Training Log Archive: Bash

We took advantage of the brilliant sunny morning to fully dry our gear and clothing before we left Rhyolite Cove.



Then we started our hike to Beatty Cove. We'd heard there would be some challenging sections.







We saw lots of rhyolite - a reddish volcanic rock.











Here's one of the better stone cairns marking the trail - especially nice because it's rhyolite. Stone cairns blend into a rocky landscape so it can take a moment to spot them, and sometimes they get knocked over. We improved a few cairns along the way.







The rhyolite mostly made for easy travel but soon we started scrambling and rock hopping again.







I think this break was in Mermaid Cove, a nice, private campsite - bookable but not shown on the map.



Some easier trail.



Spot the cairn. Also, don't turn an ankle.



We took a near-vertical side trail up to a lookout that turned out to be one of the nicest views on the trail.









We took this photo for Dave and Connie to show them where we ate their yummy homemade hummus.



The only problem with eating lunch up there was that we couldn't refill our bottles. When we got back down to the lake, we took another short break to purify water. These melon-sized rocks were the most difficult type to walk on - always rolling.





Then we carried on along the coast. In spite of what I'd read, we felt that yesterday was more difficult than today but it's possible that we were just getting more used to scrambling with big packs.





We arrived at Beatty Cove with its beautiful sandy beach. There were five campsites, metal bear bins and an indoor toilet. We expected neighbours but nobody ever arrived.









It felt like we were camping on the Caribbean - until we got into the water, of course. It was cool but not cold and it stayed shallow a long way out.





We knew this might be our nicest campsite so we took full advantage - reading, drinking tea, doing laundry and just enjoying the peace.



As always, I've deleted the time/distance when we were just checking out different campsites.

It was time to pack up and start moving south. Today's hike from Warp Bay to Rhyolite Cove was going to be one of our longest days - although not really that long compared to some trips we've done. First we hiked from Warp Bay back to Gargantua Bay where we'd started two days earlier. Dave and Connie had left early because they were driving home, and we only saw three other people on this section of trail.





It was quiet at the Gargantua Bay parking lot. We stopped for a snack on the cobble beach. All along the Coastal Trail, the rocks are colourful and varied. On our breaks, we would look for particularly nice ones to show each other.







Then we put our packs back on and hiked past the "There Be Dragons" sign - the Park's standard warning to hikers at locations where they enter the Coastal Trail. We were told that the Park evacuates 3-5 hikers each week, sometimes because it's not the smooth trail they expected.



There weren't just dragons; there were bears too.



The next section looked interesting.



The trail started to live up to its technical reputation. I thought this must be one of the more difficult sections but that's only because it was the first one we encountered. It got a lot tougher.



We called an early lunch at a spectacular viewpoint overlooking the section of coast we'd already travelled.



There were some grouse up there. They blend really well.





The next section to Rhyolite Cove was some of the most challenging hiking of our trip. In hindsight, I'm not sure if it just felt that way because it was our first day of scrambling over rocks with heavy packs. I sometimes used my hands and feet, dangled from tree roots or branches, hauled myself up onto a rock on my knee or did a bum slide off a big drop to save my knees and ankles. It would be a perfect hike for a Crossfit athlete. The scenery was incredible.



From this point on, the Coastal Trail was no longer just a path in the woods. Sometimes it travelled over rocks or sand by Lake Superior, usually marked by small stone cairns with some guesswork involved. Then the route would duck into the forest for a while. The entry point was usually marked with a small blue hiker sign that could be difficult to spot. Route finding was complicated by the fact that hikers sometimes chose not to negotiate steep or slippery rocks by the lake so there were unofficial inland trails that masqueraded as the real thing.

We never got truly lost; I mean, we just had to keep the 2nd largest lake in the world on our right until we reached Agawa Bay! But there were a few times during the week when we searched for blue markers or realized that we weren't on the trail.



















