Lost in Dundas Valley
Hello my lovelies, ready set go for some more snow? The moral of this blog post is appreciate what you have while you have it ‘cos when it’s gone, bro it’s GONE. Okay that’s a little dramatic all I mean is it’s sunny and warm out now all this snow is goners.
I swear if I ever saw a turtle scale that steep hill to cross this road? My God.
The parking lot of Dundas Valley is/was covered in snow. We were stoked. Haven’t been here in years and will spare you the who gets credit for this super wicked fun idea for a day LOL but obviously me. It would have been nice to add YOU ARE HERE on the map before heading out to the multiple criss-crossing trails of D Valley but mebbe that’s just me. We got a little lost but google maps is shockingly accurate, yay that.
You tell me where you think we are on this map and I’ll give you a quarter.
My Grandfather, Dad’s Dad, his name is JRW, John White, so this was special and saved our asses on the way back also might I add the degree of difficulty for this trek was quite something because of the snow we had to clomp through. We were winded after the first incline and then discovered there would be a fuck ton more hills and kind of went mad. We stuck to Sawmill trail for the most of it then it got wonky and we were going it blind.
It was a beautiful hike that’s for sure. We did not bring enough snacks or beverages/water in case we got lost-lost in hindsight and we laughed about that the entire time. There is nothing worse than getting stuck somewhere and being hungry. All I thought about to mentally motivate myself through the end of this hike was the Thai stir fry I was going to make when we got home. It was delicious.
I’ve gotten new boots since and would love to break them in here! Kicking local snowbanks can only do so much for a girl.
Break one. You get to see the serious walkers out and about when you go for a stroll through the hills yeah and this one guy came through in leather shoes and leather jacket no hat no mitts we were like WTF LOL. Meanwhile a group of serious loud-talking walking ladies that you can hear an entire kilometer away because it’s so silent there completely engulfed in nature if you are currently going bonkers from being indoors too much and want an escape, I recco a hike. You might see deer.
It doesn’t look like much but this incline killed us it’s only half of it as seen from above very humbling we were dying AND we hike all the damn time. The snow helped and hurted us.
Canadian Beer fridge. If ya ain’t givin’er ya ain’t livin’er.
one more scope-out before moseyin’ on I’m tellin’ ya this is called Dundas Valley for a reason. More like, eight finity valleys chrissake.
To you, this is a boring picture of snow but to me it is a momentum downhill advantage that you throw yourself at. You walk down, you walk up, and on and on it goes. We would get to a peak or vista whatever the crap only to see a whole other hill to climb, hence the going mad. Still need to chart the course we took to properly brag about the Kilometers.
Walked through many pine tree clusters and bf says they were too perfectly placed therefore man-planted. I appreesh if that’s the case and you better believe yours truly got nature-splained the whole way.
Gorgeous. Spectacular. Magical. Years ago, I spent a December in Holland and went on a walk on Christmas day just over the border in Germany which resembled Canada so much. Both The Netherlands and Deutschland look like Canada. That’s all. Humble travel-brag.
The silence was also quite striking.
It was like being in a Christmas card.
We did a big hike with friends in Fergus not too long ago and they are habitual long distance hikers they would adore this and would do every single trail. They are also German, speaking of.
I uploaded a ton of pictures I am trying to be discerning. Failing.
Ooh la la that’s what I like. We dilly-dallied a little this day and so the majority of people weren’t passing us or out hiking by this time so we were pretty much alone which adds to the excitement in getting lost potential. Ain’t no one comin’ to find ya. I love disaster survival movies, most excellent.
This is all melted by now and muddy. We did a magical snowy forest night walk last year and everything had melted the next morning I took no pictures it was like a dream and never really happened the snow was so fluffy we were climbing hand over foot using head lamps. Bananas. Should probs do one of those naked and afraid reality shows.
Random blobs of snow would rain down on you or in front of you. Coolness.
Sort of dressed like a tree.
Oh look, more incline. Great.
Not dressed like a tree. I was mad at myself for wearing my neon orange Carhartt toque in case deer were around they’d see me a mile off but wait they could be colour blind and I actually don’t know anything about deer except their droppings really smell if a dog rolls through them so do not let that happen! Worse than a skunk.
Oh look more flooferness.
I wanted to be tall enough to punch that snow on the right from below to make it dust all over my bf but am not ten feet tall, unfortunately.
On second thought, ten feet wouldn’t be nearly enough and you don’t get good air from jumping off of snow you just sink further into it haha.
The picture of me in the beginning of the post was taken down this corridor.
If we brought a football would slam it right through that one.
I think you are starting to get the point.
LOL bf just walked by and sarcastically went, “WOW”. Yes I KNOW I hope this ends soon too.
It’s the Narnia escapism for me.
Then a bit of a fork this is probably about the time we started getting confused.
and again in landscape. I couldn’t even measure our course if I wanted to (and, I do!) because I don’t know where we were I kept “recognizing” things and then secretly being like, nope, I don’t think this is the place. I’ll just keep that to myself lol. I need that hike tracking app.
Went off course to another trail to hang on this little bridge by a creek.
I have never been here in the winter before with snow it is harder to catch your bearings ya ya okay you got it.
See a heart though!
A heart kite aww <3. bf said he pre-arranged it for me haha.
Ooh yay signs of life.
Picturesque. This was coming up on the Bruce trail now holy hell intersecting is happenin’.
The sun is trying to appear amidst the Siberian winter sky I’m surprised I even noticed it.
Another crazy incline going in the wrong direction and yes we did it and I lost my purple mitt on the other side of the hill so bf had to run and fetch it we could see it sitting there like an idiot just after huffing it back up the other side of this hill it was a low point for sure but hilarious so win-win.
Gotta get one of these first. That Mandarin bag is probs worth money now that buffets are closed eh jk.
So we turned around cos we could see the road and were on the Bruce trail which would have been a whole other trail from no return it was time to re-route and figure it out.
Running back with my mitt. Luckily I noticed it so quickly. You constantly take your gloves off to take a picture or grab/do whatever then walk a bit before putting them back on again and by that time your glove is long gone and you don’t know exactly when you lost it.
We were getting tireder by this point so any back-tracking was annoying and again this was a mighty incline. One of those days where you just want to go straight home but we still had an errand to do first which felt like HELL on earth.
My hero.
SO PRETTY. Definitely doing this again.
I filmed a music video here in 2009 at least I think it was here. As I said, we were hella lost. The only thing we brought was Scorchin’ Hot CHEEZ ITS! Leftover lasagna from the night before but ate that in the parking lot at the beginning.
doggie booty oh no.
WHERE TF ARE WE I AM OVER THIS
Finally some gotdamn Valley. We saw deer droppings, no deer. rip off.
Ain’t nobody sitting by this point just trying to get it done with actually I used this bench to get something out of my purse.
“His eyes looked like two piss holes in a snow bank.” That’s a bona fide PEIism for ya ahaha I told it to my bf and it’s one of his fav inspirations now needed to give it legs ah suppose.
There are some dangerous walking parts fyi.
Someone was fully in their element.
Hi Grandpa. <3 Miss you.
bf decided to Bart Simpson slide down this that’s the destruction he caused. Forever young.
Sent this to my Dad he said he always tried to put him on the right path lol.
That’s where you drive in and pay thank GOD there’s still one more long haul to go passed another parking lot though this is also a major tobogganing hill we were bummed we didn’t bring one.
Til next time xoxo your pal Raymi!
Beautiful pictures. It feels like I went on that walk with you, I’m exhausted now. Time to lie down!