The First of Many Steps. Day 1 - 8 June 2014

Sunday 8 June 2014 was an auspicious day to start our journey. Or not. It just happened to be the day when our busy schedules aligned to allow us to start our adventure on a hot, humid Ottawa summer day. It was lovely!

We both live close to the starting point of the Rideau Trail, so we walked from our respective homes and met at the start of the Trail. Let the journey begin!

There are 19 maps published by the Rideau Trail Association and we started on Map 19 at point 19H (the maps and the trail descriptions are written and numbered from Kingston to Ottawa). This is located at the bottom of the locks below Parliament. 

We found the first trail marker! The Rideau Trail is marked with the red triangles.

 

Kilometre Zero.

We started at kilomtre zero and we think we have 305 km to go until Kingston. Like any good adventure we aren't quite sure about the distance! There are some side routes to the RT which in total equal 387 km. We don't plan to do the side routes as we're more interested in doing an end-to-end journey. We'll tally our kilometres and when we hit Kingston City Hall, the southern terminus of the trail, we'll know how far we went.

We came upon this historic plaque during the hike at Richmond Landing. I think it used to be northern terminus on the trail, but it has now extended a few kilometres farther east.

The day ended at Westboro beach. Sorry, no photo, we were more interested in a finding cold beer at a pub close by and then catching a bus home. Even though we spent the entire "hike" on the paved NCC pathway, it was pretty cool to start the journey with a walk and finish it with a transit ride home.

Statistics:
Start point - 19H
End point - 19D
Daily Distance 7.6 km
Total Distance 7.6 km