The trail ended on the colourful beach at Rhyolite Cove. Two women were on the other campsite. Other than when we camped near Dave and Connie at Warp Bay, this was the only night when we camped near anyone else. We met 1-3 small groups on the trail each day.



After setting up camp and doing laundry, we went for a dip before dinner, did some reading and went to sleep early.

This was the only morning when we wouldn't be packing up to hike to a new campsite.





The Ohrlings had also planned a relaxed day in Warp Bay so we chatted over coffee and planned to meet later for a hike to Chalfant Cove, the northern trailhead of the Coastal Trail. There was a storm in the forecast around midday so we decided to wait until afterwards. Although there were strange clouds and strong winds, it actually ended up being sunny for most of the day.









As we sat reading, I got a weather alert: Tornado watch at Gargantua. Oh, great! We know to take shelter in a basement or at least a strong building if a tornado is coming but what was our best strategy if a tornado hit Warp Bay? After briefly considering the toilet building and bear bins, we looked for little depressions on the beach where we could partially bury ourselves in the sand. Luckily, we never had to put that plan to the test.



There was some crazy weather in other parts of Ontario and I think there may have been a tornado or two. There have been so many in Ontario this year! But Warp Bay was spared and the four of us finally headed out on our hike north to Chalfant Cove.



The route was a bit longer than advertised and featured some rocky climbs and descents but without our big backpacks, it felt easy.

We mostly walked in the forest but emerged to spectacular views over Indian Harbour. (Why hasn't it been renamed?)





We arrived at Chalfant Cove - another wild, remote campsite that is apparently on Explore Magazine's list of the best campsites in Canada.



Whoops, matchy matchy!



Dave and Connie had brought a treat - dehydrated homemade hummus. Because they were leaving the next day, they bequeathed their remaining dehydrated hummus and bananas to us. Yum!







We stopped to admire Indian Harbour in different light on the way back. The clouds still looked a bit ominous.









When we got back, we swam. (This outfit was my attempt to keep my wet feet from getting caked with sand as I walked back to the tent. I left my hiking boots right at the water's edge.) Lake Superior is usually 4C but this summer it's 7C - probably terrible news for the environment but a little better for backcountry campers. It was still quite refreshing but it felt so good to be clean that we went in the water on most days.



Then we read.



And watched a beautiful sunset, which was improved by the weird clouds.

Richard and I packed up early this morning so we could pick up our backcountry permit at the Agawa Bay park office and get to the Visitor Centre in time for our 9 am shuttle from Naturally Superior Adventures. Our driver was the owner, David Wells. He doesn't normally do vehicle shuttles anymore but the two other guys in the bus had requested David specially because they had great memories of a pep talk he gave them on their first Coastal Trail trip 20 years ago. We remembered him too because we stayed at their lodge in Michipicoten and used their vehicle shuttle for our 1997 paddle along the Pukaskwa coast.

David dropped us off at beautiful Gargantua Bay (pronounced GAR-gen-twa by the locals).





The Lake Superior Coastal Trail runs roughly northwest-southeast, finishing at Agawa Bay Campground at the southeast end. The northern trailhead is a campsite at Chalfant Cove, 10 km north of Gargantua Road. It's only accessible by an out-and-back hike so a lot of people skip that part of the Coastal Trail and just head south toward Agawa Bay.



Here's a more detailed map although it's difficult to see much at this scale. I'll post snippets for each part of our trip.



This backpacking trip was our 25th anniversary celebration, replacing our long-planned party with friends that couldn't happen due to Covid. We planned a slow trip with lots of time to enjoy our campsites so we headed north first to camp at Warp Bay for two nights.





This would give us time to enjoy the beautiful sandy beach, eat two days of food, hike to the northern trailhead at Chalfant Cove and hike a side trail to the Chair Island area.



