Now, why is this a noteworthy story? Well, I'll get to that.
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| The Start of our Hike |
Our last morning in Tobermory we got to talking to someone who worked at our hotel. We told them that we were thinking about going to Mantoulin Island, and they seemed hesitant. They said that it was a lot more boring we thought it would be, and instead made some recommendations of some trails that "only locals know about". We thought this seemed like a great idea, and mapped out our route.
My first indication that this was a bad idea, should have come from how far it was to even get to the start of the trail. It was roughly 15 minutes of driving from the entrance of Bruce Peninsula National Park to the point where the trail started. Also, because this wasn't part of the main park, there was an honor system for parking payment.
So we set out on our estimated 10km hike in high spirits. It's not too bad at first, and there are some amazing views of the cliffs. however, maybe 2km in, the trail gets remarkably more difficult in the vertical sense. The once flat path had become an onslaught of 90 degree rock walls. So after wall after wall, in the summer heat mind you, we were both pretty pooped. We took a brief rest, and kept going. However, the walls kept going too.
After another couple kilometers of hiking that could defeat even Chuck Norris, my wife was calling it quits. She said, we could turn back now and know how far we have to go, but we don't know how much farther this trail goes. I took a look at the map, and figuring that we had already gone more than half way, assured her that the most reasonable idea would be to keep going, as it was shorter, and couldn't possibly be more treacherous. While we were stopped, we ate the tuna that we had brought, and like any responsible hiker, I took our Garbage with us. I guess at this point it would be good to tell you about my fear of bears....
We finally get to the turning point in the trail after about another half hour of hiking, however we are also met with a sign, "Danger, Bear in Area". At this point my heart sunk. Bear's and tomatoes are my only down fall. If I saw a bear eating a tomato, I don't know what I would do. So we kept on trucking, but at this point I said, it would probably be wise to continuously talk about anything just so we made noise.
Next, we reached another fork in the road. However, there wasn't supposed to be a fork in the road. After careful examination of the map, we realized that the trail back we had chosen, was not a hiking trail, but in fact a snow mobile trail. However, we did believe that it led back, so we chose that, and started our trek back.
As we were walking, extremely exhausted by this point, we start to hear this rattling sound from the side of the path. Ohhh.. so this is probably a good time to tell you that Tobermory is home to the only venomous snake in Ontario, the Massausauga Rattler. So what was that coiled up a mere foot from me? A frog. No, it was a Massausauga Rattlesnake. Now, I at first thought it was just a squirrel, because the sound was pretty much the same. My wife however, was the one that looked back, and saw the snake ready to strike. Now, she didn't grab me as she sprinted away like Usain Bolt, however, luckily I noticed the cloud of dust where she once stood, and took off too. It was only after we stopped that I found out how close I was.
So now we are at our stress limit, and every vine on the ground looks like a rattlesnake, every jumping frog a lethal attack. It was then that we came across the incredibly fresh bear poop. How do I know this was bear poop? It was pure evil, that's how. And fresh? Oh yes. So now, we are on incredibly high alert, and no idea where we are. Our dollar store compass has surprisingly stopped working (unless every direction really was north from there). It was at this point that we relaunched our, never stop talking campaign.
After another couple kilometers, we finally we got to the end of the trail, to the road we had come in on, and after a short walk we ended up back at our car. Never had I been so happy to see that car.
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