Part 7 – 7th Line to 1st Line– 323.1/890km

Part 7 was a weekend hike.

Saturday, June 8, 2024 – 43.4km-68.6km Caledon Hills section

We left home at 6:15am and my partner drove us up to our starting point at 7th Line just north of Mono. it was bright and sunny, but a bit cool, and no humidity, a perfect hiking day! We started around 7:15am and walk along 7th Line for a bit before heading into the woods. The path is a mixture of forest and lovely meadow skirting trees. After a kilometer and a half you’ll cross 5 Sideroad and again head into the woods. Today’s hike was terrain-wise probably the most challenging so far on the trail. Lots of ups and downs, ups and downs, however, the saving grace is that the Caledon Hills section is not very karsty.

We started off through some lovely coniferous woods before heading into a maple forest that seems to be a working sugar bush, lots of the modern blue pipes were running between the trees. Around 8:45am we popped out onto Airport Road which gives a good view to the north of the hills. It is busy so take care in crossing. On the other side you’ll climb up and through a field before heading down into the woods again.

The path here is narrow with lots of poison ivy flanking the trail. You’ll skirt someone’s home before heading back up to the top of a ridge and then down again. You’ll come to a dirt road which is 5th Line EHS. Crossing over you go back into the woods and continue your ups and downs. You’ll descend beside a lovely stream which follows you down, over which you’ll eventually cross before heading back up the other side. We got to 4th Line EHS around 10:30am.

Again the next section is much of the same, up and down, lovely trees and streams with some boardwalks thrown in. When you get to 3rd Line EHS, which we did around 11:20am, there is again a lovely view to the north of the hills. If you continue up the road you’ll reach Hockley Valley Resort. Although this was where we were staying for the night we still had 14km to walk. This sections was a bit difficult logistically as there aren’t a lot of accommodation options near the trail, it’s mainly farmland an forest, Hockley Valley Resort being the exception. However, where the trail passes closest to the hotel would be too short of a hike for the day, so we ended up continuing on through the Hockley Valley Resort’s ski hill, past the chair lifts and down the hills until you get to the golf course, beside which you’ll walk. It became very blustery again, all day the branches in the woods were making disconcerting creaking noises, but it was so refreshing and lovely walking through a windy meadow.

Once back into the woods, you’ll continue in a fairly straight path. When we came to the Vineyard View Side Trail, we decided to take it as it was only 110m. What is not on the sign is that that is all very steeply uphill and when you reach the ‘lookout’, it’s an underwhelming view of part of the Adamo Estate vineyard. Disappointing. Once back on the main trail, you’ll then come out of the woods and skirt a meadow for about 1km before reaching 2nd Line EHS, along which you’ll walk for a little over 1km before crossing the busy Hockley Road. We hadn’t seen any benches lately, my hope was there’d be one at the top of that disappointing lookout side trail, despite the numerous (for the BT) benches this morning, but spied a nice new boardwalk a little ways along a side trail across the road. We sat there to have lunch around 12:30pm.

We only stopped for about 10 minutes before pushing on again along 2nd Line, which crosses the Nottawasaga River, south branch. On the other side of Hockley Road, you’ll enter the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve, which was quite busy with day hikers, presumably from nearby Orangeville. The paths were nice and wide here. You’ll also pass the ruins of a car along the side of the trail as well as several lovely stream crossings. Eventually you’ll come out of the woods and skirt some farmers’ fields, passing horses and barns before emerging onto Dunby Road. Which we got to around 3:20pm.

My plantar fasciitis, although much improved for our first two BT hikes this year, was acting up again on this hike and my right foot was pretty sore by this point. The skies were also threatening rain. We walked along Dunby Road to its intersection with 3rd Line EHS, where we ended our hike for the day around 3:30pm. However, that was not the end of hiking for us today as we still had to get back to Hockley Valley Resort. We followed 3rd Line south, which has a great view of the resort before going around a big bend and descending steeply down into the little hamlet of Glen Cross after passing the parking lot for the Hockley Valley Nature Reserve. We crossed the north branch of the Nottawasaga River before popping out onto busy Hockley Road. After crossing that we could see the resort in the distance, however, not before it started raining. After an additional hour and 4km of hiking we damply checked into our hotel.

The resort is pretty nice, although for the price I was expecting something a bit more awe inspiring. Our room was nice and looked out onto the pool, however, with the rain came cooler temperatures and no one was out swimming. I had booked us a table at the onsite restaurant called Cabin, as there really wasn’t anything close by, and so we quickly showered and changed and went down to dinner for 6pm. We both ended up having pollo Milanese, which was very good! We shared a slice of rhubarb tart, which was, for $12, very disappointing. We went back up to our room to change and then went to the indoor pool around 7:30pm. It felt really nice to swim around and take the weight off my feet. The sauna, although really hot, was also a welcomed relief for our muscles. We went to sleep in some very comfortable beds around 9pm.

