It's incredible how quickly we went from the snowy polar vortex to slush and patches of bare ground. I'd been hoping the deep freeze would continue during my week up north. The only silver lining is that 'Bent isn't missing as much winter during his dental mission as he thought he would.
My left MCL is strained after yesterday's fall but it feels like a 1-week injury, not a 2-3 month injury. My left foot got wrenched too but it was already injured so it's just a setback, not something new.
I decided to avoid running and skiing today to give my MCL a rest so AdventureDog and I went for a hike instead. He always starts barking if he sees me put on my Ambit watch, and he starts barking again if I press a button. Annoying but interesting that he is so attuned to human cues. He also freaks out when my iPhone alarm goes off and when we turn off the TV with the remote. The late BulletDog leapt to her feet whenever she heard the "Windows shutdown" sound from 'Bent's computer.
We started from the Georgian Peaks parking lot. I don't know the forest trails in that area but I know the trails at the top of the mountain, and I figured we'd get there eventually. There were some nice views on the way up.
I think there must be an easier trail. Even with Kahtoolas, the ice, slush and mud had me clinging to saplings or sometimes moving up with hands and feet. I realized I wouldn't want to come down this trail so I would need to find another route. (It was steeper than the photo makes it look.) At times like this, I'm soooo grateful that I got into orienteering.
The Dontgetlost Snowshoe Raid maps show trails leading from Loree Forest partway down the escarpment but the map ends there. I did some bushwhacking and followed an indistinct trail to get to the top, where I met up with the main Bruce Trail. There was bare ground, knee-deep snow, ice and deep slush - crazy conditions.
Now that I was back in familiar territory, we followed some trails on the SSR map. I wanted to do some extra climbing since CCC is only 7 months away so I headed downhill for awhile then over to a control from this year's Raid. The flags are gone now, of course, so there was nothing to find in the woods. So I texted this photo to Bob and asked, "Which SSR control is AdventureDog getting close to?"
Not surprisingly, he's pretty good at that sort of thing. :) If anyone else wants to play, it would be helpful to know that I was facing west when I took the photo.
We went down Camperdown Road and followed the Georgian Trail back to the car. This wouldn't have seemed too long if we were running but it's a looooong walk back from the forest when you're just hiking. It was fine to do once though. I'll need to find a better way to get back down to Georgian Peaks.