 There we are all smiles as we stepped onto the Niagara Bruce Trail on Day 1 of a 3-day end-to-end hike. I’m so happy that we have a picture of us smiling (even in the rain) because a few hours later, after trudging through the mud, it’s safe to say we weren’t smiling quite as much. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Every summer for the last few years I’ve packed a bag and gone hiking in another country (Iceland, Scotland, Ireland) but this summer I decided to stay closer to home and tackle the Bruce Trail. My sister and I made an ambitious plan to complete at least four trail section end-to-ends this year. If we’re successful we will have hiked 325 KMS of the 900 KM trail. We’ll save the rest for next year! Our first Bruce Trail end-to-end hike was a 80 KM hike organized through the Niagara Bruce Trail Club. Our first day we hiked westward along the Niagara Escarpment from the historical Balls Falls Conservation Area to Grimsby, which was approximately 24.5 KMS. In an organized hike, you park your car and register at a meeting point. Then a bus takes you to the start of the day’s hike. You then walk back to your car. Along the way volunteers man check points, located approximately every 10KMS, where you sign in, grab a snack (sometimes homemade) and refill your water pack. It made for a really nice safety feature – if for some reason you can’t continue, they will drive you back to your car, and checking in acts as a head count, so if someone doesn’t check in they know to send someone up the trail. Believe me when I say that getting to those check points everyday was like little victories along the way. It rained the night before. A lot. Two things the rain did – it made everything the most brilliant shades of green and it also made mud, lots of mud. First the pretty part – so much green: The trail started off so beautifully with the sound of the rushing waterfall slowly fading behind us. Imagine the prettiest forest trail with tall trees whose leaves have just exploded from their spring buds, and a forest floor busting with leafy green plants and delicate purple, white and pink flowers. The forest was so beautiful you almost expected to see fairies dancing about. That’s what it was like. And it was beautiful!  Being born and raised in the province I’m a little embarrassed to say that this may have been the first time I’ve seen a trillium up close because the trillium is Ontario’s official flower. But… with the rain we anticipated that the trail would be muddy. We may have slightly underestimated exactly how muddy it would be. What we didn’t know is that the mud on the Niagara escarpment isn’t like normal mud. It’s somewhere between mud and clay – sticky, slippery and able to ooze its way into every places you wish it wouldn’t. I’d venture a guess that this mud is what makes the area a fertile place to grow vineyards (one of the country’s largest wine growing regions) and other produce, which I appreciate in my glass and on my plate but just on my boots. Normally mud wouldn’t be much of an obstacle. Oh sure it makes things a little dirty and you may have to side step over a puddle or something, but this mud made for a very, very tough slog. It felt like one step forward, then slide a half step backward. Sometimes I felt like my feet were moving but I wasn’t actually getting anywhere.  And it was even harder going uphill. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The mud gripped my boots so I had zero traction. Sometimes my poles would get stuck in it too. I heard of someone who wore cleats, I’m assuming to give them grip, but somewhere along the way they got sucked into the mud and I don’t know if they ever found them. Thankfully I had dressed for the weather and had my gaiters and rain pants on – which was a good thing because I had mud up to my knees! The mud got heavier and heavier as the day went on. Whenever we would cross a stream I’d step in the water to try and dissolve the mud caked onto all sides of my boots. That worked. That is until I stepped out of the stream into the mud again. With about 180 hikers on the trail, the mud got progressively worse as the day went on as did the condition of the trail. At the check in points the mud was all anyone could talk about – everyone had a story about slipping and sliding and trying to navigate uphill without any grip. Over the day quite a few people dropped out and couldn’t complete the hike. Many injured themselves because of the mud and most injuries were knee related. My old knee injury made a comeback appearance and every step downhill was painful but I was determined to finish the day. Normally a 24KM hike would take 6 hours or so but this day took us over 8 hours. But we made it – muddy, achy, covered in bug spray, sweaty, hungry and very much looking forward to having a well deserved beer. I’ve never been so happy to see our car! All in all this is the day that I will always compare to when I walk a muddy trail again. “This isn’t as muddy as that one time, on the Niagara Bruce Trail, it was so muddy that…” It will also be the day where I will never forget where I was the day Prince Harry married Meghan Markle – hiking through mud and as far away from a royal wedding as possible. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Niagara Bruce Trail End to End: Day 2
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