Bruce Trail - Grimsby. Mountainview Rd to Mountain Street

This was Nicola and my earliest start to hiking the Bruce. We had planned to hike last weekend but cancelled due to the lousy weather. This weekend at least one day looked hikeable. We met in Grimsby and left Nicola's car there. Drove to Mountainview and started off.

It was cool and grey, weather for dressing in layers and Nicola even had her splash pants on.

Within minutes we were greeted by wildflowers.

They really stood out against the damp, dark rocks.

We saw quite a few trillium but none were out in flower yet.

At Thirty-Mike Creek,

an information board

and, the first time we had seen one of these, a log book.

The creeks were all full and even the watercourses were running.

We have done a lot of our hiking near the QEW or the 401. It was nice to be far enough from a major highway that all we were hearing were birds and trickling water. We saw Blue Jays and a number of different woodpeckers.

Nicola thought I was trying to get a photo of her falling in but I just wanted to show the obstacles we were traversing. Stepping stones and carefully positioned logs kept us from getting wet feet.

Lunch was dried snap peas, trail mix and for desert, chocolate mini eggs (thanks to Dave!)

These little blue flowers

formed a blanket with the white flowering  Blood Root.

What bird wouldn't want to live in a castle?

When Nicola sent Dave a picture of the flock of Turkey Vultures he suggested we get moving as they were probably after the chocolate mini eggs.

Taking pictures of Vultures, ogling some magnificent homes and chatting, we missed this sign and ended up walking an extra kilometer when we had to double back to it.

The sun started to show itself sporadically and the wildflowers responded.

Some of the fungi are as pretty as the flowers.

With no leaves on the trees we were getting occasional views of Toronto across a windy, white capped Lake Ontario.

We walked down into Grimsby, picked up Nicolas car, drove back to pick up mine, all through wine country.

On the way to the hotel we stopped at a fabulous garden nursery and I was able to get kale, lettuce, spinach and oregano plants. Nicola found a small garden feature at a good price so we both came away happy.

The pub we had chosen to go to had a fire engine outside and the firefighter coming out said they had a "small incident". We chose another pub. It was a sports bar but we got a seat near the window so the TVs (hockey and baseball) were not too loud. After a shared appetizer of hot cheese and lobster dip, Nicola had a seafood risotto and I had 2 more appetizers, wing sauce roasted cauliflower and a beet and goat cheese salad. Glass of wine too, of course.

Back at the hotel the tap wouldn't turn off when Nicola went to take a bath. We were moved into another room and Nicola got her bath but there was no water in the toilet and only one bed. When the bathtub tap was successfully turned off we went back to our original room. Back and forth across the hallway added to our step count for the day!
We hiked 10. 3km on the Bruce Trail, another 1km when we missed the sign and about another 1km, walking down the hill into Grimsby.