Sat, Nov 4 2006 - Black Bank - Bruce Trail (View Original Event Details)
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The TOC Hurdle Team!
What a great day for a hike! While it did start off with some complications, at least on the coordinator's end (Jenn discovered shortly after getting up that in her entire book of maps of the Bruce Trail, the one page missing was for this hike! However, a quick call to her mother (who was getting ready for her own hike) and a trip over to her mom's house meant she not only got the map, but a lunch made by mom and a ride to the carpool! Yay for Mom! It was also discovered that Jenn's mom would be hiking with the Bruce Trail in the area where we would be.....)
Our intrepid group met up and set from Downsview Station. As we headed north of Orangeville, we began to see on the ground....SNOW! Hyun, Dave and Jenn ventured up dirt back roads to our meeting spot and Mihal, Lorie and Rob 'detoured' along the main road but we all got there in the end!
We set up our car shuffle and headed down across some slippery dirt roads to the southern end of the hike, and started off. At around 4k into the hike, just after heading out of the woods and onto a dirt road, Jenn and Dave saw a deer trot across the road and head into the woods.....immediately afterwards, our group saw another group of hikers heading down the hill towards us....it was Jenn's mom's Bruce Trail group! So the TOCers all got to meet John, Janet, Regina, Barbara, Don (and other Bruce Trail members) and of course Jenn's lovely mom!!!!!
Immediately after leaving the other group behind, Lorie and Rob saw another deer. We headed on, crossing numerous stiles (leading us to joke that we should perhaps have taken up hurdling or long jump instead of hiking), eventually finding a lovely sunny hillside in a valley in the woods to refuel and eat lunch at.
We continued along the hike, crossing down a particularly large hill via switchbacks and across a beautiful river with the banks covered in light snow. We headed through the woods and some fields, eventually seeing 2-3 more deer feeding in the woods, before reaching the 1st Line EHS road concession that meant we were close to the finish. After crossing a shallow river on some stones, we stopped to see the beautiful waterfall and icicle formations (Dave got pics!) and headed onwards. About 1.5k from the end of the hike, we saw a wild turkey cross the trail. Followed by another, and then another - there was a whole flock of wild turkeys, probably 10-15 birds in all! Most walked across the trail, though some flew up into the trees. While we'd seen wild turkey tracks earlier, to see this many together was very cool!
The group set a fast pace - including lunch, we hiked 20.3k in 5 hours and 10 minutes - but still had energy for Rob and Dave to sprint up the final hill to Lavender Cemetary, where one of the cars was parked and where we spent a few minutes exploring the old graves (the cemetary dates from 1880).
Thanks to everyone for coming, it was a great time, we're glad Dave was able to join us on his first event, and thanks to Hyun and Mihal for driving, it was greatly appreciated.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.