Pond Hockey at Lance's Farm

My friend Lance organized a 3-on-3 pond hockey game at his farm near Orangeville on Saturday. Originally it had been planned for two weeks earlier, but the temperatures that week were too warm. Even though the pond is only 5-feet deep, it wasn't worth taking the chance of falling through.

After driving an hour and a half, I arrived at Lance's place ten or fifteen minutes after the scheduled meeting time of noon. Two guys, Ian and Andrew, were already there.

The pond, still partially covered with snow, needed to be cleared so we grabbed shovels went out back. Lance had a snowblower which he used to clear the deeper stuff. By 2:30 p.m. we had a large portion of the 100'x150' pond ready to go. Now, where was everyone else?

According to the Facebook event page, 12 people had confirmed they were coming. Though two or three of them were only coming for dinner afterwards. It seemed the 3-on-3 game wasn't going to materialize.

Ian, Andrew and I passed pucks around for an hour or so while waiting for Lance to don his goalie equipment and, as we learned later, put the turkey in the oven. Lance's dog, Marshall, would chase the pucks as we played "keep away". Occasionally he would corral one after which he would take off to chew on it.

When Lance finally came out we took shots on him for awhile before retiring to get ready for the evening.

One thing we had to do was get some firewood ready for a bonfire. Lance already had a bunch of wood cut and ready to go. But he still wanted to cut down a few dead trees around the property to burn.

He had borrowed three gas-powered chainsaws from some of his neighbours. We couldn't get any of them to work though. Ian got one to start, but the chain was too lose and it flew off while it was running. We got another one to start, but it only ran for 10-15 seconds before conking out.

We ended up cutting down one small tree with a dull axe. After struggling with that for around 15-20 minutes we had had enough. One tree was all the extra wood we were getting.

By early evening another one of Lance's friends, a fellow farmer, Jerry, had shown up. Later on a couple others, Ariel and Gavi, came by.

In anticipation of Lance's cornucopia of food, we prepared our palates with beer and chips. He had prepared Caesar salad, turkey, steak, lamb, sausage, broccoli with cheese and mashed potatoes for everyone. All made from scratch.

Dinner was great. It was nice meeting all his friends. They're quite a varied group. Except for Jerry (who was 62) the rest of the guys were in their 20's. A bit younger than people I normally hang out with, but that was fine.

It was good getting together to enjoy Lance's hospitality. If we do it again hopefully we'll get a few more skaters.

Hockley Valley Fall Hike

Gabe and I went hiking at Hockey Valley last Saturday. The parking lot is located just north of Orangeville on Hockley Road by 2nd Line East (close to Hockley Valley Resort). It's about an hour northwest of Toronto.

Our plan for the day was to get some fresh air and see the fall colours. Unfortunately I think we were about a week past peak for the region we were in. What can you do?

The previous weekend was perfect for hiking. Besides the colours being great, the weather was amazing. It was 20+ C with clear, blue skies.

This Saturday wasn't so hot (both literally and figuratively speaking). The predicted high was 5C with scattered snow flurries. Not great. Not great at all.

The skies weren't too bad when we started driving towards the park. But as we neared it the clouds filled in. Things didn't look promising.

When we actually arrived and got out of Gabe's new Mazda 3 the snow was coming down quite a bit. Undeterred we headed up the trail determined to get a decent hike in.

Even though it was annoying to walk through, the accumulating snow that dusted the ground coupled with the orange leaves that still lingered on the trees made for unique shots.

We were out for a bit over 4 hours covering around 10 kilometres. Throughout that time the weather changed a fair amount. From grey, overcast, flurry-producing clouds to bright, blue almost completely clear skies and everything in between.

Overall the hike was good. The scenery and rolling hills were really nice. The only problem I had was with me. The previous night was our first night at hockey. My already sore back was made much worse. That added to my bum right knee really slowed me down. Especially on the last third of our outing. Old age. Sigh.

Mono Cliffs Autumn Hike

I went for a fall hike on the Friday before Thanksgiving with one of my friends. The colours of the leaves were just about at their peak at that time.

We went to Mono Falls. It's up Highway 10 about 20 kilometres north of Orangeville. I found out about it from doing an online search. There was an article at TheStar.com about it.

I checked a provincial park website about the park. There were a few interesting trails I thought I might like to see - the Cliff-Top Side Trail and the South Outlier Trail to name a couple.

My friend and I got to the park a bit late. Somewhere around 2:30 p.m. The lot wasn't very full. At one end there was a pay parking machine. We selected the 4-hour option for $5.

The trails I selected were between 3 and 4 kilometres long. Though I'm not sure if the 3 kilometre one was one way or round trip. As well we had to take the Carriage Trail (1 kilometre long) in to get to the other ones.

I thought we would start with the Cliff-Top Side Trail (3 kms). Then if we had time we could do the South Outlier Trail (4 kms).

The Carriage Trail (1 km) that we took in from the parking lot met the Cliff-Top Side Trail in the middle. We decided to do the north side first.

Part way along that trail is a lookout where you can see over the valley. The view was spectacular (see above). It was absolutely amazing with the bright yellows, blazing oranges and fiery reds. While we were there we met an older couple who told us about another lookout we should see.

It was off the McCarston's Lake Trail. There's a Lookout Trail that goes off of it. Without a trail map it could have been complicated, but the lady gave us good directions and we found our way there (as well as our way back).

We never got to do the South Outlier Trail. It was getting late and the light was fading. Perhaps next time.