April 5: Birthday Hike

Today was my 41st birthday, so I decided to celebrate it in a healthy way - I want to start my year off right this year!  My intrepid children and I decided to go on another hike.  This time we went to Ball's Falls, in Jordan, Ontario.  We took a branch of the Bruce Trail - a hike rated "difficult".  And it definitely was.  I landed on my butt a few times going down steep hills.  I actually sat on my butt on a couple and bumped my way down, hanging onto tree roots like  a monkey.

This hike seemed even tougher than our Gorge hike, although the altitude was only about 100 feet.  The trail wound up and down throughout the entire hike, whereas the Gorge hike was down once and then back up at the end.  We also saw a half a dozen slithery little friends, which thrilled only my 14 year old daughter.

We hiked down to the water for our picnic, which consisted of smoked turkey and Havarti sandwiches on whole wheat panini buns from the bakery.  I brought some fresh pears too but none of us wanted them at the time.  I haven't had any type of "lunch meat" in at least 6 months and couldn't believe how salty it tasted.  Still, after all that climbing around, it was yummy.

Turkey sandwiches:

After lunch we climbed back up to the main trail.  My oldest daughter, our expedition photographer snapped pictures of us relentlessly and also got some really awesome nature shots.

Picture of one of the small waterfalls of Twenty Valley Creek

The Bruce Trail portion of the hike ended with 157 steps up out of the Twenty Valley.  Yep, 157 steps.  I felt slightly less out of breath climbing these than I did ascending the Gorge last week, but all three of us took a little rest at the top.

Finally we walked through the Balls Falls trail, through the historical village to see the Lower Falls. Very serene and beautiful.

We hiked approximately 4-5 kilometers, which isn't really very far.  We were in the woods for about 2 and a half hours.  We were beat afterwards - I think it may have been a little too soon after our last crazy hike.  To celebrate my birthday we went out for ice cream.  I had a splurge of about 800 calories.  (eek)  I had Birthday Cake ice cream, with a cookie dough mix in, in a white chocolate dipped waffle cone.

Delicious!

My goal was to keep calories in check by preparing my own food for most of the day and splurging on dessert.  The other benefit to this strategy is that there are no leftovers around to tempt me for the next week or so!  Although I enjoyed Easter and my birthday treat, I'm really looking forward to getting back on track.  All this sugar and salt makes me feel sluggish, and I want to feel energetic!

April 2: First Hike of the Year

Today my daughters and I took our first hike of the year.  We chose a difficult hike - the Niagara Gorge. The elevation of the Gorge is approximately 200 feet, and the terrain is steep and rocky.  To access the trail, we descended a steep  metal staircase (with 80 steps - we counted!)

We hiked all the way down to the Niagara river and continued along the large slabs of rock that formed the bank.  Across the water we could see the United States, as this river is the body of water that forms part of the border dividing the US and Canada.  The Gorge was formed thousands of years ago when the water rushing over Niagara Falls eroded the rocks and created the path of the Niagara River.

The trail had a lot of interesting crevices that you had to go through.  It gave you this really interesting moment of feeling like you were entering somewhere very special.  Being among all the big stones felt sort of prehistoric.

For particularly steep declines there were a few metal staircases at the first part of the trail.  This is my big bum going down one of those sets of stairs.

Mostly there were these cool stone stairways, that, although they were man made, looked like a natural part of the area.  If your shoes got damp or muddy they were really slippery - I can't imagine descending them in the winter or damp weather!

We took a break by the water.  The girls took off their shoes because they thought it would be refreshing to dip their feet in.  Of course, the water was just above freezing so it was a bit more frigid than refreshing!

Once we got going again, it was apparent that most people turned back after getting to the bottom.  The next section of the trail was not as well maintained.  Lots of loose rocks were everywhere and the going was precarious.  We were determined to hike all the way to the whirlpool, so we kept going, although progress was much slower through this part.

Finally we made it and took another well deserved rest sitting on a big rock with our shoes off, eating grapes and watching the aero-car going back and forth above the whirlpool.

On the way back, the kids took refuge in a cave to cool off.

This hike was different from most we've done, as you hiked down first and the return trip was all uphill.  We took a different trail to return, and it was steep and winding.  I'm apparently in rather poor cardiovascular shape, despite all the walking, because I had to stop a couple of times and catch my breath.

This is the point at which I decided I might die before I made it to the car.  Don't let the photo fool you - the trail disappears around that corner and keeps winding on up.

And don't forget, we still had to go up the 80-step staircase to get to the car! (pictured above)  It was much harder going up than down!!!

I think I must've burned about 10 billion calories.  I was totally beat, but we've already decided to go hiking again on Monday!