Prince Edward County Pig Out

@Pomodoro in Prince Edward County

Shortly after returning from out west we took Lewis on a day-trip to Prince Edward County. Our mission - To eat until we couldn't eat anymore. (Well that's what it seemed like anyway).

Ken and Emily came to pick me up while Peter hit the road straight from home with Lewis. We headed east along the 401 and made plans to meet up at a rest stop along the way.

After meeting at the first rest stop we decided to stop once again at The Big Apple at Colborne. It's become a tradition of ours to stop there whenever heading east along the highway (exit 497).

Since we've gone to The Big Apple a number of times I didn't take any pictures. We had some apple desserts and continued on our way.

In Prince Edward County we stopped at a number of shops that sold anything from cheese to farm fresh veggies.

Our next food stop was at the County Cider Company in Waupoos. Established in 1995 they're the oldest cider-producing company in Ontario (according to a sign there). They have a variety of ciders made with fermented apple juice.

Their tasting room and retail store welcomes visitors from May to November. They also serve lunch there where you can dine on their back patio which overlooks their vineyards and the northern shores of Lake Ontario.

For lunch I had a BBQ Burger with bacon, Black River cheddar, caramelized onions and cider ketchup for $16.75. It was really good.

Emily and Ken shared a Lamb Burger fresh local lamb, chevre, arugula, pickled red onion, roasted red pepper jelly and lemon garlic mayo also $16.75. Both burgers were served with house-made kale, apple and cabbage slaw. Peter and Lewis shared a Artichoke & Asiago Dip with grilled flatbread for $13.50.

We toured the area a bit more before getting dessert. Ice cream of course. This time at Slickers County Ice Cream Limited on Main Street in Bloomfield.

The store is pretty small so, naturally, there was a line up outside. Of course it could be because their ice cream is hand made and uses fresh local ingredients and natural flavours too. That's a distinct possibility.

So, now what? After all that eating what should we do? Why, dinner, of course. Cue our next stop at our favourite Prince Edward Country eating establishment, Pomodoro.

My first time there was last year with most of the same group of friends. Coincidentally we were seated at the same table as before. Perhaps that's why the waitress there actually recognized us. That and the fact I started snapping away with my camera again.

Like last year we shared our appetizers, mains and dessert. This time we had fried Polenta, Pizza Cinghiale, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Roast Chicken, Veal Parmagana and Lasagna. For dessert we had Carrot Cake-Cheesecake and Fresh-made Doughnuts. Delicious!

And, like last year, after dinner we raced to Sandbanks Provincial Park to try to catch the sunset. And, also like last year, we just missed it. Again. You think we would have learned.

This year we decided to try to catch the sunset behind the dunes. When we arrived the sun was just above the dunes. So we decided to make a run for it. At first we were close together, but I couldn't wait... so I headed out on my own. I wanted to get to the end of the dunes so I could get a clear shot of the sunset. So I ran like I had never run before.

The sand was soft and the dunes towering. Running was hard. Very, very hard. I ran and ran and ran. And ran and ran and ran. And ran. And ran. I never got to the end of the dunes. All I got was hot and sweaty and tired.

In the end I had to turn back defeated. In the dark. Out in the dunes. By myself.

When I got home I checked Google Maps. The dunes continue on over 7 kilometres nearly all the way back to the mainland. I never would have gotten there. Why didn't anyone tell me? At least I burned off some of the calories I put on the rest of the day. Oh well.

Labour Day Weekend @ Justin's Cottage Pt. 3

Sunday started off with a late breakfast at The Fort at Hotel Pontiac, 35 kilometres from Justin's cottage. If you had a boat you could take a more direct route 10 kilometres west straight up the Ottawa River. By car it's about 45 minutes over the bridge through Chapeau.

The restaurant/hotel is located right on the beach. While we were there we saw a number of small boats pull right up onto the beach and people come right in (just as if they drove up by car).

We had a variety of things to eat. Some of us had 2 eggs with either bacon or sausage plus home fries and toast. Others had the pancakes or French toast with bacon. All the choices were really good.

