I decided to do something a little scary and signed up for the Bruce Trail Conservancy's End to End of Sydenham section.
Background: The Bruce Trail is a 900km (560 mile) trail through Ontario. It starts at the US/Canada border near Niagara Falls and goes up the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory. It is divided into 9 sections. When I completed Caledon and Dufferin last year I was done with 6 out of the 9 from the south.
The two sections I have left are Part of Beaver Valley (I ran a race in 2022 that covered 1/2 of it but still had the north and south ends to do as the race covered the middle) Sydenham and Peninsula. Peninsula section was running an end to end on weekends, but it began too early in April as I was still busy with the ice, but Sydenham was offering a trail running end to end Saturdays and Sundays in May except for the Victoria Day weekend (so 2 weekends, then a break, then 2 weekends) so I signed up.
I didn't have friends going and hadn't run all winter but signed up to do 20km per day for both Saturdays and Sundays and since it's about a 4 hour drive each way I decided to finish up Beaver Valley on the Fridays and Sundays. As I was sorting out how to do that I thought, "hey, instead of trying to coordinate with random strangers and use trail angels (someone who will drive you to the start of your hike from your car at the end-volunteers with each section) I'll just host a hike!" It worked for part of the way (more about that later).
Those of you who know me also know I don't like camping, I swell with mosquito bites and may know May is known to get some Biting Black Flies. So, I took a spare twin mattress from V's bunk bed, loaded it in the van (when I signed up I didn't even know for sure it would fit!) as well as a cooler, food I didn't have to cook, my french press to make overnight cold brew coffee and 2 sleeping bags and run gear.
For 4 weekends I'd drive up Friday after getting Val off to school, stop about 2.5-3.5 hours in and hike in Beaver Valley, then head to my campsite (Air BNB family camp the first weekend, Owen Sound KOA the other three weekends), set up my van and sleep in the van, then meet the group to run Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes I'd hike again Sunday on my way home, sometimes Saturday if the location wasn't too far from my site, esp since we were usually done by 1pm, so I'd have the entire afternoon to hike or relax.
The hike leaders had coordinated with various section volunteers to shadow us and allow us to drop or pickup items as well as provide snacks and water refills along the way. They were also handy if a runner became injured and needed a ride back to their vehicle. We had some runners go to every single run like myself (because I'm also a certified leader I was kind of a back up leader-our main leader Margie and our sweep leader Natalie were there every week as were a few others). Other runners were not able to make all runs and made up the missed runs at other times or were just out to join us for one or two days. I was the group member who traveled the furthest from home to be there.
Weekend 1:
Friday: I lead a group of hikers from Beaver Valley section start on a 14km hike to XXXXX. We met at the start (which is also the end of Blue Mountain which I completed last September when I came up for my Ice Tech Level 2 training) and carpooled to XXX and hiked back to our cars.
Saturday: Met the group to run the first 24km of the Sydenham section. Great group! All women today. Very supportive and while I was nervous about not running all winter I ended up being a mid-pack runner in this group and I was very relieved.
So that I wasn't just sitting around all afternoon, on the advice of others in the group I did a small hike around Bruce's Caves and Checked out the Spirit Rock area.
On the way I checked out a small pottery shop we had run by.
The Bruce Caves:
Spirit Rock side trail lead to these ruins:
Then on to this view of the Georgian Bay and these stairs which I'll do at the start of Peninsula section:
I can't wait to do Peninsula and explore this water!
Sunday: Woke up with my upper back a little sore, but not too bad. It was pretty cold overnight, though! We ran the next 22 km of the Sydenham section. Another all - female group, but had a few faster runners join us today and I was closer to the back of the pack.
We checked out the Kemble Wetland Nature Reserve which can be buggy, but it wasn't yet-just wet...
Sunday afternoon I hiked on my own to hike the end of the Beaver Valley section to Road 7 and back since I did not have a ride. I was hoping to go further, but the weather started looking a little suspicious so I turned back early and sure enough a bunch of rain and wind started when I was about 1.5km from my car.
Weekend 2:
Friday: I lead a group of hikers in the Beaver Valley section between Metcalf Crevice and the end of Fox Ridge Road (11km). We went through this beautiful stream area with bridges:
At the end of our hike, a man walking his dog asked if we'd like to see the biggest, private waterfall in Ontario. Figuring if we died, we'd die together, another hiker and I took him up on his offer. There used to be a mill at the top. The house overlooks this waterfall. We asked about it in winter and he said it is very beautiful, but when the ice melts and falls it's very loud!
