Fuck 2020. Hey, it's New Year's Eve. Let's go hiking.
My therapist told me awhile ago that I need to talk to friends on the phone more and so I often use the time in the car to call and chat with folks. MM is living out of town during the pandemic and she often walks on her nearby trails while we talk. It's good to chat with her. I've been wrestling with some family stuff and she's a good ear.
I'm really liking the Toronto section of the trail so far, since I'm not driving as much.
This hike has me working backwards, since I don't want to hike that 1 km access trail to get to where I left off. I start off at Speyside Resource Management Area, which is a lot of words to say 'forest with water'.
The trails are ice and I'm so thrilled I invested the money in microspikes. I can confidently hike on the ice without worrying that I'm going to fall and crack my tailbone. Before long I know I need to lose a layer so the down jacket gets shoved in my backpack. I'm glad my pack is big enough to hold this entire jacket, plus snacks, plus water.
This is probably my favorite mushroom that I've seen, other than the cool finds in North Bay. It's orange and the texture looks like brains.
Have I mentioned that I'm a big fan of trees? I love the texture of the bark, how they decompose, what they look like when they fall over...all of it.
Look at this giant tree being taken over by Smoky Polypore
About 18 months ago, E and I were on a hike and I kept on spotting trees crawling with caterpillars. Mystery solved...
*cue song about the cycle of life*
Shortly after I stop to take some video of water (um, I might have started up a TikTok account that is just water videos with the related sounds), my battery dies. From 50% to nothing. It's the cold, but this means that I have 6 km to hike still and I have no podcasts to listen to.
It's not a good time of year to be in my head. I've just barely survived Xmas and we're coming up on the anniversary of N moving out, but also the anniversary of my first date with S. I try and sing to myself, but I don't know any songs, really. Also, now my location isn't being tracked by MM & ME (my safety net) and I don't have access to the trail map app, which shows me my progress. I'm going to need a pocket charger and/or a warmer place to store my phone while I hike.
I rely on the blazes and try and think happy thoughts and just focus on getting to the end, while stopping to take in my surroundings without it being about taking a photo.
Just at the end of the trail, I notice there are a lot of fallen cedar bunches. Since I carry dog poop bags on me, I fill it with cedar. Once home, I boil it up and fill two large jars with cedar tea for the future.
It's a bit odd to be thinking about the future, given that I spent a fair portion of the year struggling with keeping alive. I'm also now at the point where I'm planning hikes ahead of time. Using Alltrails and the guide book, I've got the next couple of hikes planned and I take the opportunity on this hike to go scout out a parking spot for a future hike.
I've got a bit of a mini goal this winter. There's a winter end-to-end badge for the Toronto section - complete the entire 49.5 km section between December 21 and March 21. This seems do-able. I'm at 11.4 so far and it's just the end of December. I'm also looking at increasing my hike lengths as I get better at this, and am going to focus on starting earlier in the day, so I have more daylight hours for hiking.
Stats:
starting near marker: 6.0
ending near marker: 11.4
total hiked today: 5.4 km x 2
total Bruce Trail hiked since starting: 94.7 km (my next hike will put me over the 100 km mark!)
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