Bike Hike Report

View of the valley from "Party Atmosphere"
(click to expand)

I led a hike on Saturday. The route of this hike was along the trails in Crothers' Woods and E.T. Seton Park that are popular with mountain bikers. This was a joint endeavour of Bring Back the Don and the Toronto Bruce Trail Club. 43 hikers plus two leaders made for a fair sized group - down from 62 on my hike in the spring. Some people may have been deterred because it rained most of Friday, however the trails were in surprisingly good shape.

We spent most of the morning making our way through Crothers' Woods starting at Pottery Road and we had lunch at the south end of E.T. Seton Park (that's the park where the Science Centre is). We had some dropouts but most stayed for the challenging second part. This is a trail nicknamed "Party Atmosphere" by the bikers mostly because it is a technically challenging ride. It is also a tough hike.

The second part was easier than I anticipated so we finished up a little ahead of schedule. A long ride to the Bow & Arrow pub afterward for refreshments attracted 14 hikers. I received high praise for a well planned hike, although when I do the hike next year I plan to add another loop to add another hour or so to the route. That should please the hard core hikers even more.