A Novice Hikers First Adventure on the Bruce Trail
By John Beamish
18 Jan 2008
The Bruce Trail is a hiking trail that extends from the Beamsville at the southern tip of the Niagara Peninsula to the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula at Tobermory in Ontario Canada.
A friend of mine who is a veteran of the Trail, (he has walked its entire 800km length) suggested that I might find interested photo-ops there. After much discussion we agreed on September 17th. for my first hike on the Bruce Trail.
We decided to stay overnight in Tobermory so we could get an early start the next day. Rising at 4:30am, downed a quick breakfast and then drove to our northern end point to drop my truck off there (thank goodness we did). Then proceeded to the our southern start point in Dave's car.
You are asked to donate ten dollars for trail maintenance and expansion, there are donation boxes at each parking lot. Heading for the beach at Half-way Dump Side Trail, (I believe this was where logs were dumped for collection and shipment to the saw mill) the start of our 6.5km hike.
We arrived at the beach just as the sun was cresting over the coniferous forest, the dawn was spectacular. We stayed on the beach for an hour and it was an ever-changing paradise. The rising sun changed the color of the rocks constantly as it burned away the morning mist.
The beach, a combination of small rounded rocks, jagged eroded outcroppings and large slabs of flat limestone. In places the forest slopes down to the beach and in others towering cliffs dominate the landscape.
I can't begin to describe the effect this area had on me, it was simply so amazing I would just stop and do a 360 and a whole new set of goose-bumps would start. The rest of the time I was shooting so fast and scrambling around from area to area, the hour felt like a mere ten minutes.
Dave finally said we had to go as we had a lot of rough ground to cover. I found that Dave is not a jester, I would soon think I would never make it to the end on my own.
Leaving the beach we ascended into the forest and made our way toward our next stop, a towering cliff Dave had pointed out down on the beach. Funny thing about how deceiving distances can be, especially when one cannot walk from point a to point b in a straight (or level) line.
At first it was a slow steady incline but it gradually became a slick, sometime vertical trail, where I had to sling my camera over my back in order to traverse a wall mossy limestone or slowly slither down same looking for hand holds in the rocks or trees.
Sweating and breathing somewhat heavily (gasping for breath might be more accurate) we breach the forest edge and stand on the brink of the cliff I has seen from the beach. Again Dave felt it incumbent upon himself to point out where we would penultimately finish our journey. Pointing north, he indicates the second point in the misty distance.
Having just learned how deceiving distances can be, my mind begins to go numb as I gauge this point to be at least twice as far as the cliff we are standing on was from the beach. Like a mirage it seems to float above the horizon.
Downward we go, slipping and sliding along. Stopping from time to time as we come to look out over Georgian Bay and the rocky shoreline below. Short rests over far too soon for this camper.
Around 11:30 we arrive on a beach made mostly of large round rock, about 12" to 16" in diameter and very difficult to walk over. After a short bit of exploration we decide to have our lunch on a limestone ledge near the edge of the water.
Almost as soon as I opened my sandwich a gull comes swooping down and lands almost within arms reach an stares at me as if its expecting me to share my lunch with it. It became somewhat of a game, I would reach out with a bit of bread and he would hop close enough to snatch it away and then hop back three step and gulp it down, then I would extend my hand without bread and he would take one or two hops in toward me, realize it was a trick and flap back several feet screeching in protest.
During our break I decided to change socks as my feet felt damp and discovered I had a couple of nice blisters started. Yes I broke the cardinal rule of hiking, new boots. In my defence I have them for two weeks before and thought they were broken in, but the most rigorous working in they got was walking up some steps. A couple of band-aids and we were off again.
The trail here was not quite so steep so we made better time. Around 1pm we arrive at the Grotto. This is a very rugged area and the Grotto itself is a large hole worn in the limestone forming a cavern open to the lake and the woods.
In some areas the cliffs are over 80' tall and other then a very brief shelf the bay drops to over a 700' in depth. The clear aquamarine water is a favorite for SCUBA divers from all over the world. With 21 ship wrecks it makes for a wonderful diving experience. In fact even though it was mid-September there were several divers in the water that day.
One last climb and we stand on an outcrop above the last bay on our trek. It is beautiful, not only because of the waves splashing up on the huge limestone slab at its south end that gradually slope down to a gentle cresent of small rocks that form the beach proper, but because I had made it to the end!
Remember earlier, penultimately? Yeah...I soon learned I had another km back to the truck, over 200 meters of the round shifting rocks on the beach, around a small lake and then slightly up-hill to the parking lot. But I made it, 6.5km of rough terrain, almost 300 photographs of some of the most life altering landscape, s deeper friendship then I started out with and truly satisfied with a day supremely well spent.
I have yet to make it back to the Bruce, Dave suffered the loss of sight to his right eye and is not sure he can do it again (I think he will) and I would not want to go back with anyone else.
I hope this was not too winded and you managed to enjoy it. I would urge anyone to visit this wonderful place and share in this experience.
www.brucetrail.org is one site with information.
Thanks for taking the time.
John Beamish