Most of the trail to Warp Bay seemed like an old carriage road with some climb and descent. It was a great warm-up before the more technical sections south of Gargantua. The trail was enclosed in the forest so it was nice but there wasn't much variety. Unlike this photo, most of it was single track but the clearing was wide enough that it looked like it used to be double track.



There were signs warning of bears in the area and we saw plenty of evidence.



A weekend of rain was forecast but other than some fog and a few drops here and there, we stayed dry until we were in our tent for the night. In fact, we didn't hike in rain until our final day on the trail when there was a deluge.



About 2 km from Warp Bay, the easy trail ended and we crossed the Gargantua River with beautiful rapids and a waterfall.



Then we followed the right bank of the Gargantua River to Warp Bay and got our first taste of more technical trail.



We met a few people coming out from Warp Bay but only one campsite was occupied when we arrived. We looked around before selecting #4, which was protected from the weather but still close to the gorgeous sandy beach. There really weren't any bad campsites but the central campsites had bear bins, picnic tables and a small building with a composting toilet - luxury!



The only small disadvantage was the long walk to the river for water.



Looking at the map before the trip, we'd assumed that drinking water would be available anywhere along a "coastal trail" but it wasn't always easy to get water from Lake Superior. Sometimes there were cliffs, slippery rocks or crashing waves. On beaches like this, we had to wade out a short distance to get water without sand in it. Rivers and creeks were an easier option in some places.

It wasn't a problem; we were excited to start our vacation by staying at this great beach campsite for two nights.







Two day hikers appeared. One of them used to be a wedding photographer at Devil's Pulpit Golf Club in Caledon, and she offered to take a few photos on my phone for our anniversary. What were the odds?





I didn't log the final 1 km on the GPS track when we were just wandering around Warp Bay without our packs as we looked for the best campsite, checked out the bear bins and washrooms, etc.

Since we got camp set up early, I suggested a day hike to the Chair Island area so I could complete the final surprise challenge in the CMTR Summer Scavenger Hunt - the Three-Peat - before the Aug. 31 deadline. The idea was to choose three previous challenges and do them all in the same hike/run lasting at least 75 minus.



I chose the Naked Run (estimate the first 60 mins as accurately as possible without using a watch), CMTR (look for items starting with C-M-T-R five times in sequence, i.e. 20 items) and Trail Hunter (the scavenger hunt within the Scavenger Hunt). I could have done the "New Trail" challenge without any extra effort but these tasks kept both of us entertained on an inland trail that was poorly maintained in some places. The overgrown areas would have been a great place for a bear to hide - especially since there were lots of berries - so we made plenty of noise.



We arrived at a cool little campsite on Tugboat Channel. We preferred Warp Bay but this site was very private and wildly beautiful.





On the way back, we saw a couple approaching. They'd already passed through the heavily overgrown section where the trail almost disappeared so we knew they must be pretty tough. We started the usual polite chat then stopped: "Hey, you look familiar!" It was Dave and Connie Ohrling from Collingwood - fellow members of Highlands Nordic ski club and close friends of Angus and Sian Doughty. They were going to make dinner at one of the campsites then return to Warp Bay, where they had set up camp too. Cool!



We hiked back and went for a swim in Lake Superior. It was short and chilly but it felt great. We put on warm layers afterwards.

'Bent and I drove to Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park. It was an all-day expedition with two very welcome breaks to catch up with friends. We met Hammer, Etoile and AdventureGirl! near French River as they were returning from Killarney. Then we detoured to St. Joseph Island near Sault Sainte Marie to visit "Danger Camp", Lawrence Foster and Trish Westman's cottage.

We were running late so we ended up getting dinner from Starbucks and arriving at the park too late to pick up our backcountry permit. It was absolutely pouring for the last few hours of our drive so we decided to sleep in our van in the Agawa Bay Campground rather than getting our tent wet and dirty. It worked out pretty well although it would have been easier if we'd planned that ahead of time. We could have had sleeping pads or inflatable mattresses ready to go.

