Blazing their trail across the Bruce
Toronto is base camp for adventurous hikers to explore the province
These aren’t your average newlyweds.
When Krista Everson, 32, and Matt Cave, 36, tied the knot in June 2012, they honeymooned hard. None of this one-week-in-the-Bahamas stuff for them. They piled into an RV with their cats and headed West for four months of hiking and climbing in the Rockies.
They did six obstacle races in those four months and scaled peaks as tall as 3,660 metres.
Now that the young couple has resettled in Toronto, they find their way out of the city at least once a month, no matter the season, since the surrounding area is ripe with hiking trails.
“We call Toronto our base camp,” Everson says.
Cave contends that the fun doesn’t have to start a few hours away.
“The upside of having so many people living in the (Toronto) area is that the trails are well-maintained, access to the trailheads is excellent, and it’s pretty easy to find a group or club to hike with if you want some company,” he says.
The adventurous newlyweds are especially excited for the spring thaw, as long as “you’re prepared for slightly fickle weather,” they say.
The couple’s favourite Ontario retreats form the terminuses of Canada’s longest hiking trail: the Bruce Trail.
Cave and Everson often hike and camp around Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula, four hours from Toronto. The trail snakes south from Tobermory along the Niagara Escarpment for 890 kilometres to Queenston, N.Y., on the U.S. border.
At the south end of the trail, they go “bouldering” — climbing boulders without safety gear — in Niagara Glen Nature Reserve (which has
“As long as you have the right gear and a sense of adventure, I say hit the trails.” KRISTA EVERSON
the advantage of being close to Niagara Falls, a fun place to go and unwind at the end of the day).
In between, they’ll climb at Rattlesnake Point near Milton or hike around Hamilton.
Cave explains that the Hamilton area has some spectacular, “wicked cool” waterfalls, and that spring is the best time to see them.
A core group of some 1,250 volunteers maintain each of the nine sections of the Bruce Trail separately. That includes painting blazes to mark the way and bushwhacking to keep the trail open.
Cave and Everson like to stay outdoors for days at a time while wandering Ontario, camping in the backwoods. More serious preparation is needed for those overnightin-the-woods trips, but the Bruce doesn’t require roughing it overnight. The Bruce Trail Conservancy provides an overview of nearby accommodations alongside its detailed maps of each section on its website, brucetrail.org.
Todd Bardes, the Toronto Bruce Trail Club’s president, emphasizes that the trail makes for good day trips from the GTA. “The Bruce Trail is more accessible than many Torontonians think,” he says. “Amazing hiking spots are an hour, or an hour and a half from the downtown core.” Throughout the year, the Toronto club offers more than 300 guided tours of nearby sections of the trail. Interested day-trippers can attend an information session April 15 from 6:30 p.m. at the YMCA at 20 Grosvenor St. For overnight or weekend trips, consider that most sections of the Bruce Trail are near bed-andbreakfasts and small guest houses, with rooms running between $100 and $200 a night. Some areas offer more luxurious options with fullservice spas — including Hockley Resort near Orangeville, a few kilometres from the trail. But the really brave souls venture out in rain or snow or shine. “As long as you have the right gear and a sense of adventure, I say hit the trails,” Everson says. “The scen- ery changes with the seasons. The winter and spring time is beautiful and you’ll more than likely have the place to yourself, which can be blissful.”
Cave and Everson mostly stick it out in their tent, but they’re openminded.
“Purists will say that roughing it is part of the appeal,” Cave says. “Personally, I think a key component of a good day out is reflecting on your achievements over a cold beer, and I’m equally happy doing that round a campfire or in a hot tub.”