With fall approaching, a friend from work asked me if I’d like to go on a short overnight hike and camp on the Bruce Peninsula. There’s a small park on the eastern side called Lion’s Head Provincial Park, through which the Bruce Trail passes and in which there is a small camping area for hikers to overnight camp. We planned to leave work early on Friday as we were able and to hike together or independently and meet each other at the campsite in the late afternoon or evening. A couple of his friends were also planning to come to meet us.
I was unable to get off work until later than planned, so I had to hike in on my own. By the time I got ready and started hiking, it was close to getting dark. I started into a dusky forest, trees almost bare, and the forest floor littered with their leaves. It was actually quite scenic, with a somber look. The trail was rocky and challenging at first, and I was glad that as it got darker the trail became a little easier when it entered a cedar forest. Fortunately I had recently purchased a headlamp, which was very helpful for seeing the trail and the blazes. At a couple places along the trail, there were small outlooks over the escarpment edge. These were a little unsettling to go to the edge in the dark, but they were far enough off the trail that I was not concerned about wandering off the trail and coming to an unfortunate end!
Hiking at night did prove challenging, but in time I neared the point on the map which my coworker had indicated as the camp site. When I was still a ways off from that spot, I noticed a campfire in the woods off the trail. I was a little confused, since I hadn't yet reached the agreed upon spot. I tentatively walked toward the fire and called my friend's name. It was indeed the site, and he was there along with one of his friends. When I arrived, they were a little concerned since the other friend who was expected had not yet arrived. After pointing out that we were not actually at the spot on the map that we had agreed upon, we looked over to where the actual site was and noticed a spot of light bobbing around. One of us went and found the missing friend there, with his tent already set up. He had given up on trying to find us and decided that it was more important for him to get set up than to find us. Once we were all united, we gathered at the main site and had supper together. After supper and some time around the fire for a while, it was getting quite windy and cool so we packed it in for the night. This camping trip was my first trip with a new 1-man tent (Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1) and also with a new warmer down sleeping bag (Marmot Sawtooth 15). I enjoyed having a smaller, lighter tent for carrying on the hike. Having a warm sleeping bag was definitely necessary, since it was cold enough that we had a mix of sleet and snow through the night. I woke in the morning having stayed warm through the night.
In the morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, enjoyed roasting chunks of the pork belly that one of the guys had brought along, and chatting together. Soon we packed up and began the trip back. One of the guys had not hiked into a campsite before, so he didn't have a clear idea how to pack. As a result, he had brought a very large and heavy sleeping bag, along with a cooler with food and drinks! In order to help him out on the hike back, we split up some of his gear among the rest of us. It was nice to hike back along the trail during the day and see the sights I had missed during the night. The daytime view over the cliffs at the various lookout points was beautiful, especially with the fall colours from the leaves that still clung to the trees. After making it back to the cars, we traveled to a nearby restaurant, had lunch together, and then headed of to our respective homes.
It was a fun trip to do together, as well as being able to enjoy camping in a different season than I had previously done. Thanks for inviting me Brett!
