But where would be the fun in that!!!! Life would feel too calm if I was not up until midnight frantically washing floors and vacuuming. Therefore I sit here and blog.
I will be heading back to Killarney Provincial Park to hike "The Crack" for a third year in a row. What started my downward spiral into slothfulness and blogging today was the conflicting long range weather forecasts for the upcoming week. All week long I have been checking the long range forecast multiple times a day and rejoicing or wincing based on the changes. At first there was to be all day rain, but then that cleared up... hooray. Then there was to be thunderstorms when I would be on the high ridges.... Boo. Then the thunderstorms would only be happening at night..... hooray. Never in all of these forecasts was there a hint that the night time temperature was going to dip into the frigid zone. I had already packed my clothes based on this assumption, but when I saw the Environment Canada forecast today I cried a little. Environment Canada is now predicting night time temperatures of 9 degrees. Environment Canada- your doom and gloom weather forecasting is breaking my heart!
Nine degrees is damn cold when you are in a tent by yourself and don't have a dog to canoodle with for warmth. I was just going to sleep in lightweight thermal long johns... now I am debating packing the polar fleece bottoms and an extra jacket.... both of which add a lot of weight and bulk to the pack. The Weather Network is still predicting nicer nights with a low of 14... brisk but practically tropical when compared with 9 degrees.
Do I choose to believe The Weather Network or pack for the worst case scenario?
Now don't be thinking The Weather Network is off the hook. They, and only they, are predicting thunderstorms the day that I am high, high up on the exposed Crack section of the trail. Ahhh there is no winning. I have now spent the morning "refreshing" my memory on how to tell how far away a storm is and what to do in case you are outside in a major storm. This has left me confused and pissy. The main formula that I found is the simple enough i.e count the seconds between thunder and lighting and that tells you how many miles away the storm is.
This is great if you can tell how long a mile actually is!!!!!
I can not!
I am vaguely better at telling how far a km is.... but that formula involves math... a lot of it and that just hurts my head to try and figure it out. Just picture it.... a storm is brewing and I am whipping out my trusty calculator and furiously inputting numbers only to forget to hit a frigging button and then WHAM! Struck by lighting!!!!!!
What I have chosen to take away from all my afternoon Googling about storms is this..... lighting and major storm cells....
BAD....
AVOID......
If I can't avoid..... I will start praying to all that will listen, will cross my fingers and hope I am a lucky son-of-a-bitch. Just typing that out I think I like my formula the best.... no math involved, jut pure blind faith!
This trip was booked six months ago to ensure I did not have to walk 25 plus kms to get to a camp site. You think I am joking, but I am not. Killarney campers are very serious about getting their preferred sites and will do anything to get them. I met a woman last year who booked her sites last minute the closest site she could get was 28km from her first stop on the trail. You don't mess around with booking Killarney!
As it turns out booking 6 months in advance still did not guarantee that I could hike where I wanted to. The plan was to hike out 30 km and come back the same route, over a 5 day period. I could not get the sequence of sites that I wanted to follow for this plan to happen. So I am now doing 35.4 km in the same time frame. The one unique thing this year is I get to stay at the illusive H48 camp site. For three years I have been trying to book this site but it and the H49 sites are "reserved" for hikers doing the full 78km LaCloche Trail. Imagine my surprise when it was open. I had my choice between the two and chose H48. A choice I am now slightly regretting as according to "Jeff's Map" access to the water is steep which means pumping water may be a little on the tricky side.
Who is Jeff?
Well Jeff is a dude that hikes Ontario trails and adds helpful comments to original maps and then sells his version of maps to others. There is great information on Jeff's maps like- "Caution- don't make a left turn at Albuquerque" although he words his like this "Watch out- make sure you are going the right direction here." I obviously did not have the map handy when I booked as I confidently said give me H48. Fingers crossed Jeff exaggerates and steep is not STEEEEPPPP!
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| Sealy Lake |
Day 2 is "The Crack" day. It is the part of this trail that offers the most spectacular views but the views come at a cost. The trail is a gruelling uphill climb made all the more gruelling by the stark contrast to the tra-la-la flat trail that you start off on from Sealy Lake. You cross a creek and there it is "the wall" of up, up, up. It reminds me a little of "The Friendly Giant" look up.... look waaaaaayyyyyy uuupppppp! The minute you do, you regret it. You wish you could unsee what you have seen..... yes it looks that daunting. The first year I hiked it, I wore warm layers under my clothes as it was the fall and chilly that day. I regretted my choice of wearing thermals about 10 steps up this section of trail. I ended up stripping down to my skivvies on the side of the trail so that I could remove those dastardly thermals. It felt so good to have cool air hit my burning flesh. Ahhh!
This section of trail kinda lulls you into a false sense of security. As you reach the peak of the section you are climbing you think "Glad that is done, bring on the flat or the down hill." But then you look up and you realize there is more up, followed by more up, followed by...... "For the love of the LORD when will this up ever end."
As mentioned there is a great pay off at the top... the first pay off is the view, the second pay off is the feeling of victory that the climb didn't kill you and the third is knowing you can head to the gift store on your way out of the park and you can buy a commemorative t-shirt to celebrate and brag about your win over nature.
I will be ending Day 2 at Proulx Lake. I am hoping that I am able to make it there with all bones in place. Last year I had a nasty fall by the turn off for this camp site. I thought I sprained my ankle but a month later found out that what I really had done was dislocate two bones in my lower leg. How is that for hard core... walking over 20km on dislocated bones!!!!! In total Day 2 will have me travelling 6.4 km of trail. A short section that packs a lot of ups and downs into it... both literally and figuratively.
Day 3- Brings the unknown. I will be hiking out to Bunnyrabbit Lake. It will be a slightly shorter hiking day as it is 6 km from Proulx Lake. It will be interesting exploring a part of the LaCloche trail that I have not been on before. I wonder what it will have in store for me? Well crap.... just looked at Jeff's Map and this site is supposed to have steep access to the water as well.... NUTS!
Day 4- Will be a mystery. At some point I will be hiking 1.9km back on the trail to my next site at Heaven Lake. The mystery will be what I do before I head back. I might just have a lazy morning or I might just try a day hike to Silver Lake first (about 10km). If I do decide to go to Silver Lake I will get to hike over Silver Peak which is the highest point in the Park.... which also means I can purchase another bragging rights t-shirt at the park office. We will see how energetic I end up being. At least I know Heaven Lake does not have steep water access... Thank goodness for small wonders.
Day 5- Brings the return of the "Crack".... but it is the Crack in reverse as I will be going down not up. It will be a killer on the knees and feet, but my lungs will love it. I have two options on Day 5- I can hike out the full 16.1 km, get a refund for the last night and head home to a shower, comfy bed and meat.... glorious, glorious meat or I could stop at the site I reserved on Wagon Rd Lake which cuts 2.4km off my travel for the day. Given that Wagon Rd Lake is adjacent to beaver dam and a little on the swampy side I am sure I will decide to walk out vs risking getting Giradia.
Why do I do trips like this????
Solitude.......
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| The Crack Tree's |
The scenery......
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| View from Heaven's Lake |
and last but not least the WHOO HOO feeling of accomplishment
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| Trail to the Crack |
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