The adventure begins, lol!

Life has been non-stop busy for the past month but after finishing three CMTR Scavenger Hunts, I didn't want to miss this one by just a challenge or two. So I squeezed in the very last challenge today - the Holiday Mash-up. The idea was to represent as many holidays as possible in your outfit and go out for an hour. This one would have been a LOT better with friends.

There were 11 holidays in my outfit: Christmas (Santa hat), Hanukkah (silly glasses), St. Patrick's Day (shamrock necklace), Remembrance Day (poppy), Hallowe'en (bandana), Canada Day (maple leaf mask + Haida art T-shirt as a symbol of reconciliation), Valentine's Day (Snoopy chocolate box from Mom), Easter (wee bunny), Oktoberfest (Bavarian cowbell), Robbie Burns Day (plaid tights) and Pride (rainbow socks). It wasn't ideal. I was wearing a fur hat, long tights and wool socks in a heat warning, and I met a stranger in the woods, which should have been worth bonus points!



After submitting my challenge, I was horrified to see a final hidden challenge pop up on the dashboard: 75 minutes combining three favourite challenges. Noooo!!!! I worked toward finishing today because we leave for Lake Superior Provincial Park early in the morning, and we'll be backpacking until a week from Sunday. After saying a bad word, I figured out some challenges that I can do while backpacking and I'll have to hope I can find some Internet since the Scavenger Hunt ends Aug. 31, and I'm not sure how late my submission can be.



Anyway, we're off soon! I need to finish packing food.

The Summer Scavenger Hunt has a Shop Local challenge. I parked my car in Palgrave village and hiked some trails I don't take very often. I even found an informal trail I didn't know about beside Palgrave Pond, and I followed it a long way - even when it got spooky. Then I picked up a yummy takeout burger and fries from the Caledon Hills Brewery. ('Bent is working late. When the cat's away, the non-vegetarians will play...)

The CMTR Summer Scavenger Hunt included a GPS Art challenge again. Last year my attempt was not ambitious at all. I just looked at the trails around our place and figured they looked like some animal. But they don't really, and nobody was fooled.

This time I wanted to try something harder but I was hampered by a lack of artistic ability and visual imagination. After staring at some old GPS tracks, I figured I could combine trails and bushwhacking in Palgrave East to draw a rooster.



I used a 16-year-old orienteering map to plan my route.



I dressed in my Orienteering Canada gear for inspiration.



(What's wrong with this photo? Yes, I left home without taking my GPS watch off the charger and had to go back.)

In theory, it looked pretty straightforward. Palgrave has a nice trail system.





In practice, I'd forgotten why nobody orienteers in Palgrave in summer.





There's also lots of poison ivy, thorns and stinging nettles.



My rooster isn't perfect but it's OK! The biggest problem is the beak, which was a GPS issue. The trail I was following normally looks a lot more like a beak. Also, my luxurious rooster tail didn't really work out but I wasn't enjoying that section of bushwhacking.

I had to spend some extra time on the trail to get up to 60 mins, the minimum time for this challenge.

I've been immersed in Wilderness Traverse work for the past week and a half. We've been planning this event since early 2020 with many discussions about COVID-19 safety measures. Today it began - the first of two cohorts of teams racing on the same course in consecutive 24-hr periods. Although we needed cohorts because the public health unit refused to approve staggered starts on the same day, it turned out really well and allowed us to host more teams than we've ever had. Today we had 28 teams.

I'd prepared and labelled all the satellite trackers over the past week. Amber and I took the trackers around to different team TA areas and explained how to carry and use them. While I was doing this, the sun rose and I realized that I could do the Summer Scavenger Hunt "Summer Sun" challenge today pretty easily. It involves a 30+ minute run/hike including sunrise and another one that includes sunset.







The evening walk was more difficult because if I wasn't going to be working at HQ, it felt really important to get sleep. But I forced myself to get out for a half hour hike around Lion's Camp Dorset at sunset, which was probably as healthy for me as sleep anyway.