After our meal we headed 52 kilometres straight east on Highway 148 to Chutes Coulonge Park. It's part historical park and part adventure park.

The historical part tells the story of the logging business in Quebec in the early to mid 1800s. The adventure part is part climbing, part zip lining. It's $8 to get in. More if you want to do the adventurous stuff.

We walked around checking out the historical part. The scenery was nice with the waterfalls. We even saw a neat, brown snake. I have no idea what kind it was, but it was the largest snake I've ever seen in the wild. Usually the ones I see (if I see any) are really small.

After the park we bought popsicles and ate them before returning to the cottage and going to the big beach. There we gathered some wood and lit a bonfire and sat around it relaxing before going in the water again to play Frisbee.

Dinner was meat, meat and more meat. Justin cooked pork chops on the barbecue outside while Peter worked his magic on the lamb and beef short ribs from the night before. We cooked up some yams and corn on the cob to round out the meal.

In the evening we drank beer and played board games. This time until around 4:00. Good times.

Labour Day Weekend @ Justin's Cottage Pt. 2

After staying up past 2:30 we were up relatively early the next day. Except for Peter, most of us were up by 10:00 a.m.

Gabe and I woke a bit early because he heard some rain falling on our tent. Not wanting to take any chances we decided to set up the my sister's tarp that I brought.

We tied some rope to the corners and tied the corners to the surrounding trees. After that the rain pretty much let up. But, since we were up, we stayed up.

I went around the grounds and took a few pictures before breakfast. Peter made some eggs. As well I believe he made some French toast too. Justin brewed some tasty coffee and we ate on the front deck of the cottage.

Following breakfast we just went over to the big beach (behind the cottage). We didn't want to go too far because we were waiting for Emily and Janice to arrive. Instead of leaving Friday night they decided to come on Saturday morning.

At the beach we threw Gabe's Frisbee around while standing in the shallow water. It was a bit cold at first, but it didn't take us long to get used to.

After we finished I took a quick dip in the water. There was a lot of seaweed (or some other sort of underwater vegetation) in the area I was in nearby the dock with the Seadoos on it. So I swam in from there and came ashore.

Emily and Janice arrived shortly after. I believe we ate something for lunch, but for the life of me, can't remember what.

Following lunch we went on a hike. I don't know where we went, we just followed Justin's car. He took us to a trail that had to have the most mosquitoes per square kilometre anywhere. It was crazy.

Right after getting out of the car they started coming around. And once you entered the trees it was "run for your life." (which is pretty much what I did).

I only took around 3 or 4 shots along the whole length of the trail (about 3.5 kilometres each way). If you were foolhardy enough to stop you would have been eaten alive.

The trail ended by a river (I believe). I ran around and took a bunch of shots there before packing my camera bag back up and running (as much as I could) back to the car.

My bug jacket was essentially useless. Since I had it pulled tight around my arms they bit through the mesh. Most of the others suffered multiple mosquito bites too, even though they had sprayed themselves liberally with repellant. These Quebec mosquitos are tough mothers it seems.

Thankfully the bites didn't affect me too much. After the initial swelling subsided I avoided scratching and hardly even noticed them. I was so happy about that.

We cooked a lot of meat for dinner. Peter brought marinated lamb and Emily had Kalbi (beef short ribs). I cut them into smaller pieces and Peter cooked them on the stove. We also had some carrots and one parsnip to balance out all the meat. Since it was raining outside we had dinner in the living room.

After we cleaned up Emily brought out some of her board games. The first one was a new one called Ca$h 'n Guns (second edition). Players have to try to accumulate cash and prizes while avoiding being shot by the others. If you're still standing by the end of the game you total your loot. The person with the most money wins.

Next we pulled out the expanded version of Saboteur. It's quite a bit more complicated than the original. Besides the saboteurs there are teams of gold miners as well as a number of other characters. There are new path and actions cards too. It's pretty complicated, but we figured it out.

Both games were fun. We played until at least 3:00 a.m.

Labour Day Weekend @ Justin's Cottage Pt. 1

Justin invited us to his cottage for the Labour Day long weekend. It's located on L'Isle-aux-Allumettes, Quebec, on the Ottawa River opposite Pembroke, Ontario.

