Challenge Hike # 4

There is something about hiking in the fall that makes any hike wonderful. It could be the various colours that stand out against the dark green of the conifers or maybe it’s the crunch of fallen leaves beneath our feet as we march along, it could even be that woodsy smell, fresh and invigorating. I really do love hiking in the fall, even if it has to rain on us most of the time.

Yesterday was the fourth Challenge Hike and we changed it up a bit and joined Susan on her hike from Melwel road. This is a lovely bit of trail that follows the Mississagi River from Red Rock lake to Iron Bridge. Seven hearty souls from the Sault met four other hearty souls from Elliot Lake on a morning that promised rain. We met at Melwel road and made our way to where the trail first meets the road and dropped of the majority of the hikers. All the vehicles were driven to the end point, with one bringing the drivers back.

In the meantime, the hikers started slowly along the trail as there were quite a few black flies buzzing us at the beginning; unfortunately this is when the rain began. It was a nice soft rain but we had the some of the guys’ rain wear with us. Needless to say, they were a bit damp when they caught up to us. Once everyone got caught up and changed into the appropriate rain gear, Susan set a good pace figuring we might as well hike.

The trail meanders on and off the bush road that parallels the river. We were able to approach the river shortly after starting by way of a side road leading down to a beach. As we got closer a bald eagle flew off giving us a glimpse of its bright white tail feathers.  There is a fish migration at this time of the year where the eagles congregate on the Mississagi River as well as other birds the feed on the plentiful fish.

We eventually found ourselves in a lovely hemlock forest along the shores of Warnock Lake where we decided to have a break for lunch. The rain started letting up for the last little bit and ended completely during our break. You could hear the traffic from the highway and occasionaly see the vehicles travelling through a small break in the foliage at the end of the lake but otherwise you would believe you were miles from anywhere.

After lunch we climb back up the side of the hill the lake sits under to a lookout over the back. This is where the colours were most apparent to me. A sea of red, orange, gold and dark green greeted us as we climb up the short track. A couple of pictures and on we went.

The next little bit presented us with some challenges as the trail dropped down to a fast flowing creek which had just enough water in it to stop us from walking or jumping across. A few hikers went up stream to find a better crossing, which I found out later is where the trail actually goes. Chris had brought his high rubber boots which allowed him to cross with no problem. The rest of us tackled a small tree that grew sideways out of the bank over the creek. Each of us climbed onto one of the branches and was able to avoid the water that way. Chris, in the rubber boots stood safety in case anyone had any problems.

This was the last of the challenges for the day but not the last of interesting stuff to see. There were remarkable buildings, unusual mushrooms, majestic pines and turkey vultures along the way.

After another 45 minutes of walking along a well-worn track we made it back to the vehicles with no incidents other than a few admiring views of the colours along the way. We split up again once we got the end. We ended our hike with our friends from Elliot Lake heading home and the rest of us piling into the van to head back to the Sault after picking up the other vehicle on the way.

Challenge Hike#3

Finally, a hike that went as planned. Well, actually not really. It went as recently planned and not as planned a couple of months ago. Since the last hike distance shorter than anticipated, I thought I would like to hike the VTA trail along the southern edge of Elliot Lake from the far end back to Westview Park. 

This would be a total of about 11.5 km, a good distance, I thought.  I made up my mind after confirming with Emily that Pipeline road was passable.

Sunday morning we arrived with minutes to spare and were joined at Westview Park by Emily and three other hardy Elliot Lake hikers. We left one vehicle there and headed around the lake along Pipeline (otherwise known as Gasline) road. The gravel road was easily driveable and we arrived at the starting point with no incidents. After regrouping, we headed down a bush road towards the Elliot Lake Falls. Luckily, Emily had warned us to bring our rubber boots because the road was flooded for about 150 meters or so and easily a foot deep in spots. The water in the beaver pond that runs along the road is very high due to all the rain this summer.

