walking

Another early start on this one, out of the house by 5:30AM. It really does make such a difference, I’m able to get in almost 20k and still be home for lunch. This time I packed sunscreen, a date square, and some trail mix, as well as the usual water and bug spray.

Start: DeCew House Heritage Park

End: Rockway, ON

Distance: 18.9km

Weather: 20C and sunny

The main thing I noticed on this trip were the wildflowers. I saw the following kinds:

Wild Rose
Oxeye Daisy
Bird vetch (invasive species from Asia)
Red Clover
Dame’s Violet
Meadow Buttercup
Meadow Salsify
Strawberry?
Green & Silver Lotus

Apologies that some of the pictures are blurry, I need more experience working with the iPhone’s macro mode.

Near the beginning of the trip was another large dam, DeCew Generating Station, which looked suitably ominous from afar with the big water gates. There were a few waterfalls on this trip, the biggest being DeCew Falls, which turned out to be a big disappointment. The whole area around the falls is fenced off, the only picture I could get is a tiny bit of it through a bunch of trees. Then a few other ones here and there that I don’t know the names of, if indeed they have a name.

Now the problem with starting at 5:30 in the morning is that your body isn’t used to “evacuating” that early. So by the time 7:30AM rolls around you’re on the trail and could really use a pit stop (number two in case that isn’t clear). Since I try to live by the old “take only pictures, leave only footprints” maxim, I wouldn’t be comfortable adding to the number of logs on the forest floor. Luckily about half way through the hike I stumbled on a “restroom” which is basically a shack with a hole in the ground and a toilet seat. I had a moment of panic after unberdening myself when I realized I didn’t first check to see if there was any toilet paper. Thankfully there was some of that awful single ply stuff you find in restrooms. I still maintain it’s counter productive as you end up using so much to avoid “punch-through” that regular two ply would have resulted in less waste.

I ended up walking in the wrong direction a few times on this trip. Much of the Bruce Trail goes through existing parks and conservation areas so there are often lots of other trails that cross it. This makes it easy to miss a marker and end up walking a few hundred meters on the wrong trail. I’m using the official Bruce Trail app to find my way, it’s really good and has the ability to plan hikes, track progress, and have offline maps. This is way more useful than you’d think as, especially in the more northern sections, there is no cellular service. Speaking of, what I’ve been doing so far is checking the Uber app once or twice on the hike to make sure that there will be a car that can take me back to where I started. At one point on this hike I did indeed run out of bars, luckily there was plenty of signal where I ended up. Still, it’s only a matter of time before the drive->hike->Uber->drive method fails somehow.

Looks like maybe two more trips and I can finish the Niagara section of the trail.

Notes for next time:

Consider packing some bog roll (toilet paper). Just a bit, in case you find a restroom that is not well stocked.
Related to the above, hand sanitizer. I didn’t have any and had to eat my trail mix “horse style” by shoving my face in the bag.
I packed sunscreen but forgot to use it. Amazingly even though I was doing this in the early morning and much of it under forest canopy I still got a bit red.

Only 839km to go!

I figured that if I’m going to have a hope in hell of actually doing this I should probably get some appropriate gear. Things like clothes, backpack, bug spray etc. I went to MEC and bought all that stuff. Despite most of my items being “on sale” it added up real fast. I have no idea why that store went out of business so many times. It wasn’t empty either. One interesting note was that I decided not to go with DEET based bug spray at this time, as the salesman informed me that it will melt some synthetic fibres. Yikes! Anyway the bugs weren’t that bad.

Start: Woodend Conservation Area

End: DeCew House Heritage Park

Distance: 18.3km

Weather: 15C and sunny

Got out of the house by 5:30AM for this one. I needed to be back in Toronto by mid-day to go to the children’s dance recital. It also makes the driving really nice as there’s obviously no traffic on the way there. There’s still traffic on the way back but not the late-day rage traffic that Toronto is so good at.

This hike essentially transits the city of St. Catherines. As the title suggests, the really interesting part is the Welland Canal(s). By that I mean that it seems there has been at least four attempts at building a canal from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario via the Niagara Peninsula. The first canal you encounter walking from south to north is the third one. Or rather, some of the locks from the third one. Built of large stone blocks, they are really impressive, and some remnants of the doors can still be seen on the bottom. The second canal you encounter is the fourth or current canal. I’m guessing the locks here are mostly poured concrete. Very impressive, unfortunately I didn’t get to see any ships transiting. The third canal you encounter is the second one. Again made with stone blocks but the lock bays look smaller, some of them still have water in them and some are almost filled up with earth. The last canal you encounter is the first. There isn’t really anything left of it, as it was made of wood, there’s a little side trail that leads to a marker (pictured below) with some info about where one of the locks was. I’m pretty sure that’s the right order, but you may disagree, as the trail goes back and forth over some of these things a few times.

The Bruce Trail crosses the current Welland Canal via a road bridge right next to the GM St. Catherines engine plant. That’s kind of neat, I had no idea that GM V8 engines were built here in Ontario. As far as I can tell these would not be Corvette engines, but V8s that go in trucks/SUVs. The plant dates from the 1950s, as does the original engine design (yes I know there are no parts in common with the original small block). It is possible to build stuff that lasts if you do it right the first time.

It’s here that I had to make a decision. The main trail now cuts right through “suburban” St. Catherines, which is not known for its natural beauty. Or artificial beauty for that matter. Beauty of any kind really. There is a longer side trail that goes along the canal and around the city, which sounds more up my street (or trail). However if I actually want to finish this thing it’s probably best to stick to the main trail. Anyway it wasn’t so bad, it’s on this part that you encounter what’s left of the first and second canal. Some of the trail is on regular streets which isn’t great but you can at least get a coffee or tea or meth (suburban St. Catherines remember). I opted for the tea. The rest of the trail was unremarkable, it goes through Brock University then around an artificial lake created by an OPG hydroelectric dam. I was getting short on time at this point so I actually ran the last few kilometres.

Notes for the future:

The Uber hack worked again, but it’s stressful. My dad suggested parking where I want to finish, then getting an Uber to where I want to start. I may try this next time, but if I get an early start there may not be many Uber’s available in the wee hours.
For the more northern sections I may need to drive to where I want to finish then take a bicycle or e-bike to where I want to start. Hike, then drive back and get the bike. We’ll see.

Only 858.8km to go!