On a good day it's about a 5-1/2 hour drive from Toronto. Since we were leaving on the Friday of a long weekend, we were prepared for a longer journey.

Gabe and Justin were able to leave early to avoid the traffic. They left at around 1:30, both having taken the day off work. I could have gone with them, but Gabe wasn't too keen on having to spend over 5 hours cramped in the back seat of Justin's convertible. So I was relegated to Peter's M3 with Fiona. She had to work until around 4:30, so we didn't leave until about 5:30.

Since we figured the 401 would be crawling with cottage-goers leaving town all at the same time we opted to head east along Steeles Avenue. While there was less traffic we did encounter more traffic lights.

As well there were other distractions like grocery stores with milk bread. We stopped at the T&T on Steeles at Middlefield for some. As well, we picked up some Vietnamese sandwiches at a nearby shop to munch on.

We took Steeles Avenue/Taunton Road all the way across through Whitby and Oshawa. At some point we eventually turned north to Highway 7 which we took east to Highway 41 (which goes north all the way up to Pembroke).

Since we didn't actually want to drive through Pembroke we detoured onto Highway 13 (Mountain Road) a bit north of Eganville and Lake Dore. From there we headed east over to Highway 17; north to Highway 40; north to Highway 148 (eastbound) which took us over the bridge into Quebec.

From there it was a 20 minute drive along Chemin Pembroke/de Desjardinsville/Front to Justin's cottage. All in the dark. I believe we drove the second half the trip in total darkness (except for a couple of spots on the road ahead illuminated by Peter's car's headlights).

When we arrived Justin and Gabe already had the campfire going. It was in a small pit by the cottage (and near the water by the small beach). We couldn't actually see the water because it was dark. But, we heard it.

Gabe had already set up the tent that I was going to share with him. We unloaded everything from Peter's car and set up his tent and Emily's (that Fiona was going to share with her, though she had it to herself this evening).

Next we retired to the chairs around the campfire and enjoyed a few beverages. Fiona made me a rum and Coke (which I think was heavy on the rum) because I was a bit dizzy afterwards. Though it could have been because I hadn't eaten much during the day. Who knows?

I believe we had some snacks around the fire too. Then Peter and I went to try and take a few night shots over the Ottawa River with Pembroke in the background. As well, we had fun light painting with our flashlights which I captured with my camera.

Killarney Camping Trip Pt. 3

Otto the otter at the Killarney Harbour.

After taking some night shots at George Lake, Peter and I headed back to our campsite. The campfire was out and the girls were already in bed. We readied ourselves and hit the sack soon after.

As usual it took me awhile to get to sleep. I normally toss and turn for a bit. I can't remember if I actually fell asleep or not, but at what I later believed to be 2:00 in the morning I felt a drip of water on my face. Then another... and another...

Our tent was leaking...

...And outside was an intense thunderstorm.

I grabbed my glasses from the pocket on the inside of the tent and turned on my flashlight. Above I could see water seeping through the mesh covering of our tent. Above was our tent fly which we quickly learned wasn't meant to hold back such heavy precipitation.

My camera bag, clothing and other things were spread out beside me inside the tent. I quickly rounded them up and put them in plastic bags to try to keep dry. Luckily for me I had brought a good number of them.

I couldn't quite roll up my sleeping bag tight enough fast enough to keep it from soaking up water, so I placed it on top of my backpack and placed Emily's sleeping pad on top of everything to keep them from the water seeping in from above. Then I sat while water dripped down on and around me.

I suppose I caused enough of a commotion to wake the others. From the tent next door Emily asked us what we wanted to do. Her tent was holding fast so she and her mother were unaffected by the rain.

She said if we wanted to go she could pack everything up in the morning. That was something I had considered, but I don't know if Peter or Fiona wanted to do that.

In short order I made a mad dash for the nearby comfort station. I had to go to the bathroom. I waited as long as I could and the rain had let up slightly, so I didn't get too wet.

