BRUCE PENINSULA NATIONAL PARK

I ended up having a couple of days off last minute so I grabbed my gear and went to Bruce Peninsula National Park for a quick overnighter…I had a blast.

Day #1 (April 8th)

It’s pretty early for hiking season so I was the only one in the park except for a nice couple I met on a day hike. I’m pretty sure they thought I looked like a freak…the lady definitely took a double take when she saw my cuben backpack.

A couple of photos for you. I had never been here before and it was quite beautiful.

5 lbs of gear…

Me at the trailhead…I don’t look like a freak, do I?

There was quite a bit of walking on the rock beaches…didn’t leave much time to look up at the scenery, but still a good time.

I think it was about 40*F during the day. The weather is just warming up over the next month so there is plenty of snow and ice lingering around. Makes for a refreshing hike.

Coming out of the treed ridge tops I snapped this picture of a great little cove. Definitely coming back here in the summer for some swimming!

Looking back at the trail along the coast.

The trail became difficult to follow at times, and I’m not sure if I was off track but there were some interesting maneuvers required to stay dry, like scaling the side of these rocks 🙂

Came across yet another rock beach of sorts and decided to set up camp. The water is great here as well.

Found a nice area for my tarp and set up camp. Tough to find a place where there was any type of soil/dirt…ground was pretty frozen.

My home made wood stove which ended up being a pain the behind to use…

 

Day #2 (April 9th)

The morning was nice right from the start with sun shining. I quick bite to eat and I was back on the trail. I had to backtrack for the most part but had a chance to take a detour over the last section back to the car.

Interesting trail section on my way back.

I came across this cave on the way back. It looked great to climb down into but without someone with me I thought it better to save it for when someone can go for help if things don’t go so good. Next time!

The melting snow and ice caused some major trail washouts. To the point where some serious bushwhacking was needed to get around these things.

And here is a panoramic picture of the first rock beach I came across.

Gearwise:

I feel I have things dialed in fairly well at this point so I’m comfortable bringing a pretty minimal setup.
My Ti wood stove took about 17 minutes to bring 2 cups of water to a boil and required constant tending. I won’t be using it again, but it’s always fun to play around.

I didn’t bring a windshirt and relied on my thorofares to keep me warm. They did a great job used overtop of my light baselayer. Probably perfect down to about 35*F, but then I think I would be pushing it.

My Cuben/Momentum bivy worked fine. I didn’t expect any problems with it. The cuben hood sits well open for ventilation so there is not any condensation build up in there.

The sleep system was a bit different. I used my Arc AT and Skaha Plus. Temps dropped to about -1*C (30*F) that night. At first, I went to bed wearing all my clothes but not my cocoon pants or my arcteryx L/S. I was fine but I woke up a couple hours later and was a bit cool, but not cold. I figured it was only going to get colder so I put on my cocoon pants. But, then I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a maniac – I was roasting! I got out of my bivy and I pulled off my cocoons and unzipped my Skaha to let some cool air in. Got back in the bivy and went to sleep…only to wake up freezing at about 5am! Sooo, I put everything back on but really couldn’t warm up. The sun was up in a few more hours and I just got out of bed…so it really isn’t clear to me if I was warm or cold. I believe the term is “inconclusive”?

Other then that, a great time. I hope you enjoyed the report!