March 14th - Day 1

Day 1 Bruce Trail

We met at Queenston Heights Park, South Cairn, the Niagara end of the trail. It was a relief to actually get started, with all of the event cancellations due to the Corona virus it would not have been a big surprise if this adventure got cancelled as well although we all agreed that being out in nature hiking on the trail is the best place to be to stay physically and mentally healthy.

We carpooled in 4 cars to our start point for the day and then hiked back to the Queenston Heights Cairn mark.

Great weather, a sun cloud mix, it warmed up to about 6 C during the day. Started hiking at 8:25 and finished around 1:40. Almost 20 km (a little longer than planned because of a BT reroute.)

 There were some cool sights along the way, the old Welland Canal, crumbling in places and so narrow it is hard to believe it could have been used as a shipping route. There was an ancient rusted out car nose dived into the canal. A tree with all kinds of shoes nailed up its trunk. Skates, ski boots and other sports footwear.... Why??? We hiked through a creek that was running through the “screaming tunnel” a cement culvert underpass of the Grand Trunk Railway. Apparently part of the Dead Zone movie was filmed there. It was kind of creepy, glad it was daylight and it was also stinky, like there may have been some sewer/septic?? Runoff in the boot high water. We could walk along the edge without getting soakers.

The trail was quite muddy in parts, very happy to have the gators, and poles cause it did get a little slimy slippery on hills. There were hills for sure, apparently these were nothing compared to the northern part of the trail but more than enough for me on the first day.

Early in the day we spotted an antique green metal lampshade lying a few meters off the trail. Most of us thought it was junk, but one lady said it was just what she was looking for so she carried it the rest of the way, about 15 km. (When we did get to the parking lot at the end a couple in a car stopped and asked her if it was for sale…)

In a particularly goopy muddy area we passed through one of the men ahead came back looking for his glasses. Miraculously they were found, Marie picked them out of the mud where only about an inch of one arm was sticking up. Not sure how many of us trod on them, they will need quite a repair job.

We stopped for lunch on some stairs overlooking a beautiful small lake. Not a sign of ice on it, a fisherman was prepping to try his luck and we saw a Turtle swimming!! March 14th … go figure!

At the foot of the biggest hill we had to climb, on a log were 4 women and a dog, drinking wine in
silver goblets (not the dog) and snacking. I’ll just say that we didn’t have wine and some of us may
have been a little envious as we scrambled up a very long steep slope.

On a fallen tree trunk there were hundreds of little puff balls, the size of a thumbnail, and that poofed
out green dust when you squeezed them. 

Very happy to see the parking lot and the little blue car at the far side. Can’t wait for tomorrow, h
ope my legs feel the same way in the morning!