Besides the mens and ladies bathrooms, the comfort station had 7 shower stalls and a small laundry room. That's where I stayed until the rain let up. Sitting alone under buzzing fluorescent lights with moths and other flying insect flitting about outside the double doors.

It was unpleasant to say the least. But, as far as I was concerned, much better than the alternative of lying in the dark in a wet sleeping bag not knowing when the rain was going to let up.

After an hour or two the rain stopped. I could still hear it dripping from the trees, but that was it. I went back to the tent and flipped the sleeping pad onto the dry side and tried to place my sleeping bag directly on it so it wouldn't sop up too much water from the floor and tried to get some rest.

In the morning we assessed the damage. Everything was soaked. We had left all our gear out overnight - The folding chairs, the bug screen, our tent, some towels on our makeshift laundry line... everything was wet.

We disassembled it all and threw most of it, dirty and wet, into Emily's trunk. We didn't have the time to let it air dry. That would have to wait until later.

For breakfast Peter cooked up the remaining eggs and bacon making French toast again.

After that Emily and her mum headed back to the city. They had to meet up with Emily's brother by 6:00 in the evening.

Peter, Fiona and I weren't restrained by any time schedule so we headed into the town of Killarney to look for the fish and chips truck and to walk around.

The main drag is along Channel Street at the western end of Highway 637. That's where the harbour is along the Killarney Channel.

We hung out there taking some pictures. That's where Fiona noticed the River Otter swimming around the docks. I have to say it was pretty elusive. It would only poke it's head out for a few seconds before ducking under and resurfacing somewhere else.

With a bit of luck I managed to get a couple of shots of him. The rest of the time he submerged himself beforehand. Peter never actually saw it (let alone get a picture of it). That was too bad.

Afterwards we had our fish and chips from the Herbert Fisheries truck. We followed that up with a cup of ice cream from the nearby trailer corner store before Peter drove us home.

In spite of the rain, I'd have to say it was a good trip overall. A big thanks goes out to Emily for all her hard work in organizing and to Peter for driving and helping with the food.

Killarney Camping Trip Pt. 2

On our second day at Killarney Provincial Park we hiked the Crack Trail (no, it has nothing to do with Mayor Rob Ford and his pipe smoking habit).

We headed there after a breakfast of French toast and bacon courtesy of the culinary skills of Peter.

The trail is 6 kilometres long (3 kilometres each way, there and back) and rated at a high level of difficulty. It's located 7 kilometres east of the park along Highway 637. Get there early because the parking lot fills up fast.

The trail starts off easy. It's pretty much flat for the first kilometre or two. By the time you near the end it rises sharply as you climb over huge boulders on your way up to the ridge. You have to be in good shape to attempt it for sure.

The views from the top are great. You overlook inland lakes and white hills in the park as well as the vast coastline of Georgian Bay. We took a break up there and snacked on the Vietnamese sandwiches Peter bought.

The Crack hike took around 4 hours. We returned to the campground by 4:30. It was fairly late in the afternoon to be sure, but we still wanted to do another hike.

The next one we tried was the Granite Ridge Trial. Em's mom was a bit tired so she stayed back and went to the George Lake beach while the rest of us walked across the street (Highway 637) to the trailhead.

The Granite Ridge Trail is a loop trail that's 2 kilometres long. It's rated at a moderate level with some steep sections. The suggested hiking time is estimated at 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

On the top of the ridge at the end of the trail you can see a thin sliver of Georgian Bay to the south. Turning to the north you see the La Cloche Range. After hiking The Crack earlier in the day this trail was ho-hum.

Dinner was next. We finished the remaining lamb, steak and sausages. They were still good, so none of us got sick.

Peter and I headed out to Lake George to try some more night photography at around 9:30. The skies were overcast this evening, so we didn't get any star shots. Instead we took long exposures of the clouds in the skies. I found a couple of new vantage points to shoot from. It was all right.

Killarney Camping Trip Pt. 1

Chikanishing Trail to Georgian Bay.

Emily organized another camping trip over the Civic Day long weekend. Five of us went this time - Emily and her mother were in one car and Peter drove Fiona and I.

