Journal Entries

@hammerhead and I didn't see any other hikers - we were so impressed with the clear trail markings, its beauty, and obvious efforts of volunteers maintaining this trail system - which is on private property. Thank you, residents of the Black Rock Community!

Humid and heavy fog - this was as far as we could go on the Fundy shore section of the blue trail- an hour away from high tide. We will come back another time to do the whole thing.

Heavy rains the day before created a challenge: @hammerhead used his construction skills to build a bridge - I chose to take off my shoes and navigate cautiously further upstream, jabbing/digging/stabilized with my trekking poles.

July 29th @hammerhead and I searched for a new trail to hike within a couple hours from home, using https://www.alltrails.com/. The Black Rock Loop was a good choice for us, except we hadn't factored in the tide for the blue section of the hike we wanted to do.

Well, to nobody's surprise, we loved the Wind River Range. Naturally, we did the Cirque of the Towers alternate, and loved it. The going was tough at times, since we had all got out of the habit of mountain climbing as we trudged across southern Wyoming. Texas pass was a particular butt kicker, we climbed 1500feet in 1.5miles, which is pretty steep! Then the descent was a pretty vertical down-climb on loose scree and slippery gravel... Not my favourite, especially since the tread on my shoes was all but gone by the time we got to the winds. Oh well, I survived and only fell over three or four times that day (I swear I'm meant to be getting better at this hiking business, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

A Tougas child in their natural habitat (though she wouldn't admit it ;-) I love this photo. No stranger to life on the trail, @brienne looks like a natural.

One of the things I really like about this trail is that there are a lot of views to be had as you go due to several large sections of exposed rock - a rarity for many of the areas we have hiked around Montreal.

@reneetougas and I are now in the process of training for our 2-week trip on the Long Trail this coming September. Today we did a 14km loop at Mont-Orford that included a beautiful ridge walk called Pic de l'Ours. We even managed to convince @brienne to join us, who brought both her tenacity and her bling to the occasion.

@toesalad

First training hike to prep for backpacking on the Long Trail this September. Mont Orford did not disappoint. This Pic de l’ours (Bear Claw) is a beautiful hike.