Trying to capture the adventures of younger years when our bodies easily responded to canoeing, biking, and hiking without any complaints are behind us. But the urge is still there to get out among the trees and under a sky that sometimes drenches, but generally feeds our well being, and we decided to find a circular route that included some of the greener parts of our city. It is to be a continuous, circular, linked route that ends where we started, without retracing except for handling our car drops.
Bill is both younger and fitter than me, and he hiked across England a few years ago. It was his suggestion though that settled our technique. He suggested that we
START SLOW AND TAPER.
This is not to be a get from point A to point B sort of thing. And if we see an interesting side trail, or a pond, or simply some people to talk to, that distraction will become part of the official experience. The trip is the key, not the destination.
The first day has a name: "Top of the Hill and Beside the River". Soon I'll tell you what it was like, and what we saw.
Sounds like a good idea, to get some good execise and see some interesting locales.
Top of the Hill and Beside the River
So our first day of this historic journey has been completed, and I say historic because there's a good chance no one ever, in the history of the universe, has made this particular journey on this particular route as one connected trip.
And don't worry about the stops. Even Magellan's crews, as they circumnavigated the globe starting in 1519, made stops. Many readers will not know that Magellan didn't go around the world. He died, and only one of five ships and 18 of 250 men survived the full trip.
Bill and I canoed the entire Trent Severn system about 40 years ago. So this is a miniature re-enactment on old feet. We completed 'day one' of our walk around Peterborough a few days ago. We're resting today because the length of the walk was maybe a little (insert favourite swear word) longer than the 7.5 k I had estimated and because we're old.
So the adventure started by parking Bill's car near The Cabin at Trent on the east side of the river near where Nassau Mills Road crosses Armour. And we crossed the canal bridge to get to the campus east side, and found the foot bridge to the west campus.
To begin we found going through the grounds of Trent was awesome. We had the entire campus all to ourselves and it was beautiful, especially the faux ancient walls. Because I had taken courses in the late 80's I could find a way between buildings and over bright green grass where we never saw anyone else.
But to our dismay we found when we got to the drumlin that global warming had increased its height and steepness! With many rest stops we made it to the crest and it was down hill for awhile, then flat while we walked beside the river in solitude to the train at the zoo where we finally met people, many of them very short and smiling.
We did visit the camels and the restrooms before Water Street and after crossing started up the Cumberland bike path, which was much steeper than I remembered it, another example of global warming. Finally we turned west on the bike trail that goes way past Lindsay if you want to follow it. And it was heavenly drifting slightly downhill in forest. We followed this almost to Hilliard Street.
There is a path totally in the woods that heads north here that is on the side of the Bear Creek Ravine. It pops out at Bathurst where we turned right onto Cabot and dragged ourselves to my house.
The hiking, which seemed to be almost all uphill, took us about 3 hours 45 minutes.
I sat on the couch and had an unexpected nap just sitting there.
Bill and I think our chances of reaching the end are pretty good. (And we both have cell phones if we run into difficulties, unlike Magellan.) But we've trained, and both of us have tough, resilient mental attitudes. Sort of.