Sat, Apr 21 2007 - Hike - Osler Bluffs & Relax at Spa (View Original Event Details)
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What a day! I couldn’t have asked for anything else for this event; the weather was perfect, the sun was beaming brightly down on us, it was plus 20 and I had a great group to accompany me.
What were the odds for everyone to arrive on time and for 3 TOC events to meet at the same meet up place? Well, that was what happened!
It was great to see Daniel’s group who was meeting up for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bike & Wine Leisure Ride as well as Jim & Jo’s group for the Mono Cliffs Provincial Park event. At one time Jenn P got confused and thought she was at the wrong meet up spot as she thought we were meeting at York Mills Station instead. Once we sorted out which group belonged to which event; we all introduced each other, signed our waivers, distributed out the maps and then headed towards Osler Bluffs.
When we got there, Janice and Yi’s cars were at one parking spot while myself, Carl (who replaced Ruth at last minute) and Oliver’s cars met up at the parking spot down the road. The later three cars drove up to where Janice and Yi’s cars were and started on our hike.
The Hike: we started off at Osler Side Trail and realized that there was snow! To make it more challenging, the snow was covering our trail. After some deep knee high snow incidents for some of our members including Jenn and Paula, we soon managed to find an alternative route to the trail and went from there.
The trail was well marked (once we found it) and the snow soon decimated. As the warmth of the sun guided us, we managed to climb a hill and met up with a local Gardner snake. After our incident, we manage to continue on our way and soon found our lunch spot by a nearby brook.
The snow incident did set us back from our schedule at the spa a little but that did not stop us from enjoying our (shortened) hike. After lunch by the brook, we headed off to down the road towards the spa.
Once at the spa, every one took off and quickly found their favourite spots. A favourite for most was the sauna but mine were definitely the steam room AND the hot falls, very therapeutic; who says we need a message? I noticed not many people were willing to tough it out in the cold mineral plunge and falls, as they were definitely cold! YIKES!
Half of the group left early; for those of us who stayed, we went into town for dinner at “San Diego”, a mom & pop owned Italian restaurant before heading back to the city.
Thank you guys for helping me continue my traditional hike and spa! I hope to see you all at the next event.
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.