Sunday, June 9, 2024 – 68.6km Caledon Hills section to 20.5km Dufferin Hi-Land Section

We got up at 5:30am, it had been raining hard over night but it was nice and sunny when we awoke. No restaurants were open and room service didn’t start until 7am, so we had asked the hotel if a boxed breakfast could be prepared for us, which we picked up from the front desk at 6am. It had two hard boiled eggs, a few little pastries, which were very fresh and delicious, a pear and a yoghurt. After eating and checking out, we started off for our starting point around 7am. It was much warmer then yesterday and not as windy. We had an extra 4km and a massive hill to climb before even starting for the day, which was about 7:50am when we reached Dunby Road and 3rd Line.

You’ll continue north along 3rd Line past lovely farm fields and houses, I think we saw an indigo bunting sitting on a wire too, before heading into the trees. It is an immediate steep, very rocky and slippery steep climb uphill, passing some caves and massive boulders. After the exerting but short climb, you continue along the ridge, which has an excellent view once you get to the top. You’ll then skirt the edge of the hill and descend through a coniferous forest before coming out upon a lovely meadow. You then climb back up into the woods before again meandering through a lovely meadow which deposits you onto Hwy 8.

Crossing the road, you’ll enter Mono Cliffs Provincial Park. The trail skirts a lovely little lake that made me feel as if I was in Algonquin Park, before climbing up the escarpment past huge boulders. Again, once at the top, its fairly flat as it ambles along. After a couple of kilometers you’ll get to the lookout. I was surprised that we were the only ones there as this park and especially the lookout is usually very busy. You’ll continue past the lookout towards McCarston’s Lake trail, passing by the trail that leads through the park’s most popular and dramatic landscape, the narrow trail between the cliffs. I’d been before and so we decided to skip the detour.

Once on the lake trail, there’s a nice view of the lake by the shore, but afterwards you lose sight of it as you enter deeper into the woods. Around 11am we came to the trail’s junction with the Link trial, which is wider as horses are allowed on that trail and goes in a fairly straight line until it comes to a dirt path that leads up to 1st Line EHS. When we got to this path we saw a number of people whizzing by on their bikes, it seems there was an 80km bike race that was going through that part of the trail, We ended up having to run quickly from one point to the next before squishing over to the side of the narrow path before the next wave of bikers came along. At the start of the 1st Line we could spread out more and not be worried about being run over.

At this point it was starting to cloud over and looked like rain again. We continued along 1st Line past lovely farms and then again into the woods. Quickly emerging into a meadow, it started pouring and did not let up for a good hour. We waded through long, wet grass nearly the whole time, meaning by boots, socks and pants were soon soaked through. The trail then went into the woods again with several slippery boardwalks before finally emerging onto 30 Sideroad.

By this time we were very cold, wet and my foot was really hurting. But we still had 7km to go. You’ll walk along 30 Sideroad for a bit before turning right onto Hurontario and walking up it past a lovely farm to its end at Hwy 89. This stretch seemed interminable. Usually road walking seems quick, but my foots was so sore and I was wet and uncomfortable. My mom had forgotten her gloves, not thinking she’d need them, but her hands were so cold, she put an extra pair of socks on them as mitts.

Once at Hwy 89, which is very busy, take care crossing to the other side where you’ll reach a steep ascent and enter into Boyne Valley Provincial Park. A relatively wide though muddy path descends an ATV road. The park is lovely with several bridges crossing little streams. Then you start the ascent. However, it seemed that we had missed a turn off, so exhausted and sore, had to descent the steep hill to find where we had missed the blazes. Again…if you don’t see any blazes, just stop and go back. We ended up wasting 20 minutes going up and down the wrong way. About halfway up the hill there’s a sharp turn to the left, over a little bridge, which we had missed and just kept on straight.

Now on the correct path, we again made our ascent although not as steeply through some lovely wood. At the top is a field and a little mound. This is Murphy’s Pinnacle and you reach it by the short side trail that ascends it. I thought we had missed it and retraced our steps only to discover that the trail is around the back of the hill. Tired and sore as I was, I could not miss a lookout and this is definitely one not to be missed. The sun also came out while we were there, however, my one complaint is there is no bench at the top! I was really looking forward to sitting and resting my foot for a bit before our final few kilometers but no such luck.

At 3:34pm we descended Murphy’s Pinnacle and continued along the trail through the woods, past the turn off where we would originally come out had we not discovered our error in taking the wrong route, and then hell for the last kilometer, we must have gone up and down, up and down, very steeply at least three times in 1km, very pretty, but very unwelcomed at the end of a hike when one is tired and in pain. We finally got to 1st Line around 4:40pm where my dad was waiting with the car. My partner couldn’t come get us this time as he had to catch a flight for work.

We drove to the little crossroads of Primrose and went to the very popular Superburger for dinner. It did not disappoint, the burger was super as was their coffee and fries. We left around 5:30pm and got home around 6:30pm. Now only one more BT hike for this year, but it’s not until September, so hopefully my foots gets better by then.