We went to Killarney Provincial Park on Georgian Bay. It's about 5 hours north of Toronto. You drive up Highway 400 past Parry Sound; the 400 turns into Highway 69 which you take to Highway 637 and head west until you see the park sign.

We left on Saturday morning. Fiona came by and picked me up and we went to Peter's place, loaded his car then headed up. Emily and her mum left at least half an hour later.

Traffic was understandably backed up going into Barrie. It's like that on weekends during summer with everyone trying to escape the city for cottage country. Being a long weekend probably made it even worse.

Since our car had a sizeable lead in time we stopped a couple of times along the way. The first time was at a roadside rest stop along the 400 to pick up coffee and snacks south of Barrie. The second was for gas and a bathroom break in Parry Sound.

Emily and her mother beat us to the park. They only stopped once to pick up burgers at Lick's (which Emily ate while driving).

Since we arrived at the park in the late afternoon we only had time to hike one of the shorter trails after unpacking and setting up our tents. We picked the Chikanishing Trail first. It's a couple of kilometres west of the main gate on the park's southern boundary.

The trail is a 3 kilometre loop according to the Ontario Parks website (or 3.5 kilometres long according to the sign at the trailhead). It's supposed to take 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours to hike (again depending on the info on the park's website or the sign at the trailhead).

According to the sign - "The Chikanishing Trail crosses over a series of small ridges, ending up at a scenic, wave-washed point on Georgian Bay." and "it meanders across Canadian Shield granite."

It was a good hike rated at a moderate difficulty level. The scenery was decent and the skies clear blue. Peter and I took full advantage both taking a fair number of shots. The trail was fairly well marked and relatively bug free (at the time of the day we went anyway).

After the hike we lit a fire at our campsite and hung out. We cooked part of our dinner over the fire as well as using Emily's camp stove.

Later we headed over to George Lake (a short walk from our campsite) to take star/Milky Way pics. Peter and I took photos while the others hung out and looked for shooting stars. We stayed out an hour before retiring to our tents for the night.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 3

Flowerpot Island, Large Flowerpot.

On Sunday we took a boat out to Flowerpot Island from Tobermory harbour. We actually bought the tickets the day before just in case. We wanted to be sure we got the departure and return times we wanted. Tickets are around $35 return. I believe there's a National Park fee on top of that.

We got a fairly early departure time. I think 10:45 a.m. In the morning we had to get up early enough to eat something and pack our whole campsite up which we managed to do without much problem.

The girls woke up first and got a head start. Gabe, me, Peter and finally Keith followed. He has sleep apnea and usually has a device that helps with his breathing. Since he didn't have that with him his sleep wasn't as restful as it could have been.

We used The Blue Heron Company to take us to Flowerpot Island. They have orange jet boats that can bring you from Tobermory to the island 6.5 kilometres away in 15 minutes. There are other options available such as their glass bottom boats which take you over ship wrecks, but we weren't interested in that. We only wanted to get over to hike.

Our group were the only ones on the 10:45 a.m. boat. It was like our own private cruise. One of the staff members said people usually don't depart that early in the day (which was great for us). We could sit anywhere and had a great view of the scenery on the ride there.

Even though I went on the cruise to Flowerpot Island once before (many years ago), I didn't remember that they did a pass in the water of both the little and big flowerpots. That was great. I got some really good shots from the water.

The walk around the island was nice. We gave ourselves 4 hours to hike. It's not actually that big. We just wanted to make sure we had enough time to take a lot of photos. You could probably go around the whole place in 2-3 hours if you tried.

There are only two trails - the Loop Trail and the Marl Trail (which connects to the Loop Trail on the west side). If you head east from the dock along the Loop Trail it'll bring you first to the Small Flowerpot then the Large Flowerpot. If you continue around the trail you'll get to a small cave. Further on is the Lightstation/Museum and the "Loo" with a view (an elevated outhouse).

The Marl Trail brings you to the west side of the island. We had time so we did it. Of course the big attractions are the "flowerpots" as well as the scenery over the water. There are some wildflowers that I took pictures of as well.

