Saturday

Approx. 30 people meet this Saturday at the PAC - the Physical Activity Center - in which the Outers Club has its equipment room. The group has to split up, because of the high number of participants. One part is going to Lionshead, our group is heading to Bruce Pensinsula National Park.

In our car - a brand-new, rented Chrysler Minivan - are Craig, Sylvia, Sabine, Jens, Claudia and me. At 9:30am we start as the last, but Craig makes headway very fast and so we arrive in Owen Sound first. Reason enough to get some coffee, hot chocolate and some Timbits from Tim Horton's where we meet the others 5 minutes later.

Two hours later we reach the park entrance und register us and the rest of the group. While we wait for the others to show up we have a break, getting some good sandwiches to eat.

One more hour of waiting, then we decide to drive to the starting point of our hike. On our way we finally meet the others, they waited at the starting point for us. Is it really that complicated to stay in a time plan when being in a big group?

To get to our reserved campground we have to cover some kilometers of rocky, narrow trail, which winds its way along the shoreline made of steep rocks.

We reach our campsite and pitch up the tents. The beach is our next aim...

The rough character of the coast is really fascinating and curiously we head for a hike north along the trail, this time without our backpacks. The other groups walk along with us, but it is dawning and so they return after an hour. We are lucky to have some flashlights, without them it would be too difficult to go on. Occasionally the trail runs across clefts and beside chasms, so no chance without light. Partly the trails crosses the rocky beach, partly it runs through dense forest. We go on until we get to Indians Cove, a beautiful bay lined by huge rocks. From here one has a good view on the offshore islands and a grotto.

We climb into the grotto, at this time it is dawning already. During the day one can dive from the lakeside into the grotto, but now we only can see a faint glimmer of light, where we assume the tunnel to be.

As we start on our way back it is totally dark and so we walk in the beams of our flashlights. The parts, where the trail runs across the beach give us a hard time, because now it is very difficult to find the point where we entered the beach on the way here.

Two hours later we reach the campsite again. Late in the night we start to cook a pasta stew, which we pitch into as it is ready. The night - now it is about 3:00am - is starlit. Randy, Sabine and me can't help, but go for a bath. The water is f... cold and the others, standing at the beach and watching us, freezing, they have to laugh loud. It is very difficult to walk on the little chunks of rock, particularly when the water is rushing around ones feet. And so we stumble and offer a funny scene. After that I feel really good, the blood circulation is running high speed, and so we slip into our sleeping bags. Randy, Sabine and me, we stay at the beach and let us rock to sleep by the sound of the breakers.

Sunday

The sunrise in the morning is breath-taking and after the others woke up in their tents, too, we have oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal is the perfect outdoor breakfast, very quickly made, hot or cold, with fruit or whatever..

Our group breaks camp and then we head back to the cars, from where we want to explore the trail southwards without the backpacks. The others want to do, what we did the last evening.

As we reach the cars we decide to have lunch at the beach first.

The colors of the water, rocks and sky are incredible and - if it wouldn't be that cool - one would be reminded of the Caribic. Nevertheless a good occasion the jump into the water once more. This time we stay for 10 minutes, it is a great feeling when the skin starts to burn....

After our opulent feast, made of sandwiches with several vegetables, we hike along the trail for some hours. Here, too, the way runs along the steep, rocky shoreline, from time to time there is access to very scenic views. By the way, the rocks are limestone, really good for climbing.

In the late afternoon we return to the cars again and make our way back heading southwards. We take another route, driving a bit out of the way of the main roads. The gravel road we are on runs more like a roller coaster and we fly over the top of the hills. Randy, following us with his own car, can only see our cloud of dust. We see Lionshead in the distance, a characteristic landscape similar to Bruce Peninsula. After a stop at subways (a refill suddenly costs ¢50, but no-one cares) we stay on the main roads an reach Waterloo at 9:00pm. Craig drives us home, then ends a incredible nice weekend.