Bowen Hiking 17: Cates Hill Trail -- finally, the left hand trail!

Dec 21, 2016

The propane finally arrived!!  Yay!!!!  That meant I could start using my fireplace again!  And making croissants in the morning again!!!  Yay!!!  Normalcy had returned!!  :D  :D  :D  :D  :D

After a couple days of rain, it was nice to have a clear day.  Rory seemed to be feeling it too, and he was eager for more than just a little walk in our yard.  I had made myself a hot chocolate in a travel mug to take with me on our walk, but had promptly forgotten it by the door.

Since my dog Rory was up for a little adventure, I decided to check on our property's trails (usually he drags his feet going out the door). Most of our trails were still a no-go, despite Colin's telltale footprints on the most direct path to our house.

So many trees, broken and/or trapped under the weight of the snow, covering the path.  :(  I didn't want to see the destruction that surely awaited the snow melt. I freed a couple of evergreens, but it was hard work, and there were so many, that my efforts felt like a drop in the bucket.

So I decided it would be a great day to check out the state of the Cates Hill Trail. This could be the magical day that I finally got to do the LEFT-hand trail at the top.

As you can tell from the following map, I did take the left hand trail... although I overshot my intended exit by a fair margin (red dotted lines).   However, the ladies I met near the top (far left of the orange loop) told me I had not missed the exit by much (only by about 50m), leading me to conclude that my orientation map was actually incorrect or incomplete, and there was an official exit much farther along than I had anticipated, up near the pond on Minnow Lane.

We started at the yellow post on the first hairpin on Village Dr.  Rory seemed pretty eager to head up.  He knew his way, after our recent moonlight adventure, and dove in ahead of me most of the way up.

The lower section of the trail was pretty worn in from footprints.  The next section, the snow was not too deep, and Rory trotted his way up fairly easily through that too.

At the junction where the trail split, with one path (straight ahead) leading across Davies Creek and up to Valhalla, and the other (to the right) heading up Cates Hill, it was strange to be able to see both trails at once, due to the snow suppressing all the foliage. Normally, ferns and other brush would obscure the view.

We took the right-hand fork to head up Cates Hill.   Far below to the left, the creek  bubbled its way through its snowy banks. 

Rory was so fiesty.... he kept walking ahead then turning to wait for me, as if to say: "Well?!?!  Are you COMING?!?!:

At one point, Rory forged his own path through a fallen free, forcing me to do a heroic toss of the leash through-- with success!!

The path pretty much just went straight up the hill, without any turns.

The (non-fallen) trees were gorgeous. The second time Rory forged his own path through a fallen tree, I simply followed him through.

When we got to the houses at the top, he pulled right, towards the path we had now taken twice, which exited onto Berry Rd.  But I was REALLY keen on going left, up the "real" path I had never taken thus far. The trail had overall been pretty stable and not slippery, and the left-hand path was much easier to see on this day, after it appeared that many more people had passed through it.  Rory was NOT impressed with that choice, and dragged his feet.

Very soon after branching onto the trail, the trail dissolved into a creek.  Some snow sat on the top of the running water, but every step crushed through it into the wet beneath. I picked up Rory, tucked him under my arm like a football, and walked through the water with my boots.

There was a set of slack lines and a swing set up, on/beside behind a house next to the trail. Past that, the trail started to look a lot more like a "trail."

But soon, it was a solitary set of footprints: a man and his dog, judging by the holes in the snow.  I followed them under a fallen tree across the path.

We reached a point where the trail split, and the right side went up to the road, which I recognized from the time I had tracked the end of this trail along Cates Hill Rd.  Based on the footprints in the snow here, it looked like several people had used this exit. Only one set of footprints went left from here.

Looking up towards the road, I could see a big stump and the house number across the street which read 621.  I was not certain that this was exactly the same exit "with the line of trees" that I had photographed earlier, but it was certainly nearby: I could see a blurry "621" a little down the road in my other photo when I zoomed in on it.  Here, the exit appeared to be directly across from the "621."

