The best 10km yet - Bruce Trail, Waterdown to Guelph Line.

Nicola and I took Saturday off and then hiked the Bruce Trail again on Sunday.

We started where we had left off on Friday, at the stile which is at the intersection of Mountain Brow and Flanders, in Waterdown.

The first section was criss-crossed with trails and we had to keep a close watch out for the white blazes. It was also well used by mountain bikers.

The title of this post says it all. To start with the temperature was perfect for hiking.

It was in the mid to low 20s and not humid.

Most of the trail was wide and some of it was even mulched, which made for a nice soft surface to walk on.

There were some views over Burlington Bay

and, way in the distance, Toronto.

A splattering

of flowers.

Many of them white.

The second half of the trek was on narrower, more wooded paths, but still with very few ascents or descents. This is the aptly named Shagbark Hickory.

Nicola caught me trying to get a picture of a Chipmunk.

I was unable to get a picture of that one. We saw many Chipmunks and most had much shorter tails than the ones I am used to seeing at home. I looked this up and found that the Chipmunks tail is quite delicate and they loose them easily, and they will not grow back, not even the hair.

The trail crossed a lot of roads, including Hwy 5 (4 lanes and busy)

A short walk up one of the roads took us past a horse farm and then into a lush residential area.

Nicola's App said this was a Japanese Snowball which I thought was strange because they usually have round flower clusters. Turns out there's more than one variety.

This section was more exclusively for hikers (and joggers).

There were some really aggressive tree roots. Of course I tripped and fell right in front of another group of walkers.

We asked a couple, coming from the other direction, how long it was to Guelph line and when they said "about 20 minutes" Nic promptly got on the phone to Dave as he was an hour away.

We couldn't believe how fast we had hiked the 10km.

A perfect combination of perfect temperature and terrain, hiking terrior.

There was a lovely spot to sit, in the shade, and wait for our ride

Until we saw these casings, various places on the tree, then we moved out from under it. We thought they might have been from wasps but a little internet research indicates that they might have been from Cicadas.

10km in about 3 hours is probably the best pace we have ever set. A lovely walk on a lovely day and a real sense of accomplishment from completing 20km in a weekend and hiking the whole of one of the Bruce Trail book maps.