Back in Tobermory we had one last ice cream stop before heading down Highway 6 to DNA fish and chip truck for lunch. For $11.50 they give you a huge piece of fish and more chips than you can handle. Good stuff.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 2

Overhanging Point, Bruce Trail, Georgian Bay.

We arrived back at our campsite from the hike quite late at night. I believe it was between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. Most of us were quite hungry by then, Food wouldn't be ready very soon though. We were cooking the old fashioned way. First we had to start a campfire.

The park sells firewood for about $7 a bag. In fact that's the only way you can get it. You aren't allowed to bring your own in. I suspect it's to keep the place disease free. I know certain wood can carry certain kinds of insects that are detrimental to the health of trees.

The fire didn't turn out to be too hard to start. I was concerned at first though because Emily said we weren't suppose to pick up any twigs and things for kindling. Instead they brought some newspaper for that purpose. But, newspaper can burn pretty quickly unless you fold it tightly. I was worried that it would burn too fast and we would run out before the logs caught fire.

We cooked our food on long skewers. They had brought chicken wings, marinated beef and fish and beef balls among other things. Keith brought hot dogs. I started with those because, like I mentioned, we were hungry and I figure I could barbecue them quickly and start eating.

We decided to use the portable stove to cook more things faster. It's lucky we did that because camp staff came around at about midnight and told all the campers that they had to extinguish their fires and turn out all their lights. We were still in the middle of cooking things at the time.

So that was pretty annoying, but we did as we were told. After that Peter and I had planned on going out and taking some long exposure night sky shots. The others joined us for a short while before returning to camp to sleep. Peter and I stayed out until around 2:00-2:30 a.m. You'll have to visit my Flickr.com page to view those pics.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 1

Indian Head Cove on Georgian Bay.

A group of us went car camping at Cypress Lake Provincial Park in Tobermory this past weekend. We left early Saturday morning and returned on Sunday afternoon. According to Google Maps the trip is about 300 kilometres from Toronto and is supposed to be 4-1/2 hours by car.

Emily, Peter and Gabe did the majority of the organizing. Emily and Gabe had a lot of equipment such as tents and sleeping bags already, so that was cool.

We took two cars up. Gabe drove Emily and Peter. I took Fiona and Keith. We met at the McDonalds in Brampton (410 and Queen Street), had breakfast there and departed.

Our first stop was Lion's Head. It's a quaint town off Highway 6, halfway between Wiarton and the park on the east side of the peninsula facing Georgian Bay.

We walked around for an hour. They had a very small farmers market there. We walked through the harbour where a lot of pleasure boats were docked. I chatted with an older couple who were sitting by the water enjoying the scenery. The water was crystal clear. We saw some pretty large fish swimming in the harbour. That was neat.

Afterwards we headed up to Tobermory (about 10 kilometres north of our campsite) to grab a bite for lunch. We had fish and chips at a restaurant called, what else, The Fish & Chip Place.

Next we had ice cream for dessert. I bumped into the older couple from Lion's Head again at the ice cream shop. They came up to Tobermory for a classic car rally with their 1958 Buick Special. It's a beautiful car.

At the car rally I ran into my Flickr friend, Georgette. She drove up from Toronto with her friends for the weekend too. What a funny coincidence.

After Tobermory we checked into the campground and set up our tents. Then we started on a hike around the park. We began on the Cypress Lake Trail and switched to the Horse Lake Trail. That connected us to the Bruce Trail and Indian Head Cove where some people were swimming and jumping into the water off the cliffs (which they weren't supposed to do).

Continuing along the Bruce Trail we hit The Grotto, a small cave, and ended up at Overhanging Point a scenic lookout that was great for pictures.

We headed back to our campsite from there. First taking the Marr Lake trail which connected to the Georgian Bay Trail and finally to the Cypress Lake Trail.

Hike at Boyne Valley

Last Saturday we went hiking at Boyne Valley. It's a few kilometres north of Orangeville, just over an hour's drive northwest of Toronto.

