I saw this coming, but I really didn't think that it would mean I would not be able to leave my 'area' to go hiking. Hiking the Bruce Trail has actually been keeping me sane. When my boss leads us through an exercise asking us to use one or two words about how we're feeling, I can only offer: STUCK.
I'm stuck at home during the week. I do take Annie out for neighbourhood wanders, but I really look forward to my weekend hikes. I need them. And now I need to find another plan.
I poke around Alltrails to see if I can find a 15-20 km hike rated moderate and there's nothing. A friend suggests Rouge Urban National Park and I see that they have a few trails that I can combine into about 7.5 km.
I know I need to start early because people, but it's hard to get going in the morning, because I'm not really looking forward to this.
I park close to the zoo and am faced with...pavement.
There's about 750 metres of this before I get to step onto a trail and it's not bad. It's different and not at all challenging but I have no other options.
At some point I realize that the trail is blazed with white and I feel homesick.
There are some declines/inclines and a stand of cedars to make me feel at home. The notice about a bear in the park isn't a surprise and I don't actually think I will run into one.
This is an out-and-back trail called the Cedar Trail that then leads me back to a loop trail that gets me close to a pond, where I see turtles sunning themselves, and a swan pair.
The pond is right beside train tracks and then I'm back in the forest.
I get a nice dose of forest before I end up at a road and Little Rouge Creek. This reminds me a bit of the Humber River, where I grew up.
Besides the swan and turtles, I get to see a muskrat (alive this time!) and they're nice to stand and watch for a bit, tho I can't get close.
Before long, I'm back at the pond and then back on the paved trail again. I'm not ready to go home yet, so I head back to the creek and, since it's warming up, decide to go wading. It is fucking cold but absolutely worth it. I can see fish trying to swim upstream and this reminds me of childhoods spent wading in the Humber in Woodbridge and Kleinburg.
I almost wish I had brought a book, as it is so nice and warm out and there aren't very many people around.
Reality check on the way home: I stop by a store to credit an item, and go into the bank where someone is wearing their mask as a chin diaper. I'm routed around road closures and get stuck in traffic and it takes me 40 minutes to get home. I pass by a field with a bunch of adults running around without masks playing soccer and I feel like we're never going to get out of this.
I have a vax appointment on Monday. That doesn't seem real and it feels a bit like I'm cheating the system by claiming intellectual/developmental disability but I did a quick skim of how childhood trauma affects your development and figure I can claim it.
Link to trail here
Hoping to take Annie on my next hike, but should probably get her tick meds first.