Since this exit was easy to find on this day, and I was enjoying the trail, I decided to take the second exit that I had seen on my last trip, which was a little farther along. (Of course, in retrospect, I might have already been at that second exit, and missed the first.)

I followed what I thought were footprints, but soon realized that it was just one person's bootprints, now covered in a layer of snow.  In some places, I could barely see them, and just made my best guess, picking them up again a little later.

The snow here was very wet and deep, and kept going over my boots.  Rory was struggling, falling into the snow up to his armpits on every step, so I stamped down a path he could follow, which was tiring, slow, and left a lot of snow inside my boots.  But he was super brave, and obligingly followed me through the deep trough I was making for him.

I was starting to worry that I was not actually ON a trail, and was just following some random set of footprints into the middle of nowhere...

At one point, two small trees were buried right over the trail.  I should have taken a "before" photo, but I was too concerned about freeing them to get through the nearly non-existent trail.  Here is looking back after I freed them.  Freed of snow, they sprung right up above my head.

I could see a little pond to my right.  To my left was a clearing, filled with pure white marshmellowy snow. I took a pano of it, but it appears that it didn't turn out.  :(

In the clearing, it looked like there might be two trails, heading off in different directions.  I took solace in the fact that if I got really lost, I could follow my own footsteps back to the other exit.  It was still early in the day, and I could retrace my steps more quickly than it took me to beat the trail for Rory.

I followed the footsteps to the right, towards a sign nailed to a tree at that edge of the clearing.  I figured that seeing a sign was a really good "sign" that I was still actually on the path... It was quite difficult to tell whether I was or not.  In the photos, the footsteps actually look quite clear, but at the time, they were hard to see, and difficult to discern from deer tracks and snow drifts.

The sign read "Welcome to Singing Woods Nature Reserve."  Ok, at least I was still somewhere "official."  Past the sign, the trail also looked a bit more "official," and I could see another sign up ahead.

On the way to the second sign, I crossed over a tiny bridge-- another a great "sign" that I was on the official trail.

At that point, it was really unclear whether the trail then turned to follow the creek, or kept going. The footsteps kept on straight, and I could see yet another sign up ahead, so I went straight.

Just after reaching the next sign, I lost the trail. It looked like the footsteps went over a big fallen log, and I carried Rory over it. But after that, I couldn't figure out where they went.

Ahead, the creek fed into a pond.  Across the pond to the left was a big house. Rory headed confidently down towards the creek.  I was less sure.  The snow was deep, and it would be a pain to struggle down to the creek, then have to return back if he was wrong.  I was also worried about him falling through the snow and INTO the creek.

Shih-tzus have hair, not fur, and the water would soak through to his skin instantly, likely leading to hypothermia in this temperature, if I couldn't get him home and dried quickly after.  I called to him to wait, and went down partway to take a look.

It looked like there MIGHT have been a way to cross the creek there, but it was NOT clear at all, from my vantage point, so I returned to back up near the log, and thought I saw footsteps heading around the lake in the other direction.  Then I saw a sign, half-buried in the snow, referencing a "pond."  OK!  Now that seemed like it would be on a trail!

I went up to the sign and cleared it off.  It read: "Pond ahead with flightless ducks."  There was more, but that was enough for me to realize that the rest wouldn't tell me anything valuable for my purposes.

From there, I could not see a trail, but I could see a pink ribbon hanging off a tree in the distance.  Often, those are used as trail markers, so I forged a path towards it.  It still didn't look much like a trail...

But then I saw another set of ribbons, and forged my way to them.  Since I was now just cutting through the underbrush willy-nilly, including sliding my butt over fallen trees, and plunging through knee-high snow, I again picked up Rory and tucked him under my arm like a football.  He was not impressed, but I was tired of mucking around.

When I got closer to the ribbons, I still could not see a path.  I did, however, see a pink property marker, and suddenly realized that the pink ribbons might simply have been property line markers as well.  I imagined someone following MY footsteps and getting led on a wild goose chase.