Headed to Owen Sound KOA. Just one other tent camper, rest looked like seasonal trailers and not many occupied. This is the first weekend they were open and it was very quiet. Because only one other camper not in a trailer, the showers were clean and easy to access (this was the case every weekend I was there in May-I was not up the longer, Victoria weekend). We hiked in the morning and the restrooms are cleaned 11-noon, so I always had a nice, clean, hot shower to come back to.
Saturday: 20km run further on the Sydenham section with the Bruce Trail group.
I was able to get a ride from one of the leaders to Metcalf Crevice and hiked 6th Line to Metcalf. While I was hiking I didn't realize a storm was coming and got caught in a thunderstorm and part of the trail was already flooded:
It finished just as I was reaching Metcalf Crevice. The Crevice is a popular rock climbing site and the parking lot was packed when I started my hike but when I finished it was empty due to the rain, so I got to explore the crevice all on my own, in the fog! It was very creep, very silent and very, very cool. A little scary to have wet rocks I was climbing but I was happy with my hike.
The blue markers or "blazes" mark the side trail. This is the way down into the crevice.
A view up the side of the crevice:
Notice there's still ice in there!:
See the mist still sitting in the air. But it was so quiet in here, insulated by moss. The wet rocks were a challenge but not unmanageable with good shoes.
this would be the trail back out:
Along the outside of the crevice:
Sunday: Another 19K on the Sydenham section with the group past the top of Jones Falls and these very impressive Felker's Falls. We were told this is a great amount of water on them as sometimes they get pretty dry in the summer.
Downstream:
The falls themselves (above). The BTC goes to the right of them and over the top. There's a parking area at the top that we met our support person at.
Ay goes past the top of the falls, so after lunch I checked out the lower side trail and it was worth the extra time.
The top of the falls which is accessible from the road and what we saw during our fun over the top of Jones Falls:
Jones Falls from below (view from side trail)
Agressive woodpeckers!
I then finished the end Beaver Valley hike I had turned around on last weekend due to weather-7th line to Grey 40. I parked at the lot on 40 (bathroom available) and hiked to 7th line, then I walked/ran the road back to my car as it was shorter than hiking back on the trail. (8k v. 4.5k).
The following weekend was Victoria Day weekend and I went to visit my friend in Chicago and help her do some decluttering/organization projects and just hang out with her and see her kids.
The next weekend I drove up Friday and found a trail angel so I could hike 10k from Beaver Valley Lookout (the extent of the section I'd completed from my race back in 2022) to the end of Fox River Road. A trail angel is a volunteer with the Bruce Trail Conservancy section you are in who will drive you from your finish point to your start point.
The bugs were starting to come out but I did all the hiking and running in long sleeves and pants. This was the only hike I brought out the mosquito hat cover and it actually made the hike way more enjoyable.
On this hike I found the signpost indicating it was about 1/2 way through the Bruce Trail (the northernmost sections are some of the longest-over 100km each).
This part went through Old Baldy which is popular with rock climbers and at the end of this part just before I got to my car at end of Old Fox Road were some ferns and underground streams. Like hiking a fairy land.
Saturday was another 19km run on Sydenham. It was a rainy day with a lot of road. Not my favorite.
There are a huge amount of gravel roads up in this area of Ontario.
Saturday I got another ride from a fellow runner in the group to be able to complete 10k starting at Sideroad 7A(it's very steep, gravel and closed in winter-very sketchy and not for the faint of heart!- There was an out and back aid station during the race which got me to this point in Beaver Valley) which is in an abandoned ski area that the BTC purchased and went straight north up to Sideroad 19. It was still rainy but very beautiful and no bugs and not hot, so I put my raincoat on and hiked.
Sunday we ran another 23km on Sydenham.
This area had some very tight crevices to fit into! One even warned hikers with large backpacks to go to a bypass a bit further up the trail.
After the run I got yet another ride and finished up Beaver Valley so I would just have the regular runs the last weekend-Grey road 40 to Epping then headed home. I had brought my bike for this and specifically picked my start and end points as they had a way to get between them on paved road.
The last weekend we did 22km on Sydenham on Saturday. There's a crashed cesna in the woods in a side trail and also the remains of a homestead:
A group of us added the side trail to Walker's Falls:
On Sunday it was warm and the Sydenham section met us at the finish with our section completion badges, cake, sparkling juice, cowbells and all the volunteers from all our runs were invited and it was a fun celebration and I was glad I'd done all my Beaver Valley hikes ahead of time to be able to enjoy the festivities before heading home.
The whole month Hubby did a great job keeping up with laundry dishes, keeping everyone alive and getting kids where they needed to go, I think there was just one time we had to call in the in-laws because the kids were double booked. I think sometimes those at home need a chance to miss us :)
