'Bent and I were looking for bigger hills (by southern Ontario standards) so we went up to Blue Mountain. I had a rough idea of a route but we haven't spent much time there in summer so most of our limited knowledge comes from the Snowshoe Raid and from Dee's Tour de Blue last year.
We parked near Loree Forest and ran the Bruce Trail over to Georgian Peaks. The first hill we tried was steep and mostly overgrown - not much fun. Then we found the hill that locals must use for their hill repeats; it has a track up to the top.
We noticed a hiking trail in the woods beside the ski run and thought that might be a fun alternative. Nope, it turned out to be an Enchanted Poison Ivy Forest so we bailed back to the ski run. The view from the top was rather nice.
And yes, there was still snow on June 14.
After that, we continued on the Bruce Trail and turned onto a trail to the northwest that we've taken in the Snowshoe Raid a few times. It promised to be a gentler descent. It was also rough in places but it led us to a new discovery - the place where the local parapentistes take off. I thought of how excited Weeanimal would be!
We climbed back to Loree Forest. In this area, many of the hills are steeper than what we will do at UTMB but the trails up top are mostly flat as a pancake, which is a strange juxtaposition.
Before we started, I'd e-mailed Dee to see if she had any advice on my proposed route. She suggested adding some repeats at the Alpine ski area where the slope is gentler and more runnable. It sounded like a great idea except that when we got "there", we were actually at the top of Craigleith. Oops, I don't know my ski resorts very well! So we did a repeat there and called it a day.
What I didn't know was that intrepid Dee had set off on a hike after getting my last message. She'd sent an e-mail letting me know that she would come up Alpine and show us around (very nice!) but I tucked my phone into my backpack and didn't learn this until after we were done. :( No biggie - just a friend, pregnant with twins, wandering up and down a mountain (probably faster than me) and looking for us for over 2 hours. :(( Sorry, Dee, and thank you. I owe you a beer. Oh... I mean an herbal tea.