After forging our way through the flooded section we came to the falls. A bridge crosses the waterway below the falls so you get quite a nice view. We met a family of ATVers at the falls who probably were wondering about our boots. They would find out soon enough. We changed out of our rubber boots into our hiking gear before climbing the side of the falls along the portage trail. From there we ascended further to a clearing where I was told there was once a cabin. All traces of the building have disappeared except for the clearing. We got a bit sidetracked off the trail before Emily steered us to the correct trail through the clearing.

The forest in this area is lovely and the Red Briffet Trail leads to a really nice lookout over the end of the lake and the towering cliffs on the other shore.

From there we wondered along the trail until we came to a bridge and a cross country ski shelter where we decided to have lunch.

At this point the trail is part of the cross country ski
trails that are maintain by the trail coalition in Elliot Lake. This partnership of all local trail users is a good example of how joining together can have all sorts of benefits. The trail parallels the shoreline of the lake and there are many access points to campsites, one of which we checked out. It was a really nice spot, with a newly built fire pit, lots of level areas for tents and it was clean, no garbage. Obviously, someone was keeping this site in good shape as these sites along the lake are all unofficial. The trail continues along the ski trail for a couple of kilometers, through a lovely hardwood forest. Many of the maples haves turned a brilliant red and orange. There were signs of forestry throughout with some really large specimens of old trees having been cut down, mostly yellow birch as you can see in the picture with Emily below.

We reached Spine Beach shortly after leaving the ski trail. The remainder of the trail after this park, we had already hiked previously on the last challenge hike. So far, this has been my favourite hike, which may be because the weather has finally cooperated and things went relatively smoothly. Next hikes are going to be in conjunction with some other hike leaders, Susan and Steve. I am looking forward to them.

Challenge Hike #2

Another hike and more changes. Chris and I headed to Elliot Lake at 6:15 for the 2 1/2 hour drive. We arrived with a few minutes to spare and just had enough time to put on our boots when Emily arrived. Since Emily is from the area, she had taken a drive the previous day to check out the access point and discovered that they were fixing a culvert making the drive not very appealing. Emily suggested that we change our end point to Spine beach and if we were looking to hike further we could backtrack. My philosophy is that if someone local suggests a change than who am I to disagree.

We followed Emily to Spine Beach and carpooled back to the Lookout point where we left our vehicle. It was nice to have Emily with us as she was able to point out many points of interest and give us some history of the area. There are a number trails in the area so it is important to follow the correct markers. In the Elliot Lake section of the Voyageur Trail the trail markers are yellow circular signs with an arrows pointing in the direction that the trail heads to. The white markers are used for Elliot Lake trails.

We started hiking directly off the parking area where there is a short side trail to a small lookout structure straight ahead. The Voyageur Trail heads to the right. Shortly after starting we reached the junction to the infamous Lung Buster trail on the left. Continuing on, the trail goes through an open deciduous forest where the leaves were just starting to turn with the occasional blush of orange or red. In a couple of weeks, the fall colours will make hiking a visual feast.

The trail follows along the top of the ridge and offers many viewpoints over the town of Elliot Lake including the construction area where the mall is being rebuilt. For those that don’t know the original mall had a portion of the rooftop parking area collapse into the mall area below, killing two women. We took a few moments at the viewpoint before continuing on.

View of the new mall construction.

Once the trail starts descending, the forest changes to a beautiful hemlock dominated area with lots of big granite rocks coated with moss and greenery all over. This is when I realized that my camera batteries were dead. Thank fully my phone can also take pictures. We climbed our way to the top of the ski hill, checked out the views and there trail starts descending off the ridges and we came to the back of a camp ground which leads to Westview Park. We decided to have an early lunch at a picnic table where we could look out onto the lake.

