Sat, Feb 21 2015 - Scarborough Eastern Bluffs Loop 17k (View Original Event Details)
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An incredible, and snowy, polar beach hike!
-10°C and light snow for most of the hike
The first 11 km were very good, mainly through parkland on well trodden snowy paths, and a tiny bit through the Guildwood GO station, and residential area. Then we descended from Guildwood park down to the beach, and things got interesting. Apparently no one had walked the 4.5 km stretch of beach this winter before we did. The snow was knee deep at best, and sometimes waist deep through the drifts. The going was very tough and slow, and there was no shortcut to the finish. The 2 to 4 m high chunks of lake ice at the water's edge were spectacular! The logs and boulders that were hidden under the deep snow added to the challenge. Most people were very stiff and sore at the end of the otherwise short 17 km. After the hike, there were suggestions that the event should have been a D5. With the bluffs to our left, the deep snow under foot, the ice mountains at the water`s edge, and pack ice just offshore, it looked like we were in the high arctic. When we heard an airplane overhead (but couldn`t see it because of the low cloud and falling snow) some of us half jokingly waved our arms in the air to summon our rescue! Definitely have to do this one again next winter (and before that without the snow). 5.75 hours with a short lunch break in the GO station, and a couple of 4 minute breaks on the beach.
Donations collected: $4.00
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.