Cross-country Skiing Part Two

There was another favourite trail at Glenelg, this one longer, with hills, and mostly through beautiful hardwood forests.  I rarely skied this trail alone, but regularly skied it with a friend or two.  I'd call it a moderately challenging cross-country trail, and it was certainly popular.  All these trails are groomed and maintained by volunteers.

The trail starts over an up and down route that keeps your eyes on your skiis.

Soon the trail dips sharply down through a stand of cedars that I always found a little tricky.

It came out on the margins of a small pond.

Soon after that you come to a trail junction and you have to make a decision.  One direction takes you on a larger loop, the other takes you back toward the entrance, though it'll still make an hour-long ski.  The second option also takes you to a road crossing that opens up another group of trails, including those down in the swamp, these on private land.

I rarely took the longer loop, because I like the features of the alternate.  One of these is a long hill that I always enjoyed.  It always looked like a long way down!

But in the middle of that long hill is a dangerous trail junction.  If you were going too fast you'd sail right past.  If you thought you were an expert, you might try to turn sharply without slowing down enough.  I was there when one of our group did that and broke his ankle!

My usual choice was to cross the road and get down into the swamp.  The trail required another sharp bend at the bottom of this hill, but then you were safe.

And the trail through the swamp was just magical!  It always made me think of The Lord of the Rings.   There would be regular openings into the black water below.  This is one of the places I would always stop and just soak up the atmosphere.

After that it was still a fairly long trek, initially uphill, but eventually back to the entrance.  So glad I've got these memories!

Cross-country Skiing Part One

 My favourite winter activity before getting paralyzed was cross-country skiing.  And here in Grey County we have several great skiing locations.  My favourite was always the Glenelg trails, just south-west of Markdale.  Here, anchored by a 400 acre parcel of public forest, but expanding onto several private properties, were miles and miles of groomed trails.

On the east side of Hamilton Lane is an interesting network of trails on private land that made an easy hour-long ski, with few significant hills.  It always felt safe coming here by myself.

The trail led around the edge of a pond and into the woods.  It wasn't long before I was skiing along the edge of a large field marked by a line of big old Sugar Maples.

Then I cut across a snowmobile  trail and came to my favourite trail, the Long Piney Woods Trail, a completely straight trail through planted pines.

It was an easy run as you can see, going gently downhill.

You had to rise up a short hill where you lost sight of the continuing trail for a minute, and then crested the rise to build up speed on the other side..

But then you went downhill fast to the end.  The only problem was the abrupt ending, where you had to stop and then turn right or left.  More than once I crashed at the end, once with people standing there watching me!  But it was fun.

After that you simply had to ski a flat trail back out past a row of beehives, and around the other side of the pond to the car.  A really enjoyable short ski.

Merry Christmas!

Ten years ago when I was doing all my photography with a big Nikon camera, I was playing around with light painting, a technique where you move the camera when getting the shot.  Seems appropriate for having a little fun at Christmas, so Merry Christmas!

This is the tree I was trying to get a picture of.  And below are the light painting results.  

If you're interested, all these were taken on a manual setting, between 1/2 and 1 second exposure, with the lowest ISO setting at 100, and just moved by hand.  I have no idea how you would do this with a cellphone camera!

May all of you enjoy peace and love at this Christmas time.

Hope Haven Farm, Part 2

 I continued down the tractor trail in the woods until it petered out, and started looking for an easy way forward.  The staff needed a wide trail to allow for both a horse and rider, and people walking on each side for safety.  But they also wanted to minimize tree cutting, so I was looking for a route that could be wide with minimal clearing. 

From my point of view, the woods was fascinating.  I've always loved how young Beech saplings hold on to their leaves.

This old log was a tapestry of beautiful mosses.

This is a tinder fungus, also known as the Iceman fungus.  When dried it can be used as tinder to start fires.  Pieces of this fungus were found in a fire-lighting kit carried by Otzi the Iceman, a 5000 year old mummy found frozen in ice in the Austrian Alps in 1991.  That's a fascinating story in its own right.  I always think of the Iceman when I see this fungus; it's fairly common along the Bruce Trail.

As I worked my way out to the edge of the woodlot I came on a few stretches of old fences, both cedar-rail fences, and a well built but overgrown old stone fence.

I left hoping that the managers at Hope Haven would find the trail I had flagged useful, though I knew that any work on it would wait until spring.  Then I entered the hospital, had surgery, became paralyzed and never got back to see the results.

Hope Haven Farm

A few years back, I helped with a small project to extend a trail through the woods for horseback riding.  Hope Haven Farm is a facility to help the disabled build confidence through equine therapy.  With a herd of several carefully selected horses and a large arena, they provide a range of activities that make a difference.

Volunteers play a large role in supporting activities and in fund-raising.

 The horses on the team are selected for their peaceful tolerant nature.

Here are a Norwegian Fjord horse and a Haflinger Draft horse, two of the small herd.

The project I was asked to help with was extending a trail through the woods on the farm so they could use it for riding.  I say riding, but it's really walking, often with a helper on each side for saetyf.

It was the time of year when things were beginning to freeze up, though helpfully there was no snow on the ground.

There was an existing tractor trail into the woods, but it petered out before reaching the fields.  By extending this, it could be used as a walking trail, forming a loop with crossing those fields.

Loree Forest Continued...

Once we made it across that little valley and up the other side, the most interesting part of the hike was over, but the rest was a (long) pleasant walk.  It was just a flat trail along the outer edge of the plateau, just above the long slope of the escarpment.  You could still see the bay through the trees.

This is a Google Maps image of the Loree Forest area.  You can see ski hills to the north and east, a subdivision and farm fields to the west.  And of course Georgian Bay is the deep blue to the north.  The orange areas are the Sugar Maple forests of the escarpment slopes.  The Loree Forest is the green area right in the lower centre of the photo.

As we headed around the trail we could see the blue of the bay through the trees.

The trail was simply a path along the flat land at the top of the slope, very pleasant walking.

During the previous month there had been a serious landslide on the slopes of the Peaks Ski Club.  We were expecting this, but had to go carefully to avoid the mud.  This is where a temporary truck road crossed the trail.

There's an old 'road' through the woods which they were using to bring trucks in.  But at one point we were able to look down on the chairlifts.

From then on it was a nice trail through the woods, until we finally reached the home of my hiking buddy, who lives nearby.  This is the area, with its extensive forests, where a cougar made its home a few years ago.

A 2015 Hike in Loree Forest

Rather than give you repeated pictures of snow out our back window, I think I'll fill in some posts on hikes from past Decembers, starting with a hike around the Loree Forest on Dec. 16, 2015, so 10 years ago today.  Note that there's no white stuff on the ground at all!  In contrast, it continues to snow here, putting us in a winter wonderland.  They've  been cancelling the little transit bus I use to get around too!  Spring can't come soon enough!

The Loree Forest is a tract of public land that sits up on an outcrop of Manitoulin Dolostone, just above the Peaks Ski Club.  The Bruce Trail goes right around the edge of the plateau.  From this lookout you can see over the bay, thanks to a valley carved through the soft Queenston Shale by a little creek we crossed.

A portion of the property was donated by the Shiffs, commemorated by a mounted plaque.

A zoomed in view shows the blue water of Georgian Bay.

And this is the little creek we crossed.

Going up the other side you can see the thin bedrock layers of the Manitoulin Formation.

A large chunk of flat rock has slipped over the edge and now lies on a sharp angle as we approach the top of the valley.

And there sits a flat chunk of rock that looks like an incipient flowerpot!  Look at those thin layers!

To be continued....