Undeterred

Sun. 26 November:  Undeterred

Poonamalie from the Rideau Trail

Note: click on pictures for full size view.

It’s been a wet year.  And we’re racing into winter with waterlogged fields and over-flowing creeks.  The snow will soon cover this frozen landscape, and then all we can do is to wait for floods in the spring.

Sounds depressing.  But despite the wet trail, and a biting northwest wind, our energetic group of fourteen hikers made record time along this 8.8 kilometre stretch of the Rideau Trail between Smiths Falls and Port Elmsley, enjoying every minute of the soggy