16th September 2017

Woodford Escarpment = 296km
Owen Sound

It was a warm and muggy night last night, who would have believed it at this time of year in Canada.

Once again we were ferried to our start point for the day and on our way by 7am. The sun was barely up and it was already starting to get warm. Thankfully we were in the woodlands along the scarp. The trail wandered along the top of the scarp initially then dipped down to pass the spring outlet of the Hidden Waterfall. The waterfall only flows over the escarpment for a brief period in the spring with the snow melt run off, the rest of the year it runs into a sinkhole in the scarp to emerge as a spring lower down. There was a narrow crevasse that cut through a section of the escarpment, There is a notice saying don’t go through with a big pack or if you’re claustrophobic. It was certainly a bit of a tight fit in places, specially with the tricky footing over the rocks.

The rest of the day was a mix of on the scarp or below the scarp with a fair bit of road work thrown in. Lari and I have both decided that we prefer to walk up on the Escarpment rather than through or below it as the loose smaller scree type rocks are just a pain in the proverbial. There was a lot of trail that was overgrown with all sorts of vegetation with lots of Poison Ivy lurking in it. The trail challenges you in many ways, primarily very challenging footing with the rocky sections either boulders on the upper portion of the Scarp or Scree on the lower portions, then it throws it poison ivy for good measure just to make sure you’re paying attention. God forbid if you stop for anything from a toilet break to a photo opportunity, the Mozzies descend on you in droves. Our Ozzie Mozzie deterrent worked for a while and then they were back with vengeance. Despite all of this we are still thoroughly enjoying our journey.

Susan our Hostess / Shuttle driver picked us up and we headed straight to the B&B to get our Poison Ivy contaminated gear off and washed and then our entire bodies a serious wash down. Here’s hoping we have escaped the influence on the Ivy.