After lunch we continued on the trail which is located between housing developments and the lake at this point. There are many homeowners who landscape the back of their property down to the trail giving us glimpses of their homes. Often there are footpaths leading to small beaches or access points to the lake. The trail here is boardwalked in a lot of places making the walking easy unless of course the wood is wet. Wet wood can be very slippery.

We walked through wooded areas to beach areas. There are 3 public beaches which the trail crosses. Watch out for signs of goose, as they seem to like these areas as much as the people do. The last beach that we reached was Spine beach where Emily had left her vehicle. We decided to have Emily drive us back to the lookout where our car was and hike around there for a little bit before heading back home.             

After being dropped off, we hiked the trail down to the lake below and tried the Lung buster trail making a loop of just over a kilometer or so. This loop is certainly challenging but made my day when I made it back to the top.

Emily                                                                                                       

Challenge Hike #1,

Seven hearty souls braved the city wide power outage and the impending weather to join me on this first hike. Including Chris and I, three more drove in from Sault Ste. Marie in the morning where we were joined by three hikers from the Elliot Lake. The weather had indicated thunderstorms in the afternoon so we decided to get going as soon as possible to try and beat the weather. We left two vehicles at the Westview park and drove to the Stoneridge golf course. The parking area for the trail is located past the golf course at a junction with a decommissioned road.  I asked if someone from the local club would be willing to lead as they were familiar with the trail. Nikki and Gerry volunteered.

We started walking along the old road for less than 100m when we turned left onto the footpath that headed straight up the hill which got our hearts pumping quickly. This leads to the first viewpoint on the Stoneridge Lookout. This impressive ridge gives the golf course its name and overviews not only the greens but you can see out to the highway which leads into town.The well maintained trail follows along the ridge ducking into the woods and occasionally there are trails leading to other vantage points overlooking the surrounding area which are part of the uranium mine lands. This area has grown since the mines were closed, as evidenced by the young trees and bushes. The trail comes out under some power lines as it begins to descend to a bush road. Along this section you need to scramble over large rocks that have been placed to discourage motorized vehicles.  Be careful over the rocks, one of our little group gashed himself enough to have blood flowing. After a quick stop to bandage our injured comrade, we headed down hill on the bush road. This led to a small footbridge over the settling pond drainage creek. It’s a pretty spot with the creek running between large stone walls. The settling ponds in the area are treated to leach the heavy metals out of the water. This water is monitored weekly because it eventually reaches the watershed. The ample wildlife with fish and amphibians speaks to the success of the program.

After crossing the creek we headed straight up again. At this point the clouds were definitely darkening and rolling thunder had started. Once at the top of the hill, we stop to discuss the options to get off the trail if the storms should start earlier than expected. We were not far from a side trail out of the bush but we still needed to climb over one more hill. Shortly afterwards, the rain started. We decided to forego two more lookout spots to hasten our pace. We carefully made our way to what I think is Spillane Lake or maybe Westner Lake, where we started to take the trial out when the rain slowed and a bright patch of sky was revealed. Should we continue our hike or bale? Gerry suggested that instead of hiking up to the Fire tower we take a parallel trail called the Paul Echle Trail. This trail remains along the valley rather than climbing up and it ends at the ski lodge where we hoped we could find shelter and have lunch. This appealed to everyone so we headed back to the lake and continued on the Voyageur Trail until it forked. Its a relatively flat trail with good footing which is beneficial in wet weather. Less than a kilometre along we came out of the bush just above the ski lodge where we saw a number of vehicles parked, indicating the possibility of shelter. As we approached the building, another vehicle drove into the parking lot. It was Jean Guy, from Elliot Lake who came to see if we needed a shuttle. He had gone to the Fire Tower to see if we were there, when the rain had started and thought to check out the ski lodge. We were able have lunch in the lodge and decided to call it a day. 

Thanks to the folks in Elliot Lake our adventure was relatively trouble-free. We got a bit wet but the hike was still a good event. We were able to hike about 7 km along the Voyageur Trail, saw some incredible views and learned about the history of the area.  My thanks to Gerry, Nikki and John. 

