Morning of Mysteries in Kemble - Hike #25

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

I woke up to a glorious day in the Bruce. The kind that makes you take a deep yoga breath and break your own rules in order to be outside in the colours.

I have one hiking rule for myself and that's not to hike new trails alone. Samwise knows what I'm saying...you never plan to twist an ankle and go skidding down the escarpment into the river, but you just never know!

Today I had errands to run in Wiarton, so I bent the rule to just go on a short trail listed as easy and grab one code. No biggie!

I do like to have a co-pilot usually; I'm not directionally challenged exactly, but a second opinion never hurts!

However, when photo #1 became photo #2...and the map and google both said "Crack On dear girl" well, I phoned a friend.

About a week earlier my friend Rachel had tested my bladder telling me the story of how just this very thing had happened to her. Google maps gave her the thumbs up on a small dirt road and it took CAA and a local tractor to get her out of the mud.

I was still laughing when I messaged her this photo and her reply came back quickly

"Don't Do It!!!"

So clearly, I thought, what has happened here is that there is a misprint in the Secrets of Sydenham, and a re-route on the main trail. Annnd...I guess it's been pretty wet this fall and that's why I can't drive through this road like google thinks I can. Maybe I can walk ahead a bit.....nope. It's mud as far as the eye can see.

But somehow right where I'm stopped, is signage for another set of trails from the book. There is a trailhead sign for the Kemble Rock Reserve. Huh?! I haven't researched this trail, but it looks like if I just walk through this grassy field, and take the blue trail to the right I should be able to grab a code and salvage my hiking morning! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

The Don Richards Side Trail treks through lower land and a nice easy field. It meets up with the Mystery Cabin Side Trail on the right and I headed in that direction looking for the code listed as being in the Maple Cross Ridge Reserve.

It really is nice to walk by yourself and let your thoughts wander sometimes. As trails around here do, we started heading up the escarpment with towering mossy walls on my left and an long view south on my right.

Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, the sun tucked behind a cloud, cooler air swept in and I heard rather than felt rain tinking through the canopy. Correction, not rain...hail?

I quickly checked the weather app on my phone and saw a small band passing over the peninsula. I looked around and decided my best bet was to wait it out under an over hanging rock against the escarpment wall.

I did mention that my main goal today was the errands in Wiarton, right? So unlike most hikes, this morning I had straightened my hair, put on make-up and jeans for this hike. Hail is no good for my coif!

It's a pretty great spot to wait out a short storm!

I had left the trail to scramble upwards to my perch in some haste. Listening to the hail gave me some time to ponder the fact that it is always easier to go up than down, and that I would eventually have to pick my way down carefully to not twist an ankle or slip and cover myself with mud, since I was hiking alone as I said I never did.

I did take a minute to call Scot and tell him where I was and that my GPS was on. Just in case!

The little storm passed in maybe 10 minutes and the sun came back out!

I was able to continue on, following my maps and crossing this lovely road. It's Coles Sideroad. The very same one I parked at. Huh.

The code was located at a beautiful lookout. I'm so glad to have seen it today. With the fall colours changing every day, there's no telling what it will look like next weekend!

As usual, the sheer distance that the view covers can't be properly expressed with my cell phone camera.

I followed the trails back the way I came towards my vehicle.

This is the Mystery Cabin and it's view. According to Ron Savage, this is likely as built as the cabin ever got. There is no record of who might have started the project, it wasn't any of the land owners? A beautiful spot for sure.

Not hiking alone on an unfamiliar trail is still my number one rule. I have completely learned my lesson!!! If nothing else it would have been nice to share the laughs under the overhang with someone else!

October 17, 2020

4 km hiked

1 hr 45 min

P.S. The trail I was trying to hike....was right where it was supposed to be. I had made a few assumptions and was on the wrong part of Coles Side Road. No one is less surprised than me. But I did dodge a bullet because it was a wet soggy trail that would have wrecked my "running errands" look for sure! Kismet.

P.P.S. Since I didn't research, plan, and read the whole description, I walked right past a code! Looks like I'll be on this trail again soon. This is really a half day hike area with 4 codes to find. AND, Secrets of Sydenham literally says "abandon any thoughts of hiking in the unopened road allowance of Coles SideRoad. ...long muddy bog holes waiting to swallow your feet." lol