!
(To decipher the note to the weather gods: mouth the words "elephant juice" to someone and see what they think you said.....)
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