Sometimes I am amazed at how pretty the landscape is along the trail. It’s one thing to assume that it’s going to be nice, after all why would they put the trail there unless there is something to see.  It is another thing to actually see it.

The trio from the last hike, Ron, Chris and I met again in Sault Ste. Marie to head over to Blind River. Andy P. offered to help us with the shuttle, so we met him at the Cataract Falls Parking lot where we had started from on the last hike. This time, I planned on doing the hike from the other end of Lake Duborne back to Cataract Falls, a distance of 14kms on the map. Since the weather forecast was indicating that the rain would hold off until late in the afternoon or early evening, we decided to stick to the plan.

During our drive over to the start point, Andy mentioned that he would be joining us for a short bit as he wanted to do some clipping on a new portion of the Fire Tower Lookout side trail. This was a boon for us as Andy is very knowledgeable about the trail and the area. As we were approaching the parking area, we crossed a bridge over the river connecting the two lakes. There are some pretty falls/rapids there, so we got out there to take some pictures and walked the extra half mile to the parking lot.

After meeting up with Andy, who had driven over to the parking lot, we began our adventure for the day. The trail runs along the entire length of Lake Duborne in this area. It immediately starts to climb up the hill through a hardwood forest populated with lots of oak and maple trees. The leaves had all fallen, covering the wet ground, so we had to be careful of our footing.  Plenty of hidden rocks could easily twist an ankle.

We steadily climbed the hill, from the main trail to the Fire Tower Lookout trail, along a steep section, up to the first viewpoint. Wow, that view was spectacular even with the weather being somewhat gray. You could see both lakes, the river connecting them where we had taken pictures earlier and then the view just kept going on. You could see not only the north shore of Lake Huron but Manitoulin Island in the distance and that was just at the first viewpoint. You continue up on some large rock faces, until you get to a plaque dedicated to Norm Lediett, one of the founding members of the Voyageur Trail. 

At the top, you can see pretty much completely around. The back of the hill faces an impressive cliff that stretches off into the distance.

Andy showed us a different way  back to the main trail, using the new section which took advantage of an existing trail that the cottagers on the lake use.  The trail goes down and around some rocky areas that we carefully made our way down on. The footing was still slippery and often the leaves would mask tricky areas. It did not take long before we reached a level area where the new section branched off the cottager's trail. The blue blazed trail wanders back into the hardwood forest until it meets the main trail. At this point, Andy left us to do his trail maintenance. We thanked him for all his help and headed down the trail.

We were walking along the backside of the ridge, in a valley between the ridge and the cliff face we had seen earlier from above. At one point we came to some house sized rocks and the first ice formations I have seen this year. A few pictures taken and on we went. Shortly afterwards we heard a large crack and smash as another set of ice formations crumbled. We crossed a creek and the trail started to head down. 

Ron, spied a good picture opportunity where we decided to have lunch. We pulled out the maps and checked out our position. We figured that we had about 10km left to go. I was pretty sure that we could set a good pace but even if we were going at 3km/hour that still would be a bit over 3 hours. In mid-November the sun sets pretty early so we decided to get moving and not dawdle too much.

Through the tree trunks, we could just start making out Lower Cranberry Lake, one of the small lakes north of Lake Duborne that we would be skirting. We meandered along the edge of the forest on some outcroppings that offered lots of views of the all the lakes in the area. Once in a while the sun poked out of the clouds but shortly after lunch it disappeared. We crossed a couple of creeks and eventually joined a snowmobile trail which led to an old bush road that led us out of the hills to the shores of Upper Cranberry Lake. The trail follows that paved road around the lake until we were almost directly across from where we first came out of the woods.

Although we had encountered some wet spots previously, the next section of the trail was really really wet and muddy. The trail continues to follow the snowmobile trail at this point which offered easy access to ATVers. Normally, I don’t have an issue with these machines but when the trails are so wet they do a lot of damage and it was no different along this section. From the lake we climbed back up into the hills along this wet multi-use trail until the footpath veered off towards another great viewpoint.

The final few kilometres of our hike were along a cottage road that runs parallel to the shoreline. Many of the cottages were large vacation homes that had obviously been closed for the season. We came upon another section of the pipeline where we realized that we could see the overlook that we had climbed a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t take too long before we rounded the corner to see our vehicle in the parking lot. Good thing because I had pretty much reached the limit of my energy for the day. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only 3:40 when we got to the car, despite the fact that I had slowed down considerably during the last kilometre or two.

