Sat, Apr 3 2010 - Serenity in Black (View Original Event Details)
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All the snow is gone now. Just think, 3 weeks ago I was walking on ice cover lakes. The weather man predicted a high of 27C in Toronto and we hit 26C on the trail. Our adventure today takes us to the Ganaraska Trail - Wilderness Section (Map 12). We parked at Devils Lake and hiked on an access trail to Petticoat Junction where we met up with the main Ganaraska Trail. This first section started off with a cottage road and then a single track working westward across various ponds and beaver dams. The trail was surprisingly dry for spring time. We passed a pair of campers and we meet up with 2 kayakers at Sheldon Lake Landing. The single track grew into an ATV track by the time we got to Petticoat Junction. This was about 5 km from the parking lot via trail and 3.3 as the crow flights. It took us about 90 minutes at a steady pace. Southbound from Petticoat Junction to Scrabble mountain the trail was mostly snowmobile/ATV tracks and fairly straight. We passed 3 ATV's as they were winching themselves up and out of a ravine. They really cause a lot of erosion damage to the trail system. This part of the trail is part of the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park. Currently the park is basically a free for all as far as access to everyone from ATV's to hunters to hikers, etc. It's more or less crown land slowly being turned into a traditional park. The benefit it is free. But the negitive, is it gives relatively easy access to the camo crowd and the trail of damage and garbage associated with some in this activity. {PS if you are a hiker you are part of the Granola crowd. Let me expain. A few years ago I ready an article in a outdoor magizine that described outdoor people. There are 2 types. The Camo crow(is short for camouflage)require a motor to get somewhere (snowmobile, ATV, motor boat, etc.)The Granola crowd are self propeled (like to do it the hard way)(cross counrty ski, mountain bike, canoe, hike, etc.). Now having said all that we are all a bit of both, since we did drive to the trail head.} We broke for lunch at a small beaver pond and wooden bridge. Misty injoyed the water,it was really cold. Scrabble Mountain was a rocky outcropping with some weathered tree cover. At the top there was a tribute grave marker for Aldie LeCrow (1893-1966). We had a break for a few minutes to take in the sunshine. Were at 10 km and a little after 1 pm. By this time the 3 ATV's caught up to us. They came in at Minden. They did 21 km to that point. They were heading to Moores Falls, which was another 8 km of trails. We headed back. It was hot and our conversation dropped to heavy breathing and grunts. The group stayed together and we made it back to the cars by 4:30pm. Misty and I stuck our feet into the ice cold water of Devils Lake. It was cold but very refreshing to get those hiking boots off. We drove down to Coboconk for supper at Patties Family Resturant. I think we had 3 large pitchers of water between the 7 of us. Overall the trail was well marked. I really liked the single track access trail. There were no bugs out yet. I could see this being a very bug area in May/June/July. The forest was wide opening since it was so early in the growing season. The ATV trail was disappointing for me. I was expecting more wilderness in the wilderness section. I think next time I would do more bushwhacking to find the wilderness. See you all soon Gary
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