Sun, Feb 4 2007 - Cheltenham Badlands (View Original Event Details)
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It was bitterly cold...
When this hike was first posted, before we had snow, we had up to 36 people signed up at one point. But as the snow fell and so did the temperature, we were left with 15 brave souls who bundled up as warm as they possibly could, just to prove that they are, indeed, Hardcore. Since we were already hardcore just for showing up, I decided that we'd do the hike backwards, doing the easiest part first and if we were still feeling up to it, or at least feeling our external limbs, we'd consider completing the rest of the hike.
We started moving at a fairly brisk pace, the usual suspects (me!) in the back, the leaders in the front with Rocky leading the way, modelling his purple fleece sweater, worn to impress the ladies (his girls: Jenn, Sivanny and Hong). The cold weather has very little effect on Rocky being part Husky...
The Cheltenham hike is very simple and flat, beginning with the "badlands", an unusual geological anomoly for Ontario, then through Caledon country roads and walking along part of the Caledon Trailway. We didn't see too many hikers out, so we had the trailway to ourselves. We saw a dead rabbit, or what was left of one after an unfortunate end with some sort of predator, luckily it was quite frozen, so Rocky didn't have a chance to roll in eau de dead rabbit for his girls. Besides, he wouldn't have wanted to mess up his sweater
When we were protected by the wind and walking at a decent pace, everyone seemed to be making it through the cold all right. Jenn and I discussed the need for fleece undewear, since even with long johns, your butt is always cold. Toby had some superhero sunglasses on - I asked if they had special powers, and he did say that they had x-ray vision, but I think we were all wearing too many layers for him to see much. Toby brought the fancy camera, so hopefully he'll send some of his shots in - it was too cold for me to take pictures! We had a quick stop for lunch, where Rocky tried his best to impress Monica for cheese. He tried everyone down the line as usual. . There were lots of hot drinks and that turned us on to the discussion of needed to whether we should continue the hike for the extra hour, or leave early, find a nice pub and enjoy some hot drinks (but with a little extra!).
There wasn't much left to go, but enough time for me to point out to Julian that he is well on his way to being one of our top members, having attended the most events in the least amount of time! But there are a few members out there who are close behind. I suspect there will be a few more this summer - the AGM will be a tough contest this year!
When we got to the turn off point, I made an executive decision - we'd be cutting the hike off early. Of course I knew we were all capable of completing the hike, since we are all Hardcore Hikers, but we didn't need to prove anything to anyone - just being out was rewarding enough. There were more than a few sighs of relief...It was a uphill jaunt to our cars and we were off to find a pub. Our first choice, The TerraCotta Inn was full, obviously not prepared for all 15 of us, but only being a short distance away from Brampton, we headed to the nearest Kelsey's, where as usual, they were more than happy to serve our happy and cold bunch. I didn't see any spanish coffee's being served, but I did see a lot of tasty desserts and other treats. It was a good way to end a cold day and it was fun to see everyone join us afterwords (and it's great to see what everyone looked like, unbundled!)
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.