Our Old Friend - The Bruce Trail

September 17, 2018

Hi Blog!

We are working our way west in anticipation of crossing the border into the U.S. near Bay City, Michigan. We don't like to drive back-to-back days, so we gave ourselves a "rest" day near Owen Sound. This small city is a major Great Lakes port town often referred to as the "Chicago of the North." Located on the Georgian Bay of Lake Heron, Owen Sound is the gateway to the Bruce Peninsula, a popular tourist destination for camping, hiking and fishing. The historic Bruce Trail runs through the region to its northern terminus in the town of Tobermory.

We first encountered the Bruce Trail back in 2014, when we camped west of Toronto not far from the Niagara Region. The Bruce Trail is Canada's oldest and longest marked footpath. It provides the only continuous public access to the magnificent Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. Running along the Escarpment from Niagara to Tobermory, it spans more than 500 miles of main Trail and over 250 miles of associated side trails. We just so happen to be camped at the Owen Sound KOA, which has its own side trail right from the campground to the Bruce Trail. With coffee in hand, we set out to explore the trail this morning. Nothing says "good morning" like some crepuscular rays!

We followed an old woods road up toward the Niagara Escarpment. The trail is well marked with blue blazes.

This area of Ontario was heavily logged. As we worked our way along, we passed a perfectly symmetrical forest plantation.

While the forest in this area is very young, there were a few examples of old growth trees that somehow missed the woodsman's ax.

This old guy is at the end of his life cycle. Its party time for the fungi!

After about a half a kilometer, we intersect another blue blazed side trail known as Rock Spring Trail. The KOA Trail, Bruce Trail and Rock Spring Trail make a 1.1 kilometer loop trail. Since we still had coffee left, we decided to make the loop. The Bruce Trail was easy to spot with its bright white blazes.

As you can imagine, the Escarpment is very rocky. In the humid Great Lakes environment, everything was covered with moss. We felt like we were in Hobbiton, not Ontario.

The return loop on Rock Spring Trail was dedicated to Robert Coutts, a local volunteer with the Bruce Trail Conservancy.

As we hiked along, little peepers hopped, skipped and jumped from the trail as we approached. However, this big fat bullfrog could barely muster the energy to lumber off to the side.

They shut the road through the woods

Seventy years ago. 

Weather and rain have undone it again, 

And now you would never know 

There was once a road through the woods 

Before they planted the trees. 

It is underneath the coppice and heath, 

And the thin anemones.

Only the keeper sees 

That, where the ring-dove broods,

And the badgers roll at ease, 

There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods 

Of a summer evening late, 

When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools 

Where the otter whistles his mate, 

(They fear not men in the woods, 

Because they see so few.) 

You will hear the beat of a horse's feet, 

And the swish of a skirt in the dew, 

Steadily cantering through 

The misty solitudes, 

As though they perfectly knew 

The old lost road through the woods.

But there is no road through the woods.

The Way Through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling

We finished our two kilometers of hiking with a walk around the campground. As with all our stays, we wish we had more time.

That's it for now. We have a few more adventures planned for our "rest" day, so stay tuned.