the trail has been blazed

After 8 months of preparation, Blaze A Trail finally happened yesterday. Although there was a significantly smaller turnout than hoped, it was still a good day of hiking the trail in a new location.

After getting up at 5, leaving KW at 6:15, and arriving in Eugenia at 8:15, we dropped off the car at the south end of the Beaver Valley and got a ride up to Old Baldy Conservation Area near Kimberly.

Highlights of the day:

-The mist made the view very minimal, but it was still was a really good one from the lookouts at Old Baldy.
-Amazing views and spectacular beauty along the trail - most of it off roads, which is a plus.
-Saw Eugenia Falls and Hogg's falls, as well as a number of streams as we walked through the varied landscape of the Upper Valley extension.
-Took 8.25 hours to walk from km 41.7 to km 62.3 with a re-route in the middle that may have added an extra kilometre.

And because I know you want to see it, here's the map and GPS track of what we did. (We started just above the top of the map, so that's why km 41.7 isn't shown.)



Points of Interest: A - KM 41.7 - Starting point (9:15am)
B: - middle of road walking section. We reached our max average speed of approximately 5km/hr during this section. (KM 46.2 - 10:25am)
C: Top of the Hydro chutes from Lake Eugenia down to the turbines below. (KM 50.2 - 12:00PM)
D: Eugenia Falls (KM 55.6 - 2:33PM) Our pace got slower after this point. There was lots of ups and downs, fording of streams, crossing of stiles, walking through meadows, resting under a Hemlock tree, etc.
E:KM 57.1 - 3:25PM
F: Hogg's Falls - Car - End (KM 62.3 - 5:33PM)

the trail beckons

It's here! The last 8 months of planning have all been towards tomorrow. I'll be heading up to the Beaver Valley with a few people to hike 20 km of trail. Although we're far from reaching our goal of 900 km covered, we'll still raise some money for EBC students, which was the goal from the outset.

Pray for safety and that the rain holds off (or is less than predicted at least.)

Thanks for your support and I'll shut up about this for a few months until we start planning for next year.

trail once more

Next Saturday, August 29, 2009, EBC is running an event entitled Blaze A Trail, in which we hope to collectively hike the Bruce Trail in it's entirety in one day. That's 900 km of main trail covered over the course of 8-10 hours. The goal is to have 100 people split into pairs to cover approximately 50 sections of 20 km each on average.

As of now, it looks like we might reach 30-40 people hiking about 300 km of the trail, somewhat disappointing from expectations, but it's still fairly reasonable being the first year and all.

This event is being run as a fundraiser for student scholarships and bursaries. Each participant is required to raise a minimum of $100. Could you consider joining with me to reach this goal.

For more information, and how to register, visit the Blaze A Trail page on the EBC website.

If you'd like to support me in this endeavour, visit my GivingPage at CanadaHelps.org or you can get me cash or cheque when you see me. Tax receipts are issued for any donation online and any donation over $20 if by cash or cheque. I'll be hiking with some friends in the Beaver Valley for that day. Maybe even a continuation of where I hiked in May.

imaged

Back around Christmas, I joined the Bruce Trail Conservancy as a member. One of the perks was the option of uploading my pictures to the website for other members to peruse. I like sharing, so I uploaded a few. And wouldn't you know it, but one of the two I uploaded was added to the few visible on their homepage. So after that, it's become my challenge to get another picture up there.

That vision became reality again this week.

Behold:



That's all. I got Harry Potter 6 off of a co-worker yesterday and read half of it last night. I'll probably finish the other half tonight between loads of laundry.

update

Staycation's almost over. Here's what I've done:

• Visit Guelph Arboretum
• Drive to Peterborough for my cousin's wedding
• Visit Emo in Hamilton
• Read Harry Potter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Visit Wonderland for day
• Realize in Cambridge that I've forgotten wonderland tickets at home, so we had to turn around to pick up said tickets before going to Wonderland.
• Ride Top Gun for first time ever as part of 10 rollercoasters (all but Ghostercoaster and the Fly)
• Travel to Corunna with Nephew in tow
• Golf twice
• Watch way too much TV while in Corunna
• Donate blood
• Renew plates for another year.

I'm back to KW tomorrow with not much planned for the last few days until I'm back at work.

In other news, this comic resonated with me.