Sun, Oct 11 2009 - Old vs New S. Hockley Valley Hike / Dinner (View Original Event Details)
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Fall colours on a cloudy day
The Bruce Trail is about 840 km long, but that changes by bits here and there each year, as trails are rerouted for a variety of reasons. Sometimes land use is revoked by private land owners, sometimes a trail section becomes dangerous, and sometimes, the best times, the BTC buys or gets the use of land that they didn't have before. This was the case in the spring of 2009. Prior, a section of the BT was forced onto a long, dusty stretch of two roads before the woodsy end of one trail could meet up with the beginning of another. This amounted to over 5km of trail, and about an hour's worth of hiking. But the BTC was granted access through woods by a new landowner in early 2009. Work began soon after, carving out a trail that winds through and up and down valleys, along pleasant farm land, and even past an abandoned ski hill.
The hike today was a 'comparison', old vs new, of the South Hockley Link. Nine of us (me, Dave, Fidelia, Gordana, Teresa, Geraldine, Ghanesh, Marianne, and Josie) 'hit the road' by about 11 AM. Consensus was to walk the road portion first. We left our cars at the new parking area on 5th sideroad, east of Airport Rd., and walked west to 5th line EHS, where we turned northbound. This whole stretch is the old BT, and as we strode along, we could see the blacked out blazes on trees and posts. Once on 5th line we pretty much had the road all to ourselves. Quite a few gentle but serious ups and downs later, we arrived at the trail, at the same time as a man on a horse did! (That's OK, he stayed on the road.)
For us: onto a nice new trail! Not too far in, we passed a sign 'Dave's Pinnacle'. Of course we all wanted a picture of Dave standing beside the sign, but he had sprinted off at this point. OK, maybe next time!
We very much enjoyed hiking in the cover of the woods, as it was not just cloudy, but also a windy day that started at 0C, and didn't ever get over 6! So the trees were a welcome change of pace for more than just our eyes.
We quickly opted for a short side trail that took us down the valley and back up. Back on the main BT, we shortly came upon the stairs that I helped build in the spring! Ghanesh took a group pic of us standing proudly upon them. One more dip into the valley, past a picturesque lake, then back up brought us to the abandoned ski hill. Lunch time! We all climbed or scampered up the ramp or stairs and sat up on a platform, which seemed nicely out of the wind and offered an amazing view of the valley.
After a pretty quick refuelling and a few more pix, we resumed our task. Back into the woods we went, past another old ski lift and view, then we found ourselves along the side of a farm field. The sun came out and we walked and chatted rather merrily. Some more woods followed by some groomed trail. I think I see-- something small and white, floating down out of the sky. Dare I imagine-- yes, we all agree, snow!
Back into the woods. Geraldine and I were captured by the different mushrooms and spent some time trying to capture them too, on film (let's just pretend b/c 'on digital media' doesn't sound quite as romantic as a hike in the woods deserves). We caught up to the others, who 'caught up to' Dave, turned the corner and found our cars!
We gathered around for the 'boots on the bruce' photo, then piled into the cars and drove to a pub in nearby Orangeville. We were greeted warmly, and while the food didn't get an A+, we were all happy to be sitting inside a warm and windless room, sharing tales of past adventures, and discussing ideas for future ones.
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.