One of my plans, as I get further away from home and north on the Bruce Trail, is to look for opportunities to hike 2 days or maybe more and camp overnight. To accomplish the overnight camping I went out and purchased a new 75L backpack, lightweight tent and sleeping bag, sleeping pad, solo cook set and a pocket rocket stove and fuel. I decided for this Hike 20, even though I wasn't staying over night camping, that I would carry the new pack for the day to get a feel for the weight and my ability to hike a distance. The pack weighed in about 25 lbs.
I parked my car where I left off on Hike 19 in Limehouse and started my hike north at the 21.3km mark of the Toronto section of the trail.
The trail headed north on Fifth Line before looping into the woods for about 2km before emerging back out on Fifth Line. Here are some shots from this section.
How about this tree for sheer size. Note the size of the trunk versus my walking sticks (which are about 44" long). The trunk diameter had to twice the length of my walking stick which, if my math is correct, means the trunk is about 24 feet in circumference - a BIG tree!
At the 24.6km mark the trail headed east into the woods again for about 2km. The trail travelled through dry woodland but also through marshy areas where there were some wonderfully built boardwalks.
At the 26.2km mark the trail met Sixth Line and followed the paved road north for 1.2km to a very busy Highway 7. Here is a picture of a farm with llamas (I think?).
The trail followed the north side of Highway 7 for 700m and then turned north again into the woods. This section through the woods was very low lying and marshy, wet with lots of mosquitoes. Again though, as earlier on the trail, there was lots of well built board walks over many of the wet areas. At the 29.1km mark the trail met and crossed Trafalgar Road. Again, the trail was back into the woods through some marshy wet areas, again over boardwalks before climbing up into drier woods.
The trail through this section skirted Scotsdale Farm. Scotsdale Farm is 530 acre farm of beautiful, pastoral fields, rolling hills and woods. At one point is was an internationally renowned farm for Arabian horses and shorthorn cattle. At the northeast end of the farm there is also an important archeological site of an Iroquoian village dating to the 1600's. Here are some pictures of this beautiful area.
Here is the bridge that crossed Snow's Creek, a May apple bloom and some wild Columbine.
The trail wound through the woods turning back towards the south and eventually met 27 Sideroad which is where my hike ended, or at least I intended to end the hike. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were thick so I decided to keep walking back west on 27 Sideroad towards Trafalgar Road where I met my ride back to my car.
A big shout out to the Bruce Trail staff and volunteers for the incredible work that went into building all the wood boardwalks through this section of the trail!
Completed: 233.6km
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