To my relief, I could hear voices not far away, and knew I was CLOSE to the road, even though I couldn't see it.

I could see the big house that I had seen earlier, from across the pond. It was very close to me now. Based on the map, I assumed it was Twiggleberries.

Since I knew the Cates Hill Trail was supposed to exit at Twiggleberries, I was happy things seemed to be somewhat working out. (Later looking at the photos on their website, I am thinking it was NOT Twiggleberries! lol).  I figured that if I could at least get there, I probably would not be chastised for walking through the property to the road.

But in between us was the creek.

On the other side of the creek, I could see some kind of footprints leading from the creek and a little gate-like structure.  Maybe this was the exit!  Or AN exit!  But maybe the "footprints" were just deer prints, as the animal went down for a drink??  I couldn't see any way to cross.

Looking up the length of the creek, there appeared to be a little bridge over the creek!  Rory under my arm, I forged towards it.  As I got closer, I realized that it was just a big log.  That might be really slippery and dangerous for me to cross, especially carrying Rory.

However, right before the log, the creek got really shallow and narrow, and I decided to test the waterproofness of my boots by just walking straight through it.  At least I would be on the right side of the creek, and could get up to the house, if I needed to.

I crossed the creek, and was utterly surprised when I stumbled out onto a road!  The two ladies that I stumbled out in front of, didn't seem surprised at all. "We lost the trail..." I stammered, putting Rory down.

The ladies were kind as can be.  "You came up through the Cates Hill trail?  I live right back there," one said, gesturing down the lane.

"Yes, I came up from Village Drive," I offered.

"Well, that way," she paused, pointing down the way they came, "is a dead end.  This way," she paused again, gesturing ahead, "will take you to Cates Hill Rd."

"That's where I want to be!" I exclaimed.  She laughed and said, "Come along, we'll show you. We're doing a little walk ourselves."

I followed them down the road. About 50m past where I exited, one woman turned around to me and pointed to the end of the pond, "See there?  That's where the trail should come out.  Just at the end of the pond."  I took a photo, but honestly, could not see a trail there.

"I was following some footsteps..." I started.  She laughed, "Those were probably my husband's!  Which is probably why you ended up going towards our house!"

As we passed the pond, I noticed another little bridge on the far end of the pond as well.

We exited out onto Cates Hill Dr, which the lady presented with a flourish, before they picked up their speed and headed off on their walk. I turned around to note the exit point.  The lane that we were on was marked as "Minnow's Lane."

Once we hit clear pavement, Rory's gait perked right up.  We followed the ladies at a distance, down Cates Hill Dr.

Near the corner of Cates Hill and Berry Rd, the little pond was frozen over.

On Berry, I noticed the exit to the other fork of the Cates Hill Trail, the one Colin and I had taken before.

The ladies continued straight along towards Rivendell, and Rory and I turned right onto Village Dr. I was surprised to see that corner cleared of trees!

We continued down Village Drive past numerous houses. The normally spectacular view from there was a little obscured by clouds this day.

As we proceeded down Village Dr back towards where we started, my feet were very squishy.  I couldn't tell if water had gotten throug when I forged the creek, or if it was all the snow that had fallen in my boots when I was tramping the trail for Rory.  I looked down and noted some actual snowballs were still in my boots. lol.

Finally finishing up our walk, and getting inside, I had to strip off my wet boots, socks, and jeans.  Rory needed the toweling of a lifetime!  But I think we both felt accomplished.  Rory was certainly in a good mood, despite the long and strenuous walk.

I noticed my forgotten hot chocolate and chugged it down.  Aren't athletes supposed to drink chocolate milk after a workout?  ;)  I gave Rory a milk bone and I fixed myself a sandwich of pretty much everything I could find in my fridge and wolfed it down.

Time for some blogging before nap time.  Rory didn't wait for blogging (although he did wait for the conclusion of "sandwich time," in case any made it into his mouth), and promptly crashed on the couch.  Not long after that, I joined him.