Days of the Dams - Day 13 - 1 August 2015

It seemed like we had only just been hiking when we hit the trail on Saturday. I was looking forward to this day though, because of the changing landscape and the promise of "the trail is better south of Perth" so I was happy to get again. 

This was the first day on the trail that we didn't traverse a farm field. Not a single one! We were really appreciating the nice trail that meandered through the hilly forest. The trail went through cottage country near Big Rideau Lake (alas, we hardly even caught a glimpse of it!).

The entrance to the trail off a gravel road.

We were so happy to be starting off on this lovely little trail.

The trail passed alongside some pretty ponds like this one.

A trail through a forest. It's not even overgrown. So delightful!

It was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery. This is what I had thought the entire trail would be like!

The map descriptions indicated that we would be passing over a few beaver dams which meant that we made sure to wear gaiters because that sounded wet. We wore gaiters both days last weekend but didn't need them at all. However, after our first day out this year with soggy socks, I'm not too keen to go without, even though they are very hot to wear in the high temperatures we've been having. But I was sure glad I had them for the beaver dam crossings on this hike.

I wasn't quite sure what it would be like to cross over a beaver dam. In the all time I've spent in the forest, I don't recall ever crossing one. But I suspected it might be a little precarious to keep your footing amongst the sticks and mud. I was right.

Rolla successfully keeping her balance on the first dam we crossed.

 After watching Rolla's precarious journey across the dam I picked up a stick to help with balancing as I crossed. Rolla said that was cheating, but I sure wasn't apologizing! I've fallen off enough slippery logs into creeks when I was younger, that now I am extra cautious!

Zuzka enjoying the trail. Notice the "Ottawa End to End" badge from the Rideau Trail Association :-)

A hill! This is the steepest hill we've come upon!

 Walking along a gravel road we came around a corner to see this sign. I can't even articulate how unexpected it was!

A Coptic Orthodox Christian Monastery near Perth?!! A sign with Arabic and the Rideau Trail marker on the same tree?! Mind blown.

Both of us have spent time in the Middle East and are familiar with the struggles of the Coptic Christians in that region and we were so surprised to see this Coptic monastery in the middle of nowhere south of Perth. The monks there no doubt enjoy the serenity and solitude the lovely landscape and forest provide. Rideau Trail, you continue to surprise us!

We had lunch at a nice shady grassy spot on a hill alongside a gravel road. It was one of the nicest lunch spots we've had (after the bridge over the creek on the day we hiked with Kizza and of course after the Parks Canada red chairs at the locks in Merrickville!). There was a breeze and no bugs, so we actually sat and lingered for a little while, which is unusual. Usually we quickly eat small snacks because we are either eating in mosquito-infested swamp/forest or alongside a busy road. The trail is indeed getting better south of Perth!

We were making good time and we only had a 3.3 km section of trail that would take us to a gravel road in Murhpy's Point Provincial Park and then another 3.4 km section on a trail in the Park. So 6.7 km in total. We would be finished in probably an hour and half which would put us ahead of schedule because we were making such good time.

But, the Rideau Trail always has some unexpected adventures for us.

We crossed that beaver dam. On the couple inches of mud on the right.

This very long beaver dam was extremely difficult to cross. The vegetation grew on a slope of sticks so we couldn't walk though that, so we had to walk along the very narrow edge of mud. The mud was firm at times and at other times gave way and dropped off to deep water. I ended up with my left foot in the water near up to the top of my gaiters. Thankfully though not over top , so I stayed mostly dry. I had forgotten to pick up a walking stick at the start, so after that incident which was about halfway across, I found a stick which made the rest of the crossing better. I passed the stick to Rolla for the last few metres of the crossing and she was very glad to have it because otherwise she would have gone for a swim when the mud slipped away and she teetered precariously, but regained her balance leaning on the stick. I watched the whole thing unfold from the the shore, so I sure glad she didn't take a header into the water!

After this section there were some very helpful cairns with trail markers on sticks in them and other times just cairns to mark they way. They were very nice to have and made following the trail soooo much easier! Thank you to all those who put them there!

I was super grateful every time we spied one of these additional cairns/trail markers.

 Remember that 3.3 km section? That would usually take us way less than an hour to walk? Well about 45 minutes or an hour had gone by and we were still in it. We hadn't hit the gravel road yet. But we must be close, right? 

Wrong. We found ourselves navigating, traversing, cursing, this quaqmire. 

Um, where's the trail? Well we bushwacked, through the reeds and grass on the right. I had spied an orange triangle on the far side of this mess about 500 ft away, so we knew we had to cross it somehow!

We were walking between two ponds. It was pretty. But.

This part of the trail was nearly impassible. Likely the wet spring and summer we've had made the water level higher and didn't help. Maybe there was a trail somewhere underwater? The map description said that was a bridge somewhere. We never found it. But we also never strayed from the triangles more than 30 feet, so I don't know how we missed. So maybe the bridge is under water. It's a mystery that I'm okay with never going to back investigate.

We carried on through some over grown trail and crossed another (damn) dam or two. Oh and that 3.3 km section? Yep, still in it. There were lots of brambles and prickly leaved plants. I had grabbed another stick at one of the dams and kept it with me to use as a "bramble basher" to keep the pricklies out of the way as I walked past.

After a while we were seriously questioning where we were on the map, we thought that perhaps the gravel road had disappeared just like the bridge had and that we were actually beyond the 3.3 km section. But then much to our disappointment we came upon the gravel road. It had taken us forever. Rolla is the official timekeeper, so I forget how long it took us to do this measly 3.3 km, but let's just say it took us much longer than usual and it seemed to me like it took forever!

Zuzka and the Bramble Basher. At the infamous gravel road. I'm smiling, but inside I was grimacing.

We still had another 3.4 km to go and we realized that the trail took a giant loop and came back to the same road only 600 m away. We seriously considered skipping the loop and just walking on the road because we were so angry at the trail, but we decided to stick with it. Thankfully the trail led us to an historic site in the provincial park so it was very well maintained. We then crossed the gravel road 600 m down the road from where we had initially come upon it and then followed another trail until we finished for the day at another historic site. They were both old homesteads. I was beyond caring to go and read the interpretive signs. We had to pay $14 to park at the parking lot by the homestead because it was in the Park. We had to pay the fee last weekend too. So $28 in total for 2 people to walk on well maintained trails for 6 km between last week and this week. So $7 for each of us for each day, that works out to each of us paying $1.16 per km to walk on good trails. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes. It was a good morale boost at the start of last Saturday's hike and at the end of this hike to walk on good trails.

The parking lot was at this historic site. Yay, done!

All in all, it was a great day hiking. Maybe a little bit too much adventure for Rolla, but we survived! I was just happy to be in the forest and for the first time on the trail, we felt like we were really hiking, not walking and not tramping on the side of farm field. The terrain was nice (for the most part!) and the route was well marked (thank goodness!). We figured it was about an 8/10 day. The best day so far, but still room for improvement (ie. not passing over overgrown sketchy beaver dams!)

Statistics:

Start Point - 8C

End Pont - 9 B

Time - 5 hours 

Daily Distance - 17.5  km

Total Distance - 190.6 km

# of beaver dams crossed: at least 3 (maybe 5)
Lesson Learned: Now that the terrain is getting rougher and we might have to cross more beaver dams, next time I'm bring my hiking poles!