Peter picked up Martin, Edna and I at Finch station before heading up to What-A-Bagel on Bathurst north of the Promenade Mall where we met Keith for breakfast. I have to say it (breakfast) was underwhelming. I don't know why the place was so busy. The home fries that accompanied my eggs Forentine came out of a bag for goodness sakes. Perplexing.

After eating I hopped over to Keith's car from Peter's. He still took Martin and Edna. Besides keeping Keith company, I had a good idea of how to get to the park since I had hiked at nearby Mono Cliffs Provincial Park and had also driven the same way up to Owen Sound when I used to deliver to the King's Buffet restaurant up there. The trip should have been relatively straightforward. But, of course, it wasn't.

To go to Orangeville one would normally take the 401 to the 410 and go straight north. The 410 changes to Highway 10 north of Brampton, but it's seamless.

Since we were starting quite far north of Highway 401 we took Highway 7 west to the 400. From there we would go north to Highway 89 and head west to the park entrance on 89 and Highway 10. This was a route I hadn't taken before. Nonetheless it shouldn't have presented much of a problem.

Our first mistake was getting off the 400 at Highway 88 (the exit before 89). There was a lot of traffic going up the 400 because a dump truck had driving off the road into a ditch around 88.

Keith wanted to exit early because he was running low on gas. Peter was ahead of us and he exited at 88 too. Instead of heading east towards in the direction the sign indicated the gas station was we followed Peter west because we figured he must know a short cut or something.

Well Highway 88 ended at Highway 27, so we headed north on it. At a set of traffic lights Keith turned left because he thought he saw Peter turning left. Turns out it wasn't Peter. Peter was still going north on 27 to Highway 89.

To make a long story short, Keith and I ended up getting lost. And, of course, Keith was panicking because we were on small county roads with no gas station in sight.

We got directions to the nearest one from locals and eventually found the park. It was a comedy of errors to say the least. Peter actually got off the 400 early because he saw us signalling. He didn't actually know where he was going.

If we had continued straight up the 400 to 89 we would have gotten to the park no problem and Keith wouldn't have had a meltdown. I believe this could have been avoided if he had more gas in his tank beforehand.
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The Hike.

The hike itself was both good and bad. The scenery was really nice. Especially in the wooded areas. It was beautiful - green and lush. Along with the scenery, though, we had to deal with the mosquitoes. There were quite a number of them. That made it quite unpleasant.

The terrain was varied. There were some climbs. Nothing too substantial though. The trails are rated at a moderate level which was fine for most of us. Keith got tired near the end though. We did walk 12 kilometres and it was fairly hot in the open areas when you were exposed to the sun.

At the end we sent Peter and Emily ahead to get the cars to meet us along the road back. So they actually walked an extra kilometre more.

We all enjoyed a meal at Wild Wings at Yonge near Finch afterwards. I had a burger. The rest of them had wings (of course).

Hike at Glen Rouge Park

Our foodie group went on a hike last Sunday. We went to Glen Rouge Park which is located off Kingston Road. If you're coming from the city you take the 401 eastbound and get off at the Kingston Rd./Port Union Rd./Highway 2A exit and head eastbound on Kingston Road. The entrance is on the north side of Kingston Road, just past the McDonalds.

Six of us went on the hike - Emily, Gabe, Peter, Fiona, Keith and me. Emily picked me up at my condo and we went over to Fiona's. Keith met us there and we took his car.

Our first stop was at a Shawarma restaurant on Lawrence near Pharmacy where we grabbed a pre-hike bite. Gabe drove Peter and met us there.

The day was nice. It was warm and the skies were blue with a few white clouds. It did become slightly overcast as the day progressed, but, overall it was decent.

The trail was relatively easy. Not physically demanding in any way. Most of it was under the forest canopy. So we were in the shade most of the time.

We actually made it all the way over to Rouge Park off Twyn Rivers Drive, so we hiked there too. I know the trails there quite well as we used to mountain bike them back in the late 90's. They're half in the woods and half in the open.

All-in-all we walked about 9 kilometres in three hours before finishing the day off at an Indian vegetarian restaurant at Woodside Square. Peter ordered a number of dishes for us to share. It was tasty. Though, I have to admit, some of it was a bit on the spicy side... at least for me.