My Bruce Trail Blogs

This was to be our last hike of the season, and we started on the wrong foot. Or at least with the wrong shoes. After we had started walking, I realized that I was wearing my sandals, and not my hiking shoes (which were still in the trunk of the car). So Mike and I had to go back so I could change my footwear, or suffer the consequences (pun intended).

Which was okay, cuz as it turns out, the rest of the group decided to take a slightly longer path through the Mono Cliffs Provincial Park and suggested that we take a shorter route. Mike and I like to walk at a slower pace anyway, so this gave us ample leisure time to stop from time to time to admire the scenery and take pictures, or whatever.

The first part of our trail (there are numerous trails that go through the park) was also shared by equestrians, and we encountered a few riders along the way. And were told that we should try and maintain a constant chatter while walking along this trail, so as not to spook the horses if we suddenly come across any. (I believe another phrase used was, "so they know you're human.")

The trail twisted a few times, then we turned down another trail and up a wooden staircase that climbed the side of the escarpment. Along this leg of the trail there were numerous signs that gave information about the park. One of these was on a landing of the staircase, and when we stopped to read it, we noticed a little white catterpillar crawling on one of the railings. How cute!

At the top of the stairs, the trail continued into a woods, where another sign indicated there grew over 450 species of plant life. And then the path turned, and became as wide as a roadway. Along here grew an old rock wall that had probably been here several hundred years. This brought me to reminisce about a similar (albeit much larger) wall I had seen in a park in England last year.

Not far beyond the end of the wall was a lookout point, overlooking a small "pond" and some rather large hills in the distance. Beside the lookout point was a crack in the escarpment that went down several hundred feet, with a few plateaus along the way. It looked like you could potentially climb down there, but I decided not to - after all, there was a fence around it to keep people from doing just that. On one of these plateaus there grew a tree, its roots crawling over the flat rocks beneath it like a hen nesting on her eggs.

The path eventually curved again, and slowly made its way downwards along the escarpment, until we had to turn off the nice, wide walkway and climb over a stile onto a sunny field. There were a few trees here, but not for long, and this part of the trail was clearly not so well-trodden.

In fact, as we were walking through the hayfields, we weren't even sure we were in the right place until we came out on the other side. The goldenrod was getting pretty tall, and it didn't seem like anyone had ever walked here before us. The trail, such as it was, continued like this for most of of the hike. Sometimes we'd have a short respite when it dipped into a small woods, but never for very long.

But we made it through, some with more scratches on arms and legs than others (we ended up walking beside some raspberry bushes in the fields, among other things). And this was described as "light brush" in the trail guide. Hah!

Then we came out onto a road, which we followed for a good distance before entering another hayfield, and then one last woods before the end of today's hike. While we were on that long road, we came across a field that had a stone fence with a tree at the end... which reminded us of the one in "the Shawshank Redemption". See for yourself!

We had one other small point of excitement before the end of our hike. We were hiking up this long road past a house with a well-manicured lawn, when this huge Saint Bernard dog started slowly creeping toward us. Cautiously, and possibly recalling another Stephen King movie, we crossed the road and walked up the other side, but it stopped at the end of the driveway and just stared at us as we continued away from it. And it stood there, unflinching, as I took its photograph. :)

We got back to the car safe and sound, and ended this season of hiking on a joyous note... BARBECUE!!!!