The Rideau Trail 2018 End-to-End Hikes: 2. McIvor Road (02A) to Murton Road (03A+)

Sun. 25 March: 

The Rideau Trail 2018 End-to-End Hikes: 

2.  McIvor Road (02A) to Murton Road (03A+)

Note: click on pictures for full size view.

After today’s pleasant hike, we are another 14.9 kilometres closer to Ottawa, and now 32.5 kilometres from our starting point beside Lake Ontario.  One more “easy” stretch after this, before we plunge into the Canadian Shield country.

The skies cleared miraculously half way through our journey.  Biting north winds turned to cool spring breezes.  Could this be the end of winter?  Or at least the start of the end?

The photos, taken with my cheap point-and-shoot camera, will tell today’s story. 

Gathering at McIvor Road on a cold Sunday morning

Crossing an old millrace for Jackson's mill

Meeting some trail runners

Here we left the K&P railway and headed into the bush

Quite good going under foot;  there was packed snow along the fence-line

Powerline just before reaching Unity Road

Happily leaving Unity Road and turning north into the fields

This land belongs to our friendly maple syrup producing landowner

Obstacle course:  ditch then stile

This is the frog kingdom in summer
see: http://thepassionatehiker.blogspot.ca/2014/09/new-post_17.html

Starting out after our sunny lunch break:  the skies had suddenly cleared

Luckily this snow was still hard due to the cold temperatures

Back onto the K&P via the stile on L. of picture

A long straight stretch of old railway

We disturbed these geese, who soon flew off ahead of us 

The sad story of Sir John A's final train ride:  Orser Road

Most of today's team at Orser Road

Major power grid junction

Murton Road: and we were quite ready to Stop!
lhs:  the trail continues north 

The Rideau Trail 2018 End-to-End Hikes: 1. Kingston City Hall (01A) to McIvor Road (02A)

Sun. 18 March:  The Rideau Trail 2018 End-to-End Hikes: 

1.  Kingston City Hall (01A) to McIvor Road (02A)

Note: click on pictures for full size view.

I’m not going to bore the reader with lots of words. 

Instead, I’ll post a few pictures that tell the story of the hike. 

Today nine hikers started the roughly 330 km journey from Kingston to Ottawa, at Kilometre Zero in front of Kingston City Hall.  It was a cold late-winter’s day with hardly a breath of wind on Lake Ontario.  Four hours later, we had reached McIvor Road, on the north side of town, ready to head out into the countryside. 

We were off and running (today’s pace of over 4 km/hr. will be hard to sustain as we reach more rugged country).

Enjoy the pictures.

A cold late-winter's morning

Kilometre Zero in Kingston

Kingston City Hall

Marching westwards beside Lake Ontario

Past the old Kingston Penitentiary (now closed)

No breath of wind on the lake

Scenic trail

Here we turned north on a detour to avoid a flood-damaged section of trail

Handy services along the trail?

Toronto train pulls out of Kingston station

The trail follows Platform 2  (!) 

We followed the trail signs under the railway line...

...and into a busy station waiting room. 
Perhaps the most curious section of the trail, but convenient!

Up  the hill into Cataraqui Cemetery

Note the wording on the bench

Turning onto the K&P Trail

Under the 401 Toronto-Montreal highway

The final leg to McIvor Road