Bodina Lake is gorgeous, especially as the sky began to lift, and shafts of sunshine probed through the low cloud deck.

Together again!

The day was long and challenging, with many ups and downs, some very tough!

All of us fell, some minor, all minor fortunately. (Update:  my apologies, Jeff. You didn’t fall.) … wet wood on downhills was my demise on one very long and steep downhill with a lot of exposed roots and few rocks. I stepped on a more or less horizontal root, only to slip forward on it and tumble down onto my right side. I fell onto my titanium water bottle and my right arm. A few scratches to my arm, but a badly dented water bottle.

Since this is the one I use as my cold-soak jar, I didn’t have anything to pre-prepare my supper, so when we finally got to Shigaug Lake I still had to go through the full heating the water, add dehydrated noodles and fixings, turn off stove, let sit ten minutes, relight stove, stir and heat, and repeat.

This is probably the toughest section of the trail, especially when wet. There’s the fabled climb up The Waterfall. Just a short climb right through the side of a beautiful drop of water falling down perhaps 10 metres of near-vertical rocks. It was put-the-poles-away, and hand-climb halfway up the spray, then a tough right turn off into a narrow crack to avoid the top of the falls. Josh was great at figuring out the sequence, with Soheil adding his refinements. Wet shoes and socks again …

Some of the views from the open quartzite ‘balds’ on top of the ridges were spectacular! The Red Maples are coming out in full blaze, highlighting every spot with softer rock and more moisture. The views across Threenarrows Lake and the Kirk Creek swamps to the southern ridges are wonderful!

If I remember properly, there were five serious ups or downs along the way. I know now that I’ll not do this route by myself. I know very clearly that it was absolutely the correct decision by Ron to take a pass on this year. His injured shoulder would have made it impossible and dangerous on any of the serious hills. Let alone painful beyond the first day.

By time we got to the beautiful Shigaug Lake, we were all exhausted. Quickly to sleep. But an good cool and finally clear end to the day.

(This post is about our Day 3, in late September.)