Finally hitting the trails! After four long weeks of waiting, today I am going to get out and hit the trails! It is still not going to be the greatest weather but I will have to make it work! The biggest struggle with the weather, as mentioned last week, is safety. Ensuring one’s ability to make it back out alive.
The weather is calling for 8 Celsius, feeling like 2, with off and on rain showers throughout the day and wind hitting upwards of 50+ km per hour! Tomorrow’s weather, gorgeous. So….I am going to do it. There is a wide open field overnight rest area that I can camp in and not worry about trees coming down on top of me.
The Bruce Trail has many points of interest and every time I spend time on this route, I find something new to explore and enjoy. This weekend’s adventure is going to take me along a varied terrain of woods, open fields, road walking, ladders, and Canadian Shield cave walking.
Day 1 will be approximately 18km from drop off to camp. A bit much but I know it is doable. The gear I plan on taking is going to be some new and some tried and true. Specifically, my tent, I have chosen to take my Spark 2. I have a new Durston X-Mid Pro 1 that I am desperately wanting to try but with never having used a trekking pole tent before and the significant winds expected, I am not wanting to try to work with that when I have no idea the best way to set it up. I have tried setting it up one time in my backyard, and it was kind of floppy. So, some work needed there. At least with my Spark 2, I can set it up, knowing exactly how it is going to do and stake it down well to stop myself from heading off to Oz.
Day 2 will be making my through Silver Creek Provincial Park and Terra Cotta Provincial Park areas. The goal, just to hike in as many training miles as I can.
I do have a new Thermarest Ultralight sleep pad, so definitely going to be taking that. The remainder of my gear has all been tested and I am happy with it. I plan on going into some gear reviews and more in depth details on what I use in future blog posts.
As for this weekend, it will be about staying warm and trying to stay dry. Given the upcoming Scotland weather, I can pretty much guarantee I am going to be getting cold and wet and will have to deal with some good windy conditions at some point. So, here is my chance here in Ontario to give that same kind of weather a try.
At least this weekend, I feel a lot better about heading out than I did for the past three weeks when I just decided to cancel my trips. That all being said, a short and sweet post this week, as I need to get my bags packed this morning to get out. As this post goes up, I should be waking up after what hopes to be a great night out.
A follow up video will show up on my YouTube channel! So watch out for that to see how the trip went! Happy Trekking everyone!
Edit: I had to bail out Saturday night due to blisters from my boots and being cold in my tent. All is well. Sometimes, this happens. I will still post up a video of the various things that I fought with during the day, including some very big mental blocks. Lessons learned and I will get out and try again soon…..
DanCyn' Adventures 