Date – April 14, 2013
Location – Map 18 Hockley Valley
Distance – 15.8 km (GPS Distance 17.1 km)
Elapsed Time – 5.5 hours
Total Trail Distance – 392.6 km (501.4 to go)
Hikers – Steve, Simon, Dean, Marlene, Benjamin,
Madeleine, Harold and Janette
Start – 50.9 Airport Road, Caledon Hills
Section
End – 66.7 Dunby Road
Direction – North
Weather – 6 C. Mostly cloudy
We wake up to glorious sunshine --
something we haven't seen for more than a week -- so we're very glad to be heading
out for a hike. By the time we arrive at the trailhead it's overcast, but we
don't care: at least it's not raining.
We pick up Madeleine at Square One in
Mississauga, and then meet at the end point at 11 a.m. where we drop Harold and
Janette's car and then drive two vehicles to the start. With all the rain we've
had the past week, we are expecting a fair bit of mud, but we are all surprised
at how much snow remains.
After almost two years of very sore feet,
I've got new hiking boots (thank you, Mountain Equipment Co-op) and I'm nervous
about how they'll perform. Have I traded one set of pressure points and
blisters for another?
We are all in good spirits and it's a good
hike. Although there is mud and there are some especially slick descents,
nobody falls and there are no soakers.
The forest is still mostly brown and grey,
but there are the smallest hints of spring with some brilliant green moss on
trees and a few shoots pushing up through the soil. We also see debris from the past week's ice storms, with broken branches and fallen trees littering the trail and the forest floor.
In Hockley Valley Provincial Nature
Reserve, where there are many beautiful bridges, there is also evidence of a
recent flood, with a section of the trail washed out and silted up. There are
several wide, rushing streams.
In Hockley Valley we meet Bruce Trail
Conservancy member Keith McKewen (Dufferin Hi-Land Club, double end-to-ender)
who describes the work of the volunteers of the BTC and urges us all to join.
He hands out cards to the non-members in our group.
At the start of the hike Dean had warned us
that this would not be a flat one, and it isn't. There are many climbs and
descents and in some cases we are hiking along ridges with the land falling
away on both sides of us.
I am pleased to report that this is the
first hike IN TWO YEARS that my feet aren't aching. Thank you Mountain
Equipment Co-op.
This sign is NOT accurate!
