Sun, Jul 22 2007 - Fleetwood Creek & Ken Reid Conservation Areas *HIKE & SWIM* (View Original Event Details)
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This is Lillian doing the write-up. I felt that Justin's brief description of the hike in Walker Woods on July 15th failed to capture the entertainment that was present so I insisted that I be the one to do the write-up. Justin agreed, but only after he proof-reads it for "spelling errors."
The day started off as a comedy of errors for Justin, but ends on what I think I was a very good note, so all's well that ends well. Heather had the latest Harry Potter and a small group gathered to discuss it. Justin is probably the most organized volunteer in the TOC. At Downsview, he assigned everyone to a car, handed the driver a set of written directions to the location, a map with the route clearly marked, and his cell phone number. Aside from an intersection where it was a bit unclear which route one should continue (at this point, all the roads were unmaintained dirt roads, so it really looked like that we shouldn't have been on them at all), all the cars made it to the first destination, Fleetwood Creek.
All cars, except for one. Justin's. I'm not sure how this happened (Selma the GPS might have been upset with him and gave him the wrong directions or he was "scouting" the route for the second destination), but Justin took the wrong turn and went on the road towards Ken Reid Conservation Area.
The next thing you know, Justin's car got stuck in a fairly large muddy water-filled rut. Water seeped in. "FRAK!" was Justin's response. Yes, even when upset, he is still a sci-fi geek. Frak, I just learned from Urban Dictionary, is a sanitized replacement word for the other f-word from the televison show Battlestar Galactica (Justin's note: The new series, not the old one). He suggested to Renee and Amy that they get out and help push the car out of the mud. Luckily they didn't have to do so as Justin got an ATV to pull them out.
Since it became quite clear that they would be there for a while alternate leader, Matt, decided to lead us on our hike. The trail was a small pleasant loop with a nice of some tree tops. It was supposed to be 3 km long, but it was definitely much shorter than that since we took hardly any time at all to return back to the parking lot where we found Justin, Renee, and Amy. Justin had pulled out the mats inside the car to dry out in the sun.
Because of the road condition, we decided to walk to Ken Reid on the dirt road (this ended up being the longest hike of the day, I believe), which was about 5k. We decided to do one of the loops and then eat lunch. The hiking was turning out to be more of a casual stroll through the woods. We mingled as we walked underneath the trees.
After lunch, a small group of people decided to bushwhack from Ken Reid to Fleetwood Creek. Most of us, very sensibly, wanted to return the way we had come - by road. Since Matt wanted to bushwhack, I made sure that he handed over his car keys to me before he left. I was in his carpool and I wanted to make sure that I could still get back home to Toronto in case he never returned. The bushwhackers were sure that they would make it to the cars before we did. They didn't.
We arrived long before the bushwhackers and sat around waiting for them. Justin called to see where they were. The bushwhackers asked us to honk a car horn to see if they were near by. They could only hear the car horn through the phone. We thought it would be best that we make our way to Sturgeen Lake for the third part of our outing and the bushwhackers could meet us there. Since I had Matt's keys, I was fully willing to drive his car to Sturgeen Lake. The fact that I could only kinda-sorta drive a stick (hey, it's been a couple years) wasn't stopping me. I wasn't worried about burning the clutch because it wasn't my car. I think to Matt's relief, the rest of the TOCers talked me out of driving the car. Instead I hid the keys for them to find and rode with Justin, Renee, and Amy.
Driving along, Justin graciously bore the full brunt of teasing from us girls (mostly about his GPS girlfriend, Selma, like if he ever cheated on her with another GPS system). We also thought it would be hilarious to call the bushwhackers, honk the horn, and re-create the Verizon commercial, "Can you hear me now?" We come to Sturgeen Lake and I read aloud a sign, "Warning. High bacteria levels. Swimming is forbidden."
We also come to see that none of the other TOCers are there waiting for us. Justin decided to drive out and see if there were out places that people could have accidentally gotten themselves too (the answer is no). We randomly stop at a spot on the road to see if any of the other TOC cars would come by. They didn't.
At this point in time, Justin is a tad distraught at the thought of losing over 20 TOC members on an event. The day was not going well for him. Let's recap. His car gets stuck in mud. He misses the first hike altogether. The group is split into two groups and he has no idea where the bushwhackers are or even if they made it out alive. Then he loses the other TOCers. We're not allowed to swim because of dangerous bacteria levels in the lake, so the third part of the event has be cancelled. Oh, and he hasn't collected the donations yet. Amy, Renee, and I were having a good time though.
A hug didn't help, but a brownie did. Never underestimate the power of chocolate. A situation doesn't seem as dire when you have a bit of chocolate. He drove us back to the lake, when we find Tom walking to meet us. Apparently everyone had arrived and went down to the lake instead of staying near the parking area. We hadn't recognized their cars.
The rest of the group came up and we sat around on the grass, relaxed, and waited for the bushwhackers to arrive. And they did.
And so, at the end of the day, everything worked out. We managed to find each other. Justin collected the donation (he came prepared with loonies and twoonies to hand out as change). And everyone had a great day. Matt let me drive his car and I proved to everyone that indeed, I only kinda-sorta knew how to drive a stick, by promptly killing the engine four or five times. Possibly more. All the drivers quickly peeled out of the parking lot to get on the road before I did when they saw that I was the one behind the wheel. Anyway, I only drove for a little bit on the side street and Matt drove the rest of the way home, much to Mihal and Thai's relief.
This event is now my favourite event that I've been on with the TOC. Why? It wasn't because of the spectacular hiking. The trails were short and pleasant, but certainly nothing to get excited about. Nor did we come to any awe-inspiring vistas. We didn't get to swim in a cool lake. The day turned out great because of the people that came out. I never laughed so much in one day in my life. From the start, with Matt, Mihal, and Thai trying to show this city girl something about the countryside by going cow-watching (it's like bird watching only with cows and much funnier) to the end of the event talking to other people like Ramin about the places we've been, I was having a wonderful time and laughing my head off. To me, this is what the TOC is about. It's not necessarily about the physical experience of hiking, or canoeing, or rock-climbing or what-have-you, but the people you meet. You never know who you're going to meet next. You never know what's going to happen next.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.