(Day 1: Peninsula 42.6 - 59.0)
For the first (and only?) hike of 2024, Chris' family met Fiona, Eily and I up north for an attempt at 2 days of hiking. First day is pictured below:
We started with a nice breakfast at Red Bay Lodge.
We then met Chris at the end point and drove to Hopes bay to start the hike at around 9:45.
The hike started with a long climb to overlook the bay.
Some other passing hikers mentioned the pot holes to us, which we reached after around 30 mins of walking.
This part of the trail was pretty much constantly up and down. The wet rocks made for some dangerous descents. It also didn't help that it was quite hot, and we only brought 2L of water for Fiona, Eily, and I. The views were very nice though.
Around 1:30 we reached a road, and Fiona took Eily to go back to our original meeting point where our car was parked. Chris and I continued on.
Eventually the trail descended to run along near the lake.
We met Fiona at the parking lot at 3:30, so about 5.5 hours of hiking. We then headed back to the Red Bay Lodge where we found a band, Fifth Temple (from Brantford), setting up for their set that night.
We enjoyed their sound check over nachos and a crossword, then had a little nap before their full performace that evening.
The hike took a lot out of Eily, especially her back legs, which were no longer functioning properly. She ended up sleeping half under the bed.
The second day ended up being much shorter than planned, mainly due to sore legs and an absence of parking options.
Fiona and I started again with a buffet breakfast.
Fiona took Eily to do some swimming and hiking on the last section of our previous hike, while Chris and I pressed onward. At first the trail descended down towards the water edge.
We saw a pretty large slug on the trail. Also a couple of pretty fresh bear droppings.
Then the trail headed back up to the top of the escarpment.
There was a nice lookout with a view of the main lake, and a small offshoot lake surrounded by cottages,
Just after leaving the lookout we saw and chatted with a couple who maintained the trail. They said they had help build the staircases we had used earlier in the hike. They also let us know that the lions head section of the trail that we had been planning to do that day was quite difficult. So we decided that we would save ourselves an extra 5 hours of hiking and call it a day a bit earlier.
We continued on along the road for a short section.
After about 3.5 hours of hiking, we met Fiona at the end of Cemetery Road, then drove to Hopes Bay to meet up with Chris' family, then on to Wiarton for a late lunch.
According to the app, our total hike was around 26.5kms.
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