Sunday April 22^nd, 2001

Early in the morning Sabine, Vroni - who came down from Sudbury the day before - and I get up and after a short breakfast we grab our backpacks and get on the road with our new van. We pick up Craig, Stacey and Peter and together we take highway 6 northbound. This time Bruce Peninsula is our destination, a 3-day-hike is the plan. Sabine, Vroni, Peter and I want to cover about 45km while Craig and Stacey take it a bit softer. As we won't be able to hike altogether we at least want to make sure that we meet again on the trail and even hit two birds with one stone. We drop off Craig and Stacey few kilometres north of Cape Chin and the rest of us drives back south where we park the van in Barrow Bay, south of Lions Head. Craig and Stacey are supposed to get to the van at the end of their trip and pick us up in Dyers Bay. Meeting point shall be the Rocky Racoon Café which we saw when we where here on our first trip to Bruce Peninsula.

We drop of Craig and Stacey at 12pm and are at our own stating point around 1pm. The first day is planned to be rather relaxing, only about 9km are to be covered. In bright sunshine (in contradiction to what the weather forecast wanted to make us belief) we hike from Barrow Bay eastwards on Lions Head.

The trail runs through dense evergreen forest and across naked rocks along a breathtaking cliff formation, which is well known among rock climbers. Below us a white, rocky beach stretches that colors the water bluish-green. The view reminds me of a tropical beach apart from the rocks and evergreens ;-))

After few hours we get to the place that is going to be our campsite for this night. Situated in a gorgeous evergreen site close to the beach it offers us several fire pits and a amazing view on Georgian Bay.

After we killed our thirst with water and explored the beach we get started to set up camp and collect firewood. Some dead trees deliver ideal material. Bine trains the professional fire construction and so we gather around the fire and have a hot chocolate soon after. Supper - rice with vegetables - is prepared quickly and after we finished dining we keep telling stories for some hours. Finally - it is around 10pm - we crash and fall asleep in our sleeping bags.

Monday April 23^rd, 2001

We successfully get up at 8am and a couple of minutes later we sit around the newly lighted fire again and have oatmeal with fresh fruits. The weather didn't change this night and so it promises us a nice day.

In fact when we break camp at 9:30am we get pretty warm. After only few meters we get rid of our fleece pullovers and the legs of our zip-off-pants.

It's unbelievable, but true, on the northern side of Lions Head there are still some patches of snow left. It's kind of crazy, just a month ago we were digging through meters of snow in Killarney Provincial Park and now we are glad to hike in the shadow for a while.

After 2.5h we get to Lions Head (Village), about 6.5km down the trail. We can't help but to buy heaps of chocolate and cookies and afterwards we have an ice cream. On the beach we have lunch and munch delicious pepper sausages with cheese and muesli buns. The first chocolate bar doesn't survive the break and some of the cookies neither ;-))

An hour later we get started again, about 10km are left for today. Shortly after Lions Head we leave the road on which crossed the village and hike on huge rock plates along the shore. The water - although it looks invitingly fresh - is in fact that cold that the calves hurt after only a few seconds (this experience I made in the morning when I washed myself in the lake ;-))

Shortly after we meet Craig and Stacey who lie in the sun and get tanned. We have lunch together (right, everybody who read this report thoroughly so far would say now, that we already had lunch before! Right, so what?) Two hours pass by with chatting and sun bathing. Finally we get going again and say goodbye to Craig and Stacey who continue their hike southwards while we head northwards.

From now on the landscape changes often, nature shows itself from different sides. Have we been on a gravel road a minute ago we now get into the wilderness again and dive into a dense evergreen forest. Shortly later we cross a juicy meadow which will be followed by a swamp-like landscape. After an hour we get to the cliffs again. It is still hot, the sun burns our skin, our water supply diminishes. The trail follows the shoreline again. From time to time we hit big snow patches sometimes even on the plain beach. Early evening we get to our next campsite after 16km of hiking. A fire pit on the beach invites to a lazy, cosy evening, the "lawn chairs" out of rock plates, which were built by others before us, are really comfortable after a long day with a heavy backpack.

Setting up the tent and collecting firewood are done quickly and soon we are preparing our supper - pasta with cheese sauce. Actually we wanted to have dinner sheltered by the evergreens and later on going down to the beach to gather around the fire, but suddenly dark clouds show up. We just manage to get our stuff in the tent or at least store it sheltered from the rain then it starts to rain. And so it comes that the already prepared fire is cancelled and we instead get into the tent around 8pm already. In the tent it is hot and humid, few fresh air is coming in and above our heads a thunderstorm rages.

Tuesday April 24^th, 2001

The morning welcomes us rather cool. During the night the temperature dropped significantly. At least is isn't raining while we have breakfast, oatmeal with fruits of course, and a hot chocolate ;-))

Around 9am we hit the trail for the last stage which is getting us to Dyers Bay. Soon later a fine rain starts with a tendency to increase.

The landscape the trial runs through keeps on changing, but today that doesn't seem to be that exciting anymore. In the rain everything looks rather dull. Nonetheless it can't spoil our good mood. A bit taciturn we hike on for some hours until lunchtime comes up after 13km. We find a small group of evergreens, which provide us a dry, almost comfy spot. We unpack our meal, which consists mainly of the leftovers from our last dinner. So we dip our muesli buns in the thick cheese sauce and munch sausages. With my thin pepperoni sausage I manage to catch a huge block of unmolten cheese - the 1st price - in the sauce and to the dismay of the others to swallow the whole junk at once. Hey, it's only cheese ;-))

As we get going again - we munched a whole box of cookies before - it starts snowing. That real Canadian April's weather. The last hours the trail cut inland but now it hits the coast again. The rocks are wet and slippery and we have to be careful not to fall with our heavy backpacks. It temperature stays low probably the reason why we see three snakes - two gardener and one green tree snake - which can't get out of our way fast enough.

Around 3pm we get to Dyers Bay where a closed Rocky Racoon Café disappoints us. So we sit down at the beach and - everybody has a ravenous hunger for something sweet - prepare the remaining hot chocolate. Finally it gets really cool outside and so Bine knocks on the door of the café and - luckily - Robin, the proud Nepalese owner, asks us to come in and explains that the café was closed only because of party that took place here the evening before. We order tea and while we warm us up at the artificial but cosy fire place Robin tells us the story of his Canadian dream. He began his career as a waiter in a 5-star-restaurant in Nepal and after he got to know his later wife in a coffee shop in Holland we emigrated to Canada and started to work as a dish washer in this very café. Since only hours he is the owner of this place and a phone call that brings news that his café will be mentioned in the next yearbook of the Bruce Peninsula Association adds to his anyway good mood. He is happy as a pig in shit and shows it to us by serving us free cookies and a sample of his cooking arts. However, his café is a cosy place and an ideal meeting point for hikes on the Bruce Trail and that's why I show his business card here.....

Around 5pm Craig and Stacey come, too, and have some tea before we get started on our way back home. We stop for some juicy burgers at Harvey's and have a huge milk shake for desert. At 10pm we are back in Waterloo. We are all glad, that we defied the weather forecast again and had some wonderful days in nature......