Sat, Aug 23 2008 - Devil's Lake Section - Ganaraska Trail (Wilderness Section) (View Original Event Details)
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The Ganarascal Trail (Bewilderment Section)
The guidebook says that doing 3KM per hour on this wilderness trail, means you're doing well. So true! It also says, it's not well marked. Oh, so true! It was like a game almost. At times, we would have to split up and search in all directions for the markers, until someone yelled that they'd found it. Markers could be ANYWHERE: high, low, waist level, as cairns, or non-existent or mismarked occasionally. One was on the tiny stem of a 2ft tall sapling, nestled under a larger tree. We followed obviously well worn trails that turned out to be made by people who'd gone the wrong way and just ended up making a trail there. When we followed the blazes and came back to the marker of a canoeist who had died near there, we knew we were in for a challenge...
We had lots of scratched legs, from all the underbrush we found on the narrow trails, and there was a minor sprain, later, on the way back. It was also EXTREMELY hot and after we climbed another long, rock outcropping - out in the blistering sun - I decided we should head back to where we'd had lunch (next to the lake, under a shady tree), for a swim, before calling it a day. We didn't get to Victoria Lake this time but at the end, it felt as though we'd completed a longer hike than our kilometres would indicate.
With lots of time to explore, this could easily become a favoured hike. This just wasn't the day for it.
Until we meet again, Ganarascal!
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