Another great hike, one that I will do again in another season.  This will be the last post on hiking until next spring when I start up the Challenge hikes again. I plan on cross country skiing and snowshoeing over the winter months. Who knows, maybe I will post on some of the winter adventures to come.

Challenge Hike #5

Another hike, another change. Despite great hiking weather only one other person joined our 5th challenge hike. We met Ron at the McDs in the Sault at 7am to carpool to the starting point at Cataract Falls. We got to Blind River in plenty of time to take a pit stop at Tim's still get to the falls parking spot in time for our 9am start. Once we arrived, we wondered around the parking area checking out the falls and the small rapids below, hoping that maybe someone else might join us there but to no avail. After 10 or 15 minutes we gathered in front of the Voyageur Trail trailhead sign, which was a bit banged up, to decide what to do. We could do a shorter hike in the direction originally planned but I had forgotten the map, so we really didn't know much about the area. The sign indicated the trail along Cataract Lake and had many viewpoints over the lake. It was a pretty easy decision from there. We decided to hike for 2 hours or so and come back.

So, we crossed over the bridge which spans this part of the Blind River and followed the road until we found where the trail goes into the bush along path where the gas line was buried. Up over the mound we went, talking about who knows what, it must of been interesting because we immediately missed the turn blaze and walked along a very wet and muddy track until someone realized that we could not see a blaze. Back over the wet and muddy track we went until we got to the top of the mound (which is about 20 ft from the road). A good chuckle and back on the trail we went.

The trail climbs up the ridge off the back of a hill that spans the gap between Cataract Lake and Lake Duborne. It didn't take to much time to get to the first lookout trail but it was headed in the opposite direction that had been indicated on the trailhead map. This side trail was relatively well marked with blue blazes so we decided to check it out. Occasionally we had to find blue blazes painted on the rocks, which were a bit slippery with all the rain that we have had over the past few weeks. Neither issue stopped us from getting to the unexpected and excellent viewpoint at the end. This lookout overlooks Lake Duborne and the road which we drove in on as well as the river. Although we could hear the falls, we could not see them despite the leaves having all fallen off but we did see the car in the parking area.

After taking some pictures and admiring the view, we headed back to the main trail. The trail contined to follow the ridge along Cataract Lake, through a maple forest. Since fall is coming to an end, all the trees were leaf-less, making the forest open and offering lots of glimpses of the lake. Soon we began to see a building across the lake from where we were hiking. We didn't know at the time what it was but it seem to be quite a sturdy structure for the remote side of the lake. At the next lookout we got a good look at the lake and the building which at this point we could tell it was some kind of generating station.

After hiking for another hour or so we came to the a road where another blue side trail heads towards the small hydro electric dam. Since we had been hiking over 2 hours and it was close to lunch time, we decided to walk down the road to the dam and have lunch there. This half kilometre road runs along side the lake shore and gives a great view of the lake and the generating station. We explored the area around the fenced off generating station and up the hill to the lake above where there are some makeshift camps and some cabins along the shore.

 After a lovely lunch we started heading back. I was a bit worried as a slip at the top of the hill had twisted my ankle. I suggested that we walk out to the road where the main trail meets the side trail and see how the ankle reacted. During the little walk, I realized that it only hurt when we were going down hill and figured that if I was extra careful that all would be well. Fortunately the trail is relatively level along the ridge. With a bit of care, we made it out fine. I was surprised that our trip back was still only about 2 hours but of course we had not taken the side trail on the way back.

We did have one interesting tangent on our trip back. We managed to find an old route down an embankment and we were already at the steep section when we realized that we had not been up this way. Obviously, this must of been rerouted at some point as once we reached the bottom of the steep drop we could no longer see any blazes. Rather than head back up we decided to see where it would bring us. We were close to the river and the road at this point and confident that it would not be too difficult to find our way back. This led us to our final discovery for the day. An interesting cave made by some naturally stacked rock and the cliff face.

It didn't take long before the old trail met up with the reroute and we were back at the parking area before we knew it. A few more pictures of Cataract Falls and then a drive back to the Sault, arriving just as the daylight was disappearing. We will have to keep this in mind for the next two hikes as the days are getting shorter very quickly now. Oh, and the ankle is fine.