Sunset wasn't impressive by the time I got to the beach but it was still lovely - and quiet when racers weren't running around.

There were a few more candles today. :)

The CMTR Summer Scavenger Hunt includes a cat-themed challenge and - to my shame - I realized that I don't own anything cat-related. Not a single cat T-shirt or stuffed cat - not even a piece of cat jewellery. So I reached out to my cat-loving friends, Jill Bishop and Caron Shepley for help.



Jill bravely agreed to a photo shoot with her cat Oreo before we hit the trails in Palgrave Forest. It started out well but Oreo lost patience with us when it went on too long.





Caron was away but lent me a purr-fect cat-themed hat, mask and top.

My contribution was a list of 20 cat-themed expressions that I challenged myself to work into my conversation with Jill. She is one cool cat!

I noticed that a Hidden Challenge had appeared on my CMTR Summer Scavenger Hunt dashboard - uh oh! It's going to be tight to complete everything by Aug. 31 since I'll be working at Wilderness Traverse for half a week and backpacking the Lake Superior Coastal Trail at the end of August. So AdventureDog and I went for a pleasantly cool hike around Palgrave West. The challenge was to identify - in order - objects starting with C-M-T-R. Bonus points for doing this up to 5 times. I decided to limit it to single words, e.g. I wouldn't allow "Mountain Bike" or "Rabbit Fence". For whatever reason, "M" was the most difficult letter.

The result was this free form poem:

Chair Milkweed Tree Roof
Chard Maple Trunk Raspberry
Cone Mat Trail Reentrant
Canine Moss Twig Root
Cedar Mud Track Rock

BazingaDog (Brody) joined our family ten years ago today when he was about 5 months old. He'd lived several different places before he found his real home. He grew from 40 to 90 lb and also grew to become the most affectionate dog we've ever had. As a puppy, he sometimes had a bit of an attitude problem but as an adult, well... he sometimes has a bit of an attitude problem! :) But we love him - and it’s been a long time since he’s shredded my sunglasses, eaten an entire roast chicken or broken a window. We're grateful to the people who adopted him and only kept him for one night before returning him to the rescue organization. They don't know what they missed!



To celebrate his 10-year anniversary, I took him on a hike over to Metcalfe Rock. I used this as the Naked Run in the Summer Scavenger Hunt. The idea was that I should aim for exactly 1 hour without looking at a watch or phone. I set my Ambit to altitude mode so I could wear it and pause it every time we made a doggie stop or met hikers without a map looking for route info. (Today, that was *all* of them.)



Maybe it was all the pausing but my 1-hour time estimate was *really* bad. I pressed the lap button at 53:44. B-Dog and I had a nice time together anyway!

Quick pre-dinner ride around the Gulch loop in Kolapore after 'Bent took me art shopping for an early birthday present. We bought a piece painted by Ryan Sobkovich, who lives on Big Sound Road just across from Hammer!



P.S. Mask was removed just for a few seconds for the photo. After this, we went to our favourite Collingwood coffee shop and learned that - coincidentally - several people working there have medical mask exemptions. Hmm. We'll need a new favourite coffee shop.

Paddle around Collingwood Harbour and White's Bay with 'Bent on a windy day. We included a tour of the marina since it's always fun to look at expensive boats.







Any birders out there? I think this is a leucistic Canada Goose but I'm not sure.

A little splashing around at the Collingwood pier while 'Bent was testing his new triathlon wetsuit. It went well! He had good flotation, which is hard for a guy with no body fat.

On our part of the pier, three young boys were swimming and chatting with us. One of them - maybe 10-11 years old - mentioned that he's a competitive swimmer. I asked him to give 'Bent one tip for good front crawl and after an initial look of surprise, he made a great suggestion about arm position. He was quite chuffed to see 'Bent make an adjustment and told me that 'Bent was doing very well.

