Collingwood Hikes - Bruce Trail, Pretty Valley Loop

The second day Nicola and I went looking for the Bruce Trail, which passes through the area. This resulted in a lovely drive, past some really nice homes (or maybe weekend places) until we finally found a "trail closed" sign. Off we drove again to find another access point.

We were looking for something a little more challenging than 2.7km but felt
this would be a start. ( a later sign said 3.4km and rather shook our faith in the
measuring process). By the time we finished it felt like closer to 10km.

The low lying parts were wet and boggy but the higher parts gave us
views through the now leafless trees.

Pretty woods and the day was sunny and warmer than yesterday. The 2 white flashes
indicate that the trail is going to turn right.

This beaver all-you-can-eat buffet was next to a small pond with a beaver
lodge in it.

After completing the Pretty River loop, back on the main Bruce Trail, we walked
along side a pretty river.

Beautiful fungi

After walking for quite a while we began to second guess ourselves about the direction we had chosen when getting back onto the main trail. We began to assure ourselves that we had water, snacks, 2 phones and it wasn't getting dark yet. Once, we lost the trail only to find that it had crossed the river. We had walked for about 2 hours (no way was this 2.7 km or even 3.4).

Nicola kept trying to get the GPS on her phone to work but it insisted that we were
in Stayner and we knew we weren't that lost. 

We were very happy to see this sign that we knew lead us back to the car.

I have been home for a few days now and finally had the second day in a row without wind. The lake is calm, little waves lapping at the edge. It is warm. People are bringing chairs to the beach and walking barefoot. I've fallen back in love with Long Point and have been going for long walks on the beach.
I have noticed the lack of "duck rafts" (accumulations of flocks of ducks, out on the lake) this fall but today there was a mass of them in a dark line as far as the eye could see. During a walk on the beach I noticed a couple of the Bird Studies Canada staff with their binoculars on them. They said they though they were Ruddy Ducks (how rude). They also mentioned that they count the migrating waterfowl every day and that morning had counted 47,000 overhead in 2 hours! Amazing!