Sun, Feb 18 2007 - Primrose and the Boyne River Valley (View Original Event Details)
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Not too long ago, there were 36 people signed up for this hike, but on the morning of the hike, it had dwindled down to 8 brave souls. About half the group brought snowshoes, while the rest of us decided that our gaters and non-slip treads would be enough. The sun was shining, the sky was bright - and the weather was cold, but not the biting cold from Cheltenham. It was looking to be a great day for a winter hike!
From the start, snow caused us problems. First we drove right past the parking area - then had to turn around to find it - it's usually one of the easier trailheads to locate - however it was covered in 3 ft of snow. There was no way we could park there, so we pulled up along the side of the road. Then the snow made the actual start of the trail difficult to find, so we ended up backtracking a fair bit until someone found the familiar blue blazes. Up the first hill we went and I always hate hikes that start uphill, but this was just the beginning. The Primrose loop was gorgeous but hardly used since the snowfall, so those of us with no snowshoes had to trudge our way through snow up to our knees. The snowshoed folks were also struggling as the snow was loose and they sank down in every step. Rocky gave everyone a hand by managing to step on the backs of all the snowshoes as he bounded up and down the trail, snow up to his withers. He loves the snow!
The initial primrose loop is about a 2.5 to 3K ridge walk, that was unmemorable the first time we hiked this trail in the late summer. It's pretty, with apple trees in the fall and snow laden branches in the winter, but it's TOUGH in the snow. I thought it would never end and considered finishing the hike when we got back to the road. I was tired already and we'd only been walking for an hour or two. But once we got to the road I was feeling a bit better, and the next part of the trail seemed a bit more packed down, so we continued...up another steep and long hill.
When the ground evened out, the snow got deeper - it was being blown in from some open fields and some of us tripped here and ended up deeper snow. I realized I was not the only one struggling. The trail opens up to large meadow with a large hill in the centre known as Murphy's Pinnacle, but I don't know who names these things. - I had hoped we'd be able to climb to the top and enjoy the view and lunch up there, but there was too much wind coming from the unprotected side. Most of the party went straight up the side (Rocky leading, of course) while Faye and I decided we'd take the long but less steep way around the side. Several times the snow gave way beneath me and I ended up hip deep in snow and having to climb out on my hands and knees. Jenn and Julian headed down the path towards us with ease on their snowshoes, while Lynn, Jim, Hyun and Tamara took a more direct route down. Halfway down the hill, Jim took a tumble in the deep snow, then Hyun, who being quite a bit shorter than the rest of us ended up nearly buried on the hill!! Eventually, everyone managed to pull themselves out and after some discussion and a quick glance at the map, we decided that it might be a good idea to take a short cut and loop back a bit early. The snow was really fighting us!
We followed the Bruce down into the Boyne River Valley, after finding a sheltered part of the trail to eat some lunch. Most of us were hot and sweaty from that extra work, so we didn't want to stand still for long. We continued down, where we traversed over numerous frozen creeks - Jim and I noticed that the trail users used the bridges and some went straight across the water - I could only guess that this section is used for some cross country skiing.
I don't know how it happened, but we started going uphill again. In a weird time and space warp, I swear we spent more time going uphill then we had downhills, even though we did a loop, we were constantly going up, like an Escher painting. I was getting sore, and no longer was the last person lagging behind. Although Jim and I were having a very interesting conversation so that must have slowed us down somewhat. We met the rest of the group as we finished the climb out of the river valley, where the trail intersected a snowmobile path. Rocky had never seen a snowmobile before and ran out in front of one, before deciding they were the devil and should be avoided. He also hates sea-doos. He's a naturalist, after all. The trail here continued up hill, and past the cowfield where Rocky previously followed his calling and rounded up the cattle. Luckily this time the field was empty and Rocky was getting tired too, we passed without incident. I have to say that I don't remember any of this being so uphill before!
We finally got to Hwy 89 and the end of the trail - just a small km or so along the road. Snowshoes were removed and everyone looked ready to call it a day...I thought that Tamara had kept up admirably with the leaders, but even she told me she felt wiped. No one was missing the extra kilometres from cutting the hike short, except maybe Julian - but he's a snowshoeing machine! The rest of us were just happy to get back to our cars and civilization. After the hike, Jim, Tamara, Jenn, Julian and I went to Shoeless Joes for some post hiking food and drink. We really felt we worked for our meal this time!
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