Regardless, the crisp Fall air beckoned. A friend and I went up to the Bruce Peninsular to get in some nature. In Tobermory, we happened on the Outdoor Festival. What's the Outdoor Festival? Guides from the Bruce Peninsula National Park lead you to do outdoor things, like hikes along the Bruce Trail, exploring caves in the park, visiting bats in one of the bays. You have to register for the events, which were all full for the Saturday we were there. So we did our own outdoor activity. Our goal on this trip was to go for a long, long hike.
I remember the first time I hiked the park years ago. By the time we walked from the parking lot to the head of trails, I was exhausted. The real trail hadn't even begun. I remember thinking, surely no one can walk farther than this in one go. But this weekend, I was energetic and in top form.
The guide book suggested we take the 2.5 hour 3-km hike with varying levels of difficulty on the Georgian Trail to the Grotto, to the Overhang, along Marr Lake, then back to the parking lot. We set off on an easy hike to the Grotto. I have never been to the Grotto without hordes of people around. The water this weekend was blue, clear, and cold. You can see right to the bottom of the lake. We swam there each summer when the Boy was small.
One summer, we swam there before July. It was the coldest water I had ever been in. When we jumped in, we never warmed up. One friend insisted her lungs shrank from the cold and never opened up again even when she stood in the sun. I thought at the time, if I can do this, I can do the New Year's Eve polar bear swim. I now always measure the coldness of a swim against that water.
After the Grotto, we climbed rocks and boulders cross the Georgian Bay shore to the Overhang, which looked over a cliff down into the bay. That's when I found out my friend was afraid of heights. Just like when I found out The Man was afraid of heights when we were at the Grand Canyon. She stayed behind and leaned back into the trees each time I leaned forward to look over the cliff, as if her lean and weight would provide the balance that prevents me from plummeting over the edge into the chasm below.
The trek along Marr Lake was rocky and hilly, requiring sure footing and intentional abdominal bracing on my part. It was a crisp quick walk. No bugs, no crying kids on the trail, just a little bit of sweat from our brisk strides.
But what made the walk enjoyable were my hiking boots. I pulled mine out from under the basement stairs. I don't know why I don't always use them for hikes but I was glad to have remembered them this weekend. There were many smooth rocks on this hike where I felt I should have slipped. But my boots gripped on and prevented me from wedging my foot between rocks. We completed this walk in two hours.
Buoyed by the success of this walk and my comfortable boots, we stopped for lunch back in the parking lot, then set off on the second leg of our hike. This time, the hike was 5 km on a groomed trail around Cyprus Lake. Estimated time for completion was also 2.5 hours. We walked it in 1 hour 40 minutes.
In two weeks, we head into Algonquin Park to tackle a 12 km hike. I can't wait.
2 comments:
Wish that I could go with you, but then you had to take it easy.
Fryslân
So many wonderful places to hike in Canada. Bring boots on your next visit.
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