Date of Walk: Sunday May 26, 2024
Total Distance: 19.06 km
Total Time: 4:14:21
Today was the first day our drive didn’t start with heading westbound on the 401 towards Kingston – sign of progress! Instead, a really nice country drive along the exact route to some of our best friends – so guess who we will be hitting up to pick us up from our end points the next couple walks? We promised them lunch at the Opinicon next Sunday – stay tuned 😉
This walk started out very “easy” with about 7km along the Cataraqui Trail. This was a much more interesting section of that trail though, through a very wet/marshy/lake-y area. It was only a couple km in when Bryan pointed off quite far ahead of us in the distance and said “Whats that up there in the trail? A rock….could be a turtle”, to which I replied it was definitely a turtle. When we got up there, it was definitely a rock. UNTIL IT TURNED OUT TO ACTUALLY BE A TURTLE. Loved him just catching the morning sun in the middle of the place, highlight of my day looking back on it.
After leaving the Cataraqui trail, we headed into the woods for some more ups and downs and “real” hiking like we had the last couple of walks. Some outstanding lookouts on this section of trail that we paused to soak in a bit before continuing. Lots of deer flies today trying to eat my head driving me crazy, despite the DEET – time to get a hiking hat. Speaking of gear, I finally got my own pack that I brought with on this walk and it was super helpful – Bryan is no longer on the hook for carrying my water and uh, other stuff. One of my favourite things these last few walks is all the super obvious beaver activity. I’ve made it this far in my life without really seeing proof of how much impact a beaver dam can have! Still havn’t seen any actual beavers along the way though, maybe next time.
At some point in the woods we passed a couple of signs – POOLE and LINDSAY, indicating a couple nearby lakes. Turns out Lindsay Lake is the site of some sus research – a strange device out in the water on a platform, some solar powered boxes on shore, and a note about Queens University conducting studies – keep out! (Im sure there is nothing actually sus about this, but we enjoyed discussing alien possibilities, mutated fish and the like). A little farther along and we made it to the side trail to take us back to where we left the Jeep on Opinicon Rd. Close to the end, we crossed the longest boardwalk ever (well, to-date, for us), along which we caught sight of an owl (?) who perched high up a little ahead of us. He took off before we got closer to get better photos, but still – an impressive bird of prey of some variety. I also saw the flash of a white tail bounding off into the woods at one point, but for the most part, my loud self kept most wildlife hidden on this walk. I did see 3 deer on Opinicon Rd on the drive in…
Coming out of the woods right at the Jeep, I drove Bryan back to the Landy, and he followed me up to our friends house for a BBQ lunch.
Lunch of the day - BBQ w/ Friends
Last time, we said that THIS time, we would go to the Opinicon for lunch – still hasn’t happened because timing and location worked out such that we went to see our close by friends who BBQ’d up some sausages for lunch. I may have eaten 3 peanut butter cookies as well 😉 With a bunch of new chicks to visit and hold, my fave flock of laying hens, and the kunekunes – I got a great animal fix! We told them about our plans to visit the Opinicon and bribed them with lunch next weekend should they be willing to pick us up from our end point (06D/E). Hoping for more cookies….
read more about our rideau trail adventure
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