There were lots of roads on this hike.

The weather didn’t look good, but it didn’t look bad either. According to the forecast from the night before, the area I’d be hiking would be clear in the morning, with rain starting some time in the afternoon. That wasn’t quite accurate. However, believing the weatherman (or weather app, there’s hardly ever a man involved anymore) I set out at about 5:30AM from the lake with normal clothes and running shoes. The runners were because I noticed that this hike would have a lot of “on road” sections. Runners are more comfortable on roads, and I can also save time by… running.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the area where I last stopped had no parking per se. Nonetheless I parked on the narrow street and hoped the car would still be there when I got back.

The day began with some pretty bog standard meadows and fields (no bogs though). Some of the trail goes through private property, and whoever owns some of this part had setup a little area to look out over Lake America (topical humour!) along with a logbook for hikers to record their names. I dutifully recorded the date along with my name and my intention to hike the whole trail.

The main thing I noticed at the beginning of the day was the light. Since it’s now the end of August, the sun is coming up later. This, along with the heavy cloud cover, made the forest dark. I mean noticeably dark. It was actually quite nice, and the crickets seem to have loved it.

After this the first road section started, with the trail spitting me out onto Guelph Line. I thought that the road sections would be terrible like the last hike. However, instead of walking past strip malls and Shoppers Drug Marts, these roads were country roads, with farms, horses, cows etc. Since the roads were well paved, mostly flat, and with little traffic, I saw many cyclists. It occurred to me that walking has one advantage over other forms of transport: There’s no penalty for stopping. If you want to stop just for a moment to take a picture, look at something, or just listen, you can. Stopping your bicycle or car involves the bother of getting started again, and such vehicles seem to induce the desire to cover as much ground as you can. When you walk you can stop and listen to the crickets just because.

The roads ended at Mount Nemo Conservation Area. There are two large signs at the entrance. One telling you that all visitors must pay a fee. The other telling people not to commit suicide (presumably by jumping off the cliffs above). I’ve never been one for doing what other people tell me, so I didn’t pay the fee. I also didn’t commit suicide. Some advice is good advice. On a side note, I’d love to know if anyone has ever paid the fee, and then committed suicide. Maybe they could reduce suicides by offering a refund if you don’t kill yourself?

Mount Nemo was fabulous, with rock formations, caves, and lovely views. The views were somewhat hampered by the clouds and rain though. Yes, the rain. Even though it wasn’t supposed to start until the afternoon, it was now raining heavily. With a huge stroke of luck, the rain was almost entirely confined to the time I’d be walking through forest, before another road section. The large trees kept me dry for the next hour. One thing I noticed, the driest trees to be under were cedars. The ground could be soaked under maples and oaks, but underneath the cedar trees is was dry as a bone. If anyone reading this (ha!) knows why, message me.

After Mount Nemo I was spit out onto… GUELPH LINE?! Apparently Guelph Line is like the ATL of southwestern Ontario, no matter where you’re going you transfer through it twice. After another short woods section I was spit out onto the roads once more and decided to stop in the town of Kilbride, Ontario. You’ll notice on this hike I passed a gravestone with only the word “Husband” on it, and finished up at Kilbride. If the universe is trying to send me a message I’m not sure what it is.

No problem getting an Uber this time, and the car was still where I’d left it. After one more hike I think I’ll be done the Iroquois section of the trail.

Only 687.9km to go!