Having traveled through a few countries over the last five years I have realized how much I appreciate the Kitchener-Waterloo area. However saying that I started to dislike living here due to the fact that I have noticed flaws in how the councilors run the region, as well as not having a car it makes it difficult for me to travel far from home for any longer than a day. This is what the May Long Weekend is for. I was invited to a friend's cottage in Hope Bay, north of Wiarton for drinking, card playing, enjoying a campfire and socializing. Recently I have started mountain biking again after 13 years of having not done any, and I must say I am rather enjoying myself. Waterloo has some good trails, but with my personality I know I will become bored of them before the end of the season, so my mission has been to find other areas to ride, and before the trip in the car to said cottage I browsed the internet for trails to ride in the area of the cottage. With some deep searching I was finally able to find a trail within a 15 minute drive of the cottage, although the website said that it is closed for maintenance, how disappointing is that. Even though I would not be able to travel on those trails I decided I would still take my bike with me and find somewhere to ride. Unfortunately there are not many trails close by for me to test my skills in a new area, so I only road on the road and took a bit of a tour of the area where other cottagers have a place, so I am still happy to have been able to get a ride in.
After the second day of being at the cottage and two nights/days of drinking, cards and socializing I needed to get out and do more than a 20 minute bike ride. Luckily while I was on my bike I noticed a trail entrance for a section of the Bruce Trail, and decided I would go for a hike for an undetermined amount of time and invite anyone who wanted to go, the only person who said they would was Carla, my sister. Well we headed out with a mission to do the 3.6km loop the sign stated, but that turned out to be misleading as when we thought we had reached the 3.6km mark the trail had not come back to its entrance. Fortunately for us we managed to find our way back once we came to another trails end and found a road leading back to where we started, and once back we read the sign again and realized it was not a loop but a section of the main trail, if only the signs had detailed the trail more clearly and posted signs along the way. Even though we didn't understand the sign fully, the hike was still great. It was good to go with Carla, we had a good conversation along the route and saw some beautiful scenery of the Bruce Peninsula and I hope to return to the area in the future to show others what Ontario has to offer.
When the weekend was over and time to travel back to Waterloo Region I have revitalized my appreciation for the area I was born and raised, because I now realize how close I am to such a beautiful area as Grey County and the Bruce Peninsula.
Thank you May 2-4 2010