They were nice kids. One of them had some money and wanted to buy ice cream for all three of them. One of the others said, "But your Mom gave you that money to spend on *you*, not on us." They had a long, serious discussion and if they hadn't finally grabbed their bikes and headed for the darned ice cream truck, I was going to be forced to give them money myself!

Around Thornbury with 'Bent while we were in town for dinner on the beautiful patio at the new Sterling's restaurant. We were looking for items on the City Hunter checklist for the Scavenger Hunt. We found dogs, a cat, hanging baskets, a rainbow, people eating ice cream, BBQs and much more.

The bridge over the Beaver River is nice (and was on the list).



And I'll bet we found one of the nicest bike racks anywhere!

I'm not sure if the heel drops are really changing the collagen fibres in my Achilles but my heel does feel good right after doing them.

At today's vaccine clinic, I overheard at least half a dozen people say that they'd come for their 1st shot. They didn't seem hesitant; they just weren't in a hurry. A couple of them mentioned that they'd had Covid before and didn't think it mattered that much. It's going to be such a challenge to vaccinate the stragglers who are willing but just haven't shown up yet.

After my shift, I went for a walk in the stifling heat and humidity to squeeze in another Summer Scavenger Hunt challenge. I walked along the Caledon Trailway and paid my respects at the bench dedicated to the memory of our triathlete friend Patricia Lopez, who died tragically a year ago this week when a gravel truck ran a red light on Hwy 10. :(



Then I walked through town to Gourmandissimo and got a buttertart for the Scavenger Hunt challenge, which involved running or hiking to food. It was certainly no hardship.

Another day, another out-of-town errand - this time in Aurora. While checking the driving directions, I noticed Thornton Bales Conservation Area, known to locals as the 99 Steps. I hadn't been there in about 25 years.

The Summer Scavenger Hunt has a "climb lots of stairs in 45+ minutes" challenge so I threw in my hiking boots. I'm still getting used to them in advance of our backpacking trip.

The stairs go down a steep hillside in a beautiful forest. I kept thinking how nice it would be to orienteer there!





There are actually 100 steps - not 99. I counted them three times just to be sure since I had lots of time during my 10 repeats to get to 1,000 steps. I took the steep trail on all the downhills since that was a good test for the hiking boots. The hill keeps going down after the bottom of the stairs; in fact, the additional elevation drop is more than the staircase. On my first and last repeats, I went right to the low point, just for variety.





The last few days have been the Scavenger Hunt at its best. Not the specific challenges but the way it pushed me to build activity into days when my time and my brain felt full with Wilderness Traverse prep/Grocery shopping/Orienteering Ontario work/Dehydrating food for backpacking/Sorting and uploading canoe trip photos/Medical appointments/Vaccination Clinic volunteering/First double vax dinner with in-laws in Toronto/Laundry,etc.

Today was my first appointment with Dr. Chris Fortier, the physician at the Sports Medicine Centre for Excellence in Newmarket. I like him. The X-ray and ultrasound of my right heel were consistent with insertional Achilles tendinopathy. He says the calcification in the tendon is abnormal but doesn't cause any particular problems if the pain can be resolved. He is optimistic that I'll be able to return to running but it will take some patience.

Step 1 is 6 weeks of Alfredson's eccentric heel-drop protocol on a flat surface. The doc thinks that's probably all I will need. I'm skeptical but I've never consistently done 6 weeks of heel drops so who knows? Until now, I've never been certain of my diagnosis so I've never stuck with heel drops longer than a couple of weeks. A lot of my usual activities put my foot into extreme dorsiflexion, which probably hasn't helped.

I should stay active and do things that don't make it worse. That may mean treating exercise like an elimination diet, e.g. try squats on a day when I'm not doing any other workout, and if I'm not sore the next day, try adding lunges the next time. The heel drops may hurt a bit but otherwise, it's best to skip exercise that hurts in any significant way while I'm doing it. Most of my pain comes the next day so these experiments will take a while.

