The start of my Bruce Trail journey. March 5, 2016.
Three hikes under my belt now. I have come as far as Decew House, in Thorold from the start in Queenston Heights. Here are some snaps and data from the journey, to date:
Data from Garmin Forerunner 10 – 1st hike. This is going to become my trail log.View from the Niagara Escarpment.Data from second hike.Rushing watersExposed stone (limestone?)Data from 3rd hike – forgot to turn Garmin on at start so first 15 minutes are missing. Damn.Brilliant day.
My daughter, Mizz J, is on this journey with me. That is her right in front of me, in the last picture.
So three hikes in and here are some of my thoughts on the process (in no particular order):
the people you meet while hiking are wonderful – happy, friendly, caring and sharing types
trekking poles are a godsend. Where have they been all my (hiking) life?
nature really IS the best medicine – obviously for the body, but especially for the soul
it is an integral part of human nature to quest, journey and explore and we are built physiologically and psychologically to do this. This is why this hike challenge is so satisfying on so many levels for me.
Next week there is no “official” shorter end-to-end hike scheduled as it is Easter weekend. However, there is a 90 minute Bruce Trail meditation walk being organized for Easter Sunday morning that Mizz J and I plan to attend.
Well, that didn’t take long. It hasn’t even been a week since I finished school and I am undertaking my next challenge – to hike the Bruce Trail end-to-end!
This is something I have been dreaming of doing for many years, and this dream roared to life again while I was stuck indoors, working away on various assignments over the past couple of years since Jeff died. It was never a dream of my husband’s – his OCD made any kind of fun outdoor activities challenging to schedule and challenging to perform, to say the least – so onto the back burner it went, along with so many other things I wanted to do.
But all that is behind me now, and I am realizing MY dreams, for a change. I really didn’t plan to start this quest quite so soon. I was hoping to be build up my stamina and leg muscles a bit more with walks around the Village trails first. But the universe has other ideas, as usual!
My membership package from the Bruce Trail Club came in the mail a few weeks ago.
And in it was a newsletter from my chapter, the Iroquoian.
And in that newsletter was pages and pages listing planned hikes for the spring.
I was idly rereading it 2 mornings ago when it finally registered – this group is hosting a series of guided short (9-10 km) hikes for the first 8 sections of the trail, starting this Saturday at the trail head. Oh my. Shit became real all of a sudden, as they say these days.
I cannot NOT do this. The universe has spoken.
So, weakling status be damned – on Saturday morning you will find me at Queenston Heights with (hiking) boots on! Let the adventure begin…
This post is brought to you by sheer determination to get something, anything, written on this here blog before summer is over. OK, I know that technically speaking, there are still a few weeks of summer left. But who among us is that technical? We all “know” that Labour Day Weekend and the start of school (kindergarten to high school) is REALLY the end of summer.
Anywhoodle…
Since the last post in early May, I have lived through a kitchen/bath/laundry/roof renovation
New kitchen.
and solar panel installation, helped empty out my late father-in-law’s house to prep it for sale, helped arrange a wedding in my building for my lovely sister and new sister-in-law,
Typical family gathering. Inevitable descent into silliness. At Carol and Cathy’s wedding.
and completed my second-to-last MBA course. Oh yeah, and I completed another half-marathon race,
Niagara Fall’s Women’s Half Marathon. Just before starting out.
and took in a few rock concerts.
Rush at the Air Canada Centre.Cheap Trick and Peter Frampton at the Molson Canadian Amphitheater.Jane’s Addiction. BIG Music Fest, Kitchener.
This took me to the end of July-ish. I decided August was to be dedicated to more relaxing pursuits…such as spending time at various beaches and kayaking on the river a few steps from my building. This plan needed a kayak in order to actually happen:
I christen thee Pink Floyd.
I was also able to fit in a visit to the Canadian National Exhibition again, for the first time in practically a decade.
Mizz J eating a chicken waffle on a stick. Carnival food – usually disappointing and this was no exception.
Can’t complain about this summer. Got a lot done, and a lot of it was pure fun. The way summers should be.
A yen for hiking is something I come by pretty naturally, I think. My dad instilled in us kids a deep love of the outdoors. Sunday afternoons, year-round, often found the whole family out trekking (or later, cross-country skiing) the fields and forest pathways near our home, situated on the outskirts of town. Summers were spent in the north of the province cottaging or camping, where we passed time swimming, fishing, and exploring our temporary home turf on foot.
My dad was heavily involved in the Padvinders (Boy Scouts) as a child and then teenager in the Netherlands. This is where it all started, I believe.
My dad (front, far right), in the Dutch version of the Boy Scouts, marching with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands – 1950.
My sister still has his walking stick I think, with all the metal badges of various meets and hikes achieved hammered into it. She lives up north, on a lake, with all the accoutrements to enjoy the natural surroundings that one could imagine – boat, kayak, ATV etc. Outdoor life is in our blood, I tell you!
JD wasn’t much one for the outdoors due to his anxiety issues so that part of my life had been put on hold since 2002. I could have hiked alone (and once I did) but this also stressed him as he obsessed about my safety constantly.
Now, as I am nearing the final push on my MBA studies, I’m the one becoming a bit obsessed. There won’t be too much opportunity for hiking for me this year but I am preparing – mentally and otherwise – for 2016!
My new day pack, hanging at the ready. Purchased at Sail.
In the meantime, I am devouring all of the media related to hiking that I can. Any documentaries or movies on Netflix related to hiking – I’ve seen them. All the books about hiking adventures – I’ve read or am reading them!
As my training walks for the Niagara Falls Women’s Half Marathon get longer and longer, I am relishing testing out my new day pack on the trail.
I finally threw out my 25 year old Vasque hiking boots (after a painful goodbye walk in them last week). I have a pair of Asics trail shoes (Gel Fujiattack) coming my way from Mountain Equipment Co-op, as replacements.
I heart all things Asics.
I think my first goal related to hiking will be to hike the Bruce Trail in its entirety, as a series of day hikes. (I’ll save the idea of thru-hiking for retirement.) This was something a dear friend and I talked about a few years ago. She has been chipping away at it since then. I will need to catch up to her so that we can plan to hike the rest together. No doubt you’ll be hearing more about this on the blog as time goes on!
The WB
P.S. This obsession with idea of hiking the Bruce Trail is what led me to the A-Z challenge in the first place. I was reading Joanne’s blog about her Bruce Trail hike, and it led me to her other blog and the rest is history!
