Sat, Feb 24 2007 - Trail Run: Bluff Trail, Awenda Provincial Park (View Original Event Details)
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We had a great day for this run - sunny, not too windy, no threatening clouds - so we headed up from the city to Awenda Provincial Park, north of Penetanguishine. While the drive was notable for discussion of evolutionary principles, we got there in one piece and stuck on our snowshoes.
We headed down the trail, avoiding the ski tracks, and noted that Ontario Park's ski reports MIGHT be overstating the snowfall situation - that said, there was still ample snow, and we definitely needed the snowshoes. We ran onto the Bluff Trail, going slowly (both Toby and I are the running wounded; while we'd normally do intervals anyways, Toby started hiking after his hip flexor triggered in order to be okay for a half marathon March 4 - luckily, I run really slowly in snowshoes when I have poles with me so this arrangement worked fine!). We headed along the Bluffs, which were beautiful (and, VERY snowy - it was a very sudden change in snow depth) until it intersected with the Beach Trail. There, we discovered that while the half of the Bluff Trail we'd run WAS open to snowshoers, the other half to complete the 13k loop was open to skiiers only (hmph!). We also discovered some skiiers heading onto that half of the trail, so instead we headed down the Beach Trail (nice hill!) and wandered around the beach and onto the shallows - we had great views and it was fun to explore!
We did have a great day, and Awenda is definitely a perfect place to go if you want to do some introductory trail runs - a lot of the trails are on old logging/access roads. On the way home, we stopped for some food in the always delightful Alliston (yeah, ok, we drove past Barrie without thinking about it) before heading back to the city.
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.