I met Betty and Chris early as they were section hiking the Dufferin Highlands. I had passed them the day before and we had exchanged a friendly greeting. Chris had section hiked the entire Bruce Trail five times, Betty twice. They preferred traveling on the Bruce Trail Conservancy busses with groups, but COVID 19 forced them to arrange their own shuttles. I was humbled by their commitment.
Mike was on his second thruhike of the Bruce Trail. He is an avid minimalist hiker from Burlington with an impressively light backpack, weighing in at around 10 pounds. His trail register comments told me he was ahead, but I was surprised to catch up to him. For five consecutive days, I would catch him, chat for a while, and then continue on past him. I was being dropped off and picked up daily while he was hiking longer and camping on trail. It was as if we were playing our own version of the reality TV show, Mantracker. On May 25, 2022, we stopped for lunch by the Noisy River. Mike is filtering river water in this portrait.
Dave and his son are Trail Captains for the Noisy River section. He has been maintaining this section since 1975. I had section hiked this area before and had noted the exceptional trail markers. I shared with him my prediction that the Trail Captain was a retired European woodworker with possibly a second set of markers at the ready when needed. He laughed and replied, “Just a Presbyterian Scot.”
Shortly before I ended my day, I met Cam walking slowly through an open field. He asked if I’d seen many birds. Cam was from Brampton and was on the trail identifying North American birds. I had seen turkey vultures and heard songbirds, but couldn’t tell him much more. He introduced me to the Merlin Bird ID app. He turned it on and we waited quietly for 30 seconds. In that time, it identified the songs of three warblers and a few others. I was impressed.
6 hours, 53 minutes: 29.4 km: 4 km/hr
Jamie