Bruce Trail Hike - Sydenham
Section 100.7 - 143.9 (maps 32 - 34, 30th edition)
June 2 - 4, 2023
Louise Gibson put out a call for leaders for LOC Bruce Trail hikes. I was available for the early June hike, and having hiked that Sydenham section before just with friends, when I was close to finishing the BT, decided I should volunteer to lead a LOC hike on the Sydenham. I was very happy when Louise said that Binta Garba would be the co-leader.
Accommodations can be a challenge but we secured a block of rooms at the Comfort Inn in Owen Sound in early December. Binta was able to scout out parking spots as her sister conveniently lived in Owen Sound and she visits regularly. The hike was posted on the website. We limited this hike to 14, and had nine registrants. As happens, two had to cancel. Five hikers - Cynthia MacNeil, Anna Delorme, Beth Gray, Doreen Schommer and Riki Muir, plus Binta and me met Friday, June 2 at the Comfort Inn at 11:45 am and began the logistical process of getting cars to the end and beginning of the trail.
Friday. 143.9 - 132.2. It was sunny and very warm and we were greeted on the trail by many many mosquitos. Fortunately, we were prepared with bug spray and lots of water. We completed the 11.7 Km in about 4 hours (including shuttles), returned to our hotel and opted to go to Tim Horton’s next door for take-out that we ate at one of the many picnic tables at the Comfort Inn. Besides our group, the hotel was hosting several members of a hotrod club. Our dust covered vehicles contrasted to their well kept cars. We should have taken a photo of the owners polishing their cars in the morning before they headed out to their events. A note: Because parking spots are not usually right at the very beginning or end of the trail, mileage is sometimes a little more than the amount posted for that day. We actually ended up with a couple more kms on Friday.
Saturday. 132.2 - 110.5 We had agreed the night before to a slightly earlier start because of the heat. We had also discussed other options, such as cutting a couple Km off Saturday’s hike and adding them to Sunday’s shorter day and whether to have the majority of the road work be at the beginning or end of the day. We kept to the original plan - keep the original mileage and finish with road work. While warm, the skies were hazy. Mosquitoes were still abundant and we all packed extra water. We were on the trail by 8:30. This section of the Sydenham is beautiful, with some rocks to climb up and down, some walks through fields, scenic views of the escarpment, past a lovely wetlands pond and walks through crevices that lowered the temperature by a few degrees. The trail was well-marked with blazes, except for one section through one of the crevices. No blaze was visible. We did our due diligence as hikers, looking high and low and behind us. Anna confidently pointed to one direction and said ‘that has to be the way, you can see there’s a trail’. But I was thinking that bears, too, could have made that trail. And we had seen bear scat on the trail. Fortunately it was the trail and no bears were spotted there or anywhere else during the weekend. We did see see one small garter snake, a few dogs and their owners and a few other hikers, but we basically had the trail to ourselves. As Cynthia had already completed Km 110 -115, she opted to park her car at 115 Km, which also provided an option for anyone feeling they had had enough fun on the BT that day and were ready to go back a little early.
Dinner was at Shorty’s Grill, a highly recommended local restaurant in Owen Sound, followed by ice cream treats at the Dairy Queen, a short two block walk from Shorty’s.
Sunday, 110.5 - 100.7. The temperature was a little cooler - perfect hiking weather. Our shuttle time was less because this section was closer to Owen Sound. We were on the trail by 8:30 and finished by 11:30. We encountered one woman who asked if we were part of the group doing the ‘end to end’ that weekend. We thought we might see some of them, but did not.
The trail was well-maintained, with mostly freshly painted blazes (except for the spot by the one crevice). There was very little litter, except those couple areas where people could do a fairly short easy walk to look at Jones Falls.
The Sydenham seems to be a nice representation of what the BT can offer. Some spectacular scenery (even without views of the water), some moderately challenging rocks to climb, a few stiles, a set of stairs, a little bit of road walking, walks through fields and trails that meander through the trees.
Riki helped us identify bird songs and we all learned that the tall plant with tiny white flowers that looked a little like hogweed, or maybe Queen Anne’s lace, was called Cow Parsley.
Thanks to Binta for the logistical planning, the hikers for their positive energy and flexibility and the cooperative weather, we had a terrific hike on the Sydenham. Submitted by Gail Nawrock
Photo 1: We stopped in the crevice so Binta could take a photo. Starting from the bottom: Beth, Cynthia, Doreen, Riki, Anna and Gail.
Photo 2: In one of the many patches of Cow Parsley. Doreen, Beth, Anna and Binta.