Bruce Trail - Forks of the Credit

Up in Guelph for Nicola's birthday (56), we had a fabulous day - mini latte's at home and then Starbucks while we contemplated our hike for the day. We set off for the Forks of the Credit, me following her, when she pulled over, walked back, pointed to the darkening sky and said "they are forecasting a 60% chance of thunderstorms", we were halfway there already so kept going.

We dropped her car at Willoughby and Escarpment Side Road and then parked mine on Forks of the Credit Road. A very kind man pointed out that we were in a "Tow Away" zone so we moved the car.

When looking at the map we had determined that this would be a very varied hike. The first thing was to cross the river.

Up a "No exit" road and through a little community

We determined that this probably meant that there was a brothel and a pub so we entertained ourselves by identifying which house that would have been.

I looked it up, it is a White Admiral - It took quite a while to get a picture of it with it's wings open.

The Bruce Trail goes through the Forks of the Credit Conservation Area. Trails through here are wide and clear.

It was hot and humid and we were glad we had put on the tick and bug spray.

We started to hear thunder (that we tried to convince ourselves was a plane, quarry trucks ....) When we hit an open spot we could see the amassing thunderheads.

The trail was pretty steep in places. After my difficulties on the last hike we had put coconut water with electrolytes mixed in, in our water bottles and I had drunk 2 bottles of water the night before. Although hot and sweaty, that mixture seemed to maintain our energy much better than water alone, although we really didn't care for the taste.

The thunder rumbled, constantly for about half an hour. Then it rained and we put our phones, car keys and my camera into my backpack and covered it with a poncho. We were glad of the storm, but a little concerned about going out into the open sections of the trail (although we never saw any lightening). It did bring cooler temperatures, no bugs and the rain was refreshing.

Even after the rain stopped, the thunder continued, rumbling away for about another half hour. The bugs came back, and of course now we had sweated and rained all our protection off. We checked the GPS, only looked like another km to go so we decided not to not reapply. 5 minutes later we were lathering up - they were ravenous!

Pretty happy to see the car although it had been a thoroughly enjoyable hike (except for the brief period of extreme mosquitoes)

For some reason, a vacumn cleaner, abandoned at the end of the trail.

Back to Nic and Dave's for a shower, light snacks and wine on the patio and out to dinner to celebrate Nicola's birthday.
We had planned to take a day off and then hike again but the forecast looks better for tomorrow so we will be hiking again then.