Mission Accomplished

Well, I can finally say that I've finished the Lacloche Silhouette Trail in Killarney Provincial Park.  This loop trail of ~78km has been my adventure nemesis since 2008.  Previous attempts have all been scheduled to complete the loop in 4 or 5 days, but this time we aimed for 3 and actually finished in 2. 

'High Risk' permit

 So what went right this time?  Pretty much everything, actually.  First off, this winter's lack of snow pack meant that water levels throughout the area were at record lows, especially for mid-spring.  Last year we encountered saturated trails that resembled creeks, and creek crossings that required serious recon to find a safe way over.  This time the trail was bone dry and the creek crossings were mere step-overs.  Even wet crossings like this one, became a matter of two or three stepping stones to get over.  Needless to say this saved a significant amount of time. 

We were also able to skip a length out-and-back section of trail adjacent to a river.  For some inexplicable reason the park installed an elaborate steel bridge over the creek nearly two kilometers out of the way.  Given the low water levels this season we found a location to step across just a few hundred meters downstream.  As much as this was a big time saver, it also proved to be our first stupid mistake of the trip.  After throwing his pack across, Derek jumped over, but didn't entirely clear the stream and soaked one leg.  He immediately warned me that the rock on the far bank was very slippery and to be careful.  Somewhat overconfident in my agility, I threw him my pack and jumped over.  I made the distance just fine, but my forward foot slid out as I landed and I fell very forcefully on my left hip.  I could tell it wasn't a break of any sort, but knew we had to keep moving or the area would seize up.  So we pushed on and had no further events until late in the day. 

Our route.

After pushing beyond our 'assigned' campsite for the day, we began to head uphill into the hills of the Hansen Township segment of the trail.  We were feeling confident still and were entertaining thoughts of a 30 minute dinner break following which we would put on headlamps and continue into the night.  However, we started to both make silly footing mistakes and took a few minor falls each.  Upon arriving at campsite H22 we decided to spend the night and start early the next morning rather than push our luck and possibly risk a serious injury.  So after a quick dinner we hung up our food and went to bed. 

I woke up to the early light of pre-dawn and the songs of countless birds in the trees nearby.  I check my watch and saw it was 5:30AM, and there was still 30 minutes before we had planned to get up.  After a few minutes I could hear Derek tossing and turning in his bivy, and asked if he just wanted to get up and get started.  He agreed, so we tore down camp, made some instant coffee and pop-tarts, then hit the trail.  There were immediately a couple of significant up and downhill sections of trail, and this seemed to affirm the Hansen Township section's reputation as being the most challenging part of the trail.  However, the majority of the trail was atop the ridge with excellent non-technical footing, and we made
 incredibly fast time.

Hansen Township section

As the morning progressed I kept checking the map for upcoming landmarks and campsites, and making mental estimates of where we needed to be by lunch time in order to complete the remaining distance that day.  My final judgement was that if we could get to the side trail junction for Silver Peak before noon, we could finish the remaining distance before dark.  We passed that junction at 11:30AM, and were onto the final segment of trail by 12 noon.  This is where the trail became challenging.

I had seen this section many times before, and covered the distances between its best-known features frequently enough to feel we could continue to make excellent time.  What I had forgotten about was how broken and uneven the rock of the southern ridge was.  The footing probably would have been fine if we had fewer miles in our legs, or sturdier footwear on our feet, but after 15 hours of walking we both had sore feet.  Mine had developed several large blisters on each foot, and on weight bearing parts of my feet, so I was already walking slower and more gingerly than I would like.  Adding very uneven footing, with nowhere to place a foot without thinking about it, to this situation forced us to slow down significantly.  Soon we were both in the 'pain zone', had stopped talking, and were trudging on with heads down more than up.  We took a 20 minute break at campsite H47 on Heaven Lake, which in my opinion is one of the prettiest spots I could hope to set up camp.  We both restocked our water bottles and chowed down on junk food.  I also was able to make a quick call home to Steph to confirm that we were okay and on pace.  Our original plan would have had us camping at this location on night #2, and knowing there was good cell reception there, I had prearranged to make a call late that day to act as the first step of an emergency plan.  Steph knew if we hadn't called by 6pm, that there was likely a reason for it and we were either dealing with illness or injury, and wouldn't have enough food to extricate ourselves to the next access point.  Well, the call home was 4 hours early, and I was able to confidently declare that we would have the trail done and be home sometime before midnight!

After our 20 minute sit-down break (one of maybe 4 the entire trip), we pushed on towards 'the Crack'.  This is one of Killarney's most famous features and a popular destination for day-hikers and car-campers.  As with the preceding section of trail, the footing remained challenging, and there were a few significant little climbs to tax our energy and motivation levels.  Upon arrival at Crack we stopped to admire views of Georgian Bay and Manitoulin Island to the south and southwest, and the interior of the park to the west and northwest.  Of note, was just how low water levels were in the large interior lakes, even from such a distance away and from high elevation.  This definitely aided our effort to complete the trail in a quick fashion, but would certainly be a challenge for navigation by canoe, and my pose fire risks later in the summer.  After descending the Crack (essentially a boulder-filled crevasse), we continued on to the relatively flat trail running to the day-hike parking lot.  Here the Lacloche Trail stays in the forest and continues west to George Lake campground.  Given the utterly terrible condition of our feet, we opted to exit to the road and walk on non-challenging footing of the gravel roadside.

Our hike concluded around 6:30PM on day two of our outing.  Hiking time: 20 hours.  Total wilderness time:  29 hours.  Distance covered: somewhere around 73-75 km.  This was an utterly satisfying feeling to have finally completed the loop.  Lost along the way was some of the enjoyment that comes from being able to stop and admire scenic vistas, frame and capture beautiful photographs, and being able stop and putter in camp with gear, fires, and tasty food.