Prehike Day

First hike and nothing went as planned! We went up to Elliot Lake on Saturday to scope out the access points and to join in the Voyageur Trail 40^th anniversary celebrations there. Since we got to Elliot Lake a bit early, we decided to check out the road to Pardee Lake. This road is only paved for the first little bit through the golf course. The road started out okay but after it became a dirt road the pot holes and ruts slowed us down considerably. We were in my VW Golf Wagon which is pretty low so I inched the car along until we got to a spot where the water had overflown a beaver dam and was flowing along the road. After checking it out, I decided to push my luck and ford it. Thankfully, I had no problems, but shortly thereafter we came upon truck and trailer stopped on the other side of a huge water hole in the road. Turns out the truck had stopped to chat with an ATVer who was out roaming the area. I asked him about the road conditions further along and he thought we could probable get through but I decided that I would not push my luck any further since the waterhole looked fairly deep. We turned around and headed into town.

The celebrations were well under way when we got to the park with 4 different planed hikes including a family hike, other different level hikes and even some geocaching. Volunteers were manning BBQs which were serving up hotdogs and hamburgers. I was able to chat with hikers from the Coureur de Bois about the condition of the trail where I had planned to start. It was not good news as the trail was also under a considerable amount of water. Plan B is was, which was to change the starting point to the golf course parking area. Gerry, from Elliot Lake, suggested the we extend the other end to Westview park which I thought was a good idea. We sent some last minute emails to the folks in Sault Ste. Marie, to let them know about the change and then we headed to our accommodations for the evening, Dunlop Lake Lodge.

I should have known that it wouldn't be straightforward. When I looked up the directions, they mentioned that the lodge was on Dunlop Lake Rd. What I had not counted on was that there is a new road on the south side of the lake called Dunlop Shores Rd. We got to see all the new construction to the end of the lake which is a considerable drive. At least it was a good day for a drive. Once convinced we were not on the right road, we headed back to the highway and found the correct road. What should have taken 10 to 15 minutes was an hour long expedition.

Dunlop Lake Lodge has 12 rooms and a cabin. There is a restaurant and a bar area with a pool table. The restaurant opens up to a very nice patio overlooking the lake. There is a new set of stairs down to the lake which was closed off for some reason. The room we were in was okay, a little dated but clean. Since this particular room (#3) does not have a TV, I was happy to find out that there was internet access. We walked down to the shoreline via the boat launch driveway. There is a nice setup for an evening fire as well as a dock and a boat launch. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food at the restaurant. It mainly serves up steak and seafood. The presentation was good and the food tasted great.

An ominous sign outside the front of the restaurant indicated that there was going to be a planned power outage the next day.

Planning Stage

When I decided to issue the 200km hike challenge for the Voyageur Trail's 40th anniversary, I thought I would log or journal my experiences. Of course with the social media and current technology, this can be done online and anyone can share in the experience.

So, what is this challenge? It is to hike at least 200km on the Voyageur Trail over the year, beginning August 24th, 2013 to August 23rd, 2014. To facilitate this I am going to lead 15 to 18 hikes that are between 13 and 20km in length. These hikes will begin near Elliot Lake on August 25th, 2013 after the Coureurs de Bois 40th anniversary kickoff celebrations. Currently the plan is to hike from Elliot Lake to Sault Ste. Marie which is over 200kms but if we finish early enough we can tackle some of the hikes along Lake Superior in the summer of 2014.

To plan this, I used the Voyageur Trail guidebook to break down hikes to manageable lengths Since there are some areas with limited access points some hikes will necessarily be long and definitely be challenging. I hope to consult with trail masters in the regions as I have only hiked minimally in this area. I also want to check out any interesting features or lookouts along the way.

Look for my hike agenda in the VTA newsletter and on the website. My hikes are titled Challenge Hike#.