Bruce Trail - Mallory Beach to Wiarton

Today we hiked the northwest side of Colpoy's Bay.

We drove up to the Mallory Beach Rd access point and walked back to Wiarton. This is the first time that we have walked "backwards", every other time we have walked in the Niagara to Tobermory direction.

The access trail was straight up hill and then we were on to a very rocky and rough section of the Bruce. We were glad to have this at the beginning of our hike as it takes focus and concentration to place poles and feet and not stumble. Much harder to do at the end when we are tired.

The trail went right along the edge, or the "scarp" as the guide book calls it, with occasional views across the bay.

It was really quite lovely and after a while we were warm enough to strip of layers of clothing until we were down to t-shirts.

We had started at 10:15 and stopped for a snack at about 11:30. We had decided to stop a couple of times for refreshments as we were going a bit further today.

The next section was through meadows and Nic and I spent time getting photos of the masses of monarchs among the clover.

It was warm out in the open, wading through the long grass. Periodically we would be negotiating areas of flat bedrock with huge cracks reminding us how little top soil there is here.

At the access points and whenever we crossed a road there was a station to brush off our boots. They are trying to stop the spread of seeds from invasive plants.

We stopped again for coconut water, cheese, trail mix, mangoes and snap peas.

Nicola knew this was coming from reading the guidebook but was still less than impressed. "Who puts a spiral staircase in the middle of the woods?!"

Hates heights!

The last 3km were beside the lake, crystal clear and gently lapping with occasional boulders that had fallen from the top of the escarpment.

We watched some large Merganser families fluttering, splashing and diving

from a seat by the water treatment plant and then

walked past the marina to get home.

We drove back out and picked up the car, showered and then drove into Owen Sound (just over 30minutes) to check out a quilt store (closed), Fabricland (Nicola scored a half price cutting mat) and have supper out. We had just started looking for a restaurant on line when we noticed a place with a patio close to the water. It turned out to be a real find. Mudtown Station is in a renovated train station (CPR) that was built in 1946. We sat on the patio even though we were already a little sun burned but felt that the days of patio eating are nearly over for the year .We were blown away by the menu and basically wanted to try everything.

I settled for marinated, grilled octopus over a greek salad.

Nicola had rainbow trout, salad and duck fat roasted potatoes (crisp outside, melt in your mouth inside). The was also a creamy lemon sauce accompaniment.

We felt we had earned the shared dessert - vanilla ice cream, waffle, picards peanuts, chocolate sauce and maltesers.

There were hops growing beside the patio

because it is also a craft brewery.