Gorgeous weather along the Niagara section — sunny, gentle breezes, and dry!

Very dry, in fact … Most of the transitory seasonal streams are already dry. That makes finding drinking water a constant challenge. I’m treating water with chlorine dioxide drops; Kookork is using a water filter. We try to refill before we get much below a minimum of a litre of water each — and try to not carry more than 2 litres each. (And I lost my small water bottle covered with duct tape somewhere when it fell out of a loosely sewn set of webbing attached to my shoulder strap.)

We did find a good place to buy treated water, however … it made a fine addition to my supper of dehydrated black beans, dehydrated vegetables, quinoa and herbs, and a Mexican spice mix of Con Azafran.

A botanical post is overdue — perhaps tomorrow … Suffice it to say that every few minutes the terrain along the Trail changes. Rocky and blocky one minute, low and damp the next, then open mature forests with troops of flowers the next. The trees are noticeably beginning to really shoot out their leaves, which means the growing season for the forest Spring flowers is going to be very short this year. 

I’ve not seen much visible wildlife, though a rotting dead raccoon was a sobering sight, given the unfortunate dramatic rise in raccoon rabies around Hamilton …

Kookork’s traveling companion — on his second thruhike! — is very impressive! He’s got the wisdom of experience to not waste energy charging along the Trail. He tends to hike between us, slightly behind me. He also had his uses in camp — not that would ever allow my own dog certain privileges. No, not me … His name, by the way, is Delta — Persian for something like ‘my heart’s delight’.