The Passionate Hiker: The Rideau Trail: Narrows Lock Road (08C) to Black Ance Point Road (09A+)

Fri. 26 September: The Rideau Trail:

Narrows Lock Road (08C) to Black Ance Point Road (09A+)

Beavers 1, Rideau Trail 0 (see fallen sign bottom left)

Always a surprise! Perhaps that should be the catch-phrase for the Rideau Trail. Or more appropriately, “Always be prepared for a surprise”.

I had imagined a fairly straight-forward stroll today through the Shield Country from Narrows Lock Road to Murphy’s Point Park. Instead, I traversed the most challenging country along the entire Trail. It wasn’t the terrain. The ground was much less rugged than Frontenac Park. It was the swamps, and the state of the trail itself.

It was a short drive to my starting point, on Narrows Lock Road, having dropped one car off at Black Anse Point Road. I chose not to detour to the pretty setting of Narrows Lock itself. Instead I headed inland on a trail damp with overnight dew. It was an interesting route, wandering all over the place: through the woods, beside small lakes and swamps, and across or along several gravel roads. I would have lost my direction very quickly without the signs, and without a bright sun shining out of a cloudless sky, to check my general direction.

Very early in my hike I could hear the distant sound of an amplified voice, but not the words. I assumed there was an event somewhere out on Big Rideau Lake. The sound persisted, always somewhere ahead of me. Soon it resolved into some sort of incantation, and I imagined some sort of religious hideout and a call to prayers. I was both very wrong and very right.

In the meantime, my trail threaded along through the woods. I passed a junction to the Ghost Town but decided to make this a separate trip. Finally I emerged onto the Rideau North Shore Road, with the first glimpses of Big Rideau Lake through the trees. Here were some very expensive homes perched above the lake.

It seemed that the trail would not come close enough to the lake for a good view. However, the guide book mentioned an unmarked side trail leading to a place called Red Rock. I found the trail, and it led to (surprise!) a red rock rising up from the edge of the lake. It was a grand place to rest and to admire the dark blue waters of the huge lake, hardly moving except for gentle ripples from a distant boat. Since this is the only point along this section of trail which (almost) reaches Big Rideau Lake, it should be described in the guide as a “not to miss” viewpoint. Look for the yellow triangle “Property Boundary – Rideau Waterway Land Trust” sign on a tree about two hundred metres east of house #599, and just past the sign you will see the trail dropping down towards the lake. It’s worth the stop.

The wailing sound was still floating across the lonely swamps somewhere ahead of me. The answer to this riddle came (partially) when I arrived at Miners Point Road as a number of buses were pulling away from a parking area in front of a large sign proclaiming the “St. Anthony Coptic Orthodox Monastery”. Clearly some large event was just wrapping up here, and streams of people were leaving this isolated corner of the forest. The surprise came when I returned home and checked the internet. Amazing to relate, it was no less than His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, who had travelled all the way from Egypt, to lay down the cornerstone of the monastery. There were security people with red sashes, and bus-loads of smartly dressed people probably from all over Ontario, perhaps even other parts of Canada and the USA. It must have been the voice of the Pope which had carried all those kilometres across the wilderness. Sadly I had arrived too late to see the dignitaries leaving. I learned that the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the largest Christian Church in Egypt and the Middle East, being established by Saint Mark in AD 42. The seat of the Pope is Cairo. Now how many people travelling the Rideau Trail can say they were guided along the route by the live voice of a Pope?

This was just the start of my adventures today. The next section of trail is probably the trickiest along the entire Rideau Trail. I had to negotiate a vast area of swamps and lakes, by threading my way carefully across several beaver dams. A beaver dam is not designed to be walked on, consisting of inter-twined branches and mud. All I can advise the traveler is to take it slowly and have a sturdy walking stick in each hand for added balance.

There were man-made obstacles too. Bypassing the monastery I had to clamber across a huge pile of brush left there by recent contractors working on the monastery site.

The swamps extended for several kilometres, and the way was anything but straight. There is a need to update the signage here, although there was really only one way through the maze. And I did manage to keep my feet dry! I saw a beaver swim silently across a lake but he quickly disappeared. As I had come to expect, there were several places along the trail where I had to back-track and search for the next sign. How easy it would be to become lost, and so quickly.

I noticed how good the birds are at detecting human presence. A large flock of geese took off from a lake as I quietly approached the shoreline, and on several occasions lone herons would take to the wing as I neared the water’s edge, and always before I had noticed them.

Finally I emerged onto Black Anse Point Road, and was soon back at the car. The temperatures had been gradually rising all day, and now stood at twenty three degrees C, on a hot, still day. I was glad to have completed that section, and one so full of unexpected surprises and challenges! I’m now halfway to my End-to-End goal. There are bound to be lots more surprises along the way.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 14.6 km (hike)

Height Gain: Minimal

Time on Trail: 5 hrs. 20 mins.

Narrows Lock Rd (08C): 7.59 am

BRPT East Jn. (08D): 8.50 am

Ghost Town Tr. Jn. (08E): 9.38 am

Red Rock (08F): 10.23 am

Miners Point Rd (08G): 11.33 am

Black Ance Pt Rd (09A+): 1.19 pm

Temp: +9C rising to +23C

Weather: Cloudless.