Thanksgiving Monday seemed like an auspicious day for a hike, so we set out for our 8th day of hiking on the Rideau Trail - wondering what type of adventures the trail would bring us! We started in the middle of nowhere, parking at the intersection of two gravel roads and immediately headed into the the forest on a disused road (well maybe used by people riding ATVs). It was a lovely fall morning, chilly and clear, with many leaves on ground and some still in the trees. The track was dry (!!) and it was lovely walking.
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| Carpet of leaves covering the track |
Not far along we crossed this pretty creek (we would cross this creek two more times throughout the day. This section of trail did not take a very direct route!)
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| Creek crossing #1 (thankfully there were bridges each time!) |
The trail followed old roads/tracks for about 7 km through beautiful fall forest. Unlike last time, we were prepared for hunting season, wearing bright colours, but we didn't hear a single gunshot although we did see a sign that said "caution active hunting in area". I was sure glad I had a neon orange hat on and a neon yellow and orange vest on covering my pack.
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| Rolla and Zuzka rockin' the high visibility colours. Safety first! |
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The Rideau Trail then led us to a secondary highway where we walked along the shoulder. After only a kilometre or so, we entered Merrickville. The first proper town we've been to along the way!
Merrickville is a quaint historic town with locks along the Rideau Canal. There was once a mill on the Rideau River adjacent to the Locks, which is now a historic site. The entire Rideau Canal is a Parks Canada National Historic Site and we were delighted to have our morning lunch (we usually eat two small lunches) at this beautiful location at the Merrickville Locks National Historic Site. It was so nice to eat at a proper picnic spot - and such a beautiful one too!
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| Best lunch location yet! |
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| Parks Canada Adirondack chairs were very much appreciated! |
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| View from the chairs |
After our break, we crossed the river and then walked along the actual Rideau Canal locks. I took lots of photos for my Dad :-)
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| Inspiration for our next adventure? Canoeing the Rideau Canal and portaging the locks... |
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| Rolla walking alongside the Merrickville Locks |
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| Open lock |
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| Looking up at a closed lock |
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| Almost empty lock |
The following 9.3 km were all along roads. While it was a beautiful day, walking along the side of a paved road with no shoulder, facing oncoming traffic isn't that pleasant. I find it's hard on my knees and hips walking on the pavement and Rolla finds her feet don't appreciate the hard pavement either. I was impressed though that most of the oncoming traffic gave us lots of space and pulled into the other lane. When they did this, I made sure to give them a wave and smile in appreciation. As we have yet to meet any other hikers doing the Rideau Trail, I wonder if the locals are used to seeing hikers along that stretch of road or if we looked out of place!
We walked under a train bridge and not long after, a train went over it and I managed to catch this photo of it passing. It's kind of hard to see, but there are two engines on the bridge!
About 3 km from the end was another set of locks with a picnic site and this was within a few hundred metres of our 100 km mark, so we took this opportunity for a much needed rest, our second lunch and a celebration of the "century" (100 km) that we had walked! I figured pink champagne was exactly what we would need to mark the occasion, along with some fancy cookies from my favourite bakery.
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| Pouring the champagne. Rolla couldn't believe I had carried that all day. It was totally worth it :-) |
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| Champagne and leaf-shaped decorated cookies (camouflaged in with real leaves!) |
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| Woohoo, we've walked 100 kms! 1/3 of the way to Kingston! |
We finished off the final few kilometres of the day with me guessing that we would arrive in Burritt's Rapids (where we had parked Rolla's car) "just after the next straight section" or "just around the next curve". After a few iterations of this, it was finally true and we came to the car, a bit sore after all the pavement walking but still in good spirits :-)
Statistics:
Start Point - Intersection of Burchill and McConnell Roads
End Pont - 14A
Time - 4 hours 20 minutes
Daily Distance - 17.3 km
Total Distance - 103 km
Number of moquitoes - zero!
Number of
woolly bear caterpillars we saw on the side of the road - countless!
Volume of pink champagne drank - 200 ml.
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