Dec. 4, 2017
Today started off with a 5.6-mile road walk north of Bruce, continuing from yesterday's road walk along Hwy. 20. But as I started off, following my paper map, I realized my app map showed a different route - a trail. Hmm. Turns out a new trail segment was developed in December 2016 that isn't represented on my maps. The maps I paid $100 for! They could have at least put a sticker on that page and said there was now a trail to replace the road routes.
Oh well. Too late. I finished the road walk and then hopped on the trail at the Nokuse Plantation, a private pine plantation. (It's pronounced NO guh see.) The trail was great, winding through some beautiful pine forestland. I love those. The ground is so cushy with the pine needles, and the trees are beautifully and symmetrically lined up.
But then it went through some kind of grassy meadow, then into swampland, then along several creeks -- just a wide variation that was a lot of fun.
I was enjoying myself immensely when I looked at the map again and got confused. It looked like I had many more miles to hike than I thought. Long story short, I missed jotting down one trail segment on my itinerary so I had 3.7 more miles to hike. This meant I'd end up hiking in the dark once again.
Luckily the last few miles of this trail were in pretty open land, and it takes about an hour from official sunset for it to get dark. I hit the trailhead just as the sky turned inky. But the trailhead was on a busy highway under construction. Judy and I had to figure out how to find one another; she was pulled over on the side of the road, not knowing quite where I'd come out. It took us about 10 minutes, but we did it. Phew!
Snowshoe
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