If things haven't improved after 6 weeks, the next step would be 5 shockwave treatments. If there isn't a 50% improvement after 5 treatments, they'll stop. He says shockwave doesn't always work well on insertional Achilles problems because the bursa is so close to the tendon insertion. If I'm still having trouble, the next step would be a PRP injection. Surgery is well down the list of options, and he actively discouraged it. He said feet are more prone to post-surgical infection, and there may be residual pain at the incision site so it may not feel like an improvement. Anyway... we'll start with conservative treatment.

This was a moderately positive appointment so I decided to run some errands in Newmarket on foot so I could celebrate at Kawartha Dairy and claim the Cool Runnings challenge in the Summer Scavenger Hunt (45+ minutes on foot + ice cream). Mmm, Moose Tracks! :)

Day 1 of six weeks. If there is no improvement by Sept. 20, I'll go for shockwave treatments.

'Bent and I parked in Thornbury and rode the Georgian Trail east to Camperdown Road, which we climbed to the top - just before it becomes a trail. Then we rode back west of town, left the trail to go down to a beach and followed a road with expensive waterfront houses before rejoining the trail and heading back to town. There's a new restaurant and fine food boutique named Sterling's in the building where The Grey restaurant used to be. They have a great patio overlooking Thornbury Harbour and the menu looked yummy.

There is always one challenge that I dread in each CMTR Scavenger Hunt, and this time it was the Night Owl - a 30+ minute run or hike crossing the midnight hour. Ironically, I *am* a night owl but 'Bent is a morning person so I'm on my own for late night hikes. This challenge was part of last year's Summer Scavenger Hunt too, so it didn't even have novelty going for it.

We live in a rural area where the wildlife comes out at night. We often hear coyotes howling or find their beds in our meadow. Deer hang out in our yard. There has been a bear on our property and a cougar nearby. This was on my mind when I saw a pair of eyes and froze. Skunk! We both took evasive maneuvers. Later, I saw two pairs of orange eyes watching me from the big hill in front of our house. I didn't find out whom they belonged to.

Anyway, it's done!

I did the Summer Scavenger Hunt "Multisport MIssion" challenge today. Unfortunately, I didn't re-read the details and thought I had to do a minimum 30 minutes of each sport when it was actually 20 minutes. Not the worst mistake, I guess! I ended up spending almost 5 hours on it, not counting transitions and driving.

Coach LD and I did a brisk Bruce Trail hike around Duncan Escarpment Provincial Park and had a good catch-up. Trail conditions were excellent and there weren't too many other hikers. I tested my seldom-used hiking boots in anticipation of using them for our upcoming backpacking trip. All good.







It was so humid that my glasses fogged up and my hair frizzed out.

We learned that 'Bent and Tarno were going for a Wilderness Traverse training paddle so Coach LD went home and quickly loaded her canoe so we could join them for an afternoon paddle around Collingwood Harbour. Thunderstorms were in the forecast but the weather just got better and better.

It was after 4 pm and I still had to do three more sports to get maximum points in the challenge. I grabbed the Kolapore orienteering map and invented a few controls to find.





One of the stone walls in our area.

Because the weather forecast had been so gloomy, I'd planned some indoor strength training for my 4th activity but the rain held off a little longer so I took my bike out on the trails for a short ride.

I finished off the challenge with yoga videos from Caron's 10 Minutes 2 Zen series.

Attackpoint has been helpfully suggesting that I "use my log" so I'd better catch up after our 6-day canoe trip!

'Bent and I went for a bumpy bike ride in Kolapore in warm, sticky weather. Torrential rain began within minutes of our finish so our timing was excellent. Then we visited the Cameron/Mueller family at the Doughtys' place and had dinner with our former Collingwood neighbours, Dennis and Dorothy.