Background: Hiking the Bruce Trail

The Niagara Escarpment:

The Bruce Trail

from

Tobermory to Cape Chin



Checking camera and equipment
Ready to go...

  My upcoming trip to England, where I will walk through the villages, towns and cities of my ancestors will be a different kind of hiking than my usual adventures and will require a new mind set for choosing footwear, clothing and what to carry. My most recent hiking trip was with a friend on The Bruce Trail, a challenging experience, climbing over tree roots and hoisting ourselves up over rocks, through bush and forest, scrambling over the Niagara Escarpment, while marvelling at the magnificent Ontario scenery every step of the way. 

The first day evolved into a gruelling ten hour experience as we were directed onto the wrong trail which led into a lush bush area where we walked through long, wet grass and saw recently broken branches on raspberries bushes loaded with fruit. We soon woke up to the realization that we were in bear territory. OH NO! Signs of bears everywhere, but no actual sightings. We carried stones which we knocked together to make sounds and hopefully warn the bears that humans were about!  I also had a bear bell which I'm sure the bears would have ignored. Time lost and exhausted, but we were safe!



Overlooking the Bay

A beautiful part of Ontario



                                             

      After the rain

 

 

Rock chairs for our comfort and rest. A black snake came out

 from under the stones and scared me half to death!

 Later I almost stepped on a sleeping rattlesnake who

slithered silently away to the sound of my screams.

 

 

Amazing cloud formation spotted

through the car window, while driving home 

 

 

I love the outdoors, hiking or walking, experiencing new places and

challenging myself. One summer I tackled the Swiss, Italian and French Alps,

hiking with a group organized by the Adventure Centre in Toronto.

We had two guides and two porters, slept in tents in the mountains and

cooked our own food. It was the most challenging hiking trip in my

lifetime...so far. An amazing adventure.

 

 

Allow me one photo...perhaps two...

 

 

Mont Blanc in the background

 

                                   On a Glacier in the French Alps....a few years ago....

                                                         

 

 

                                                      Have a great day....

 



 



 

 Next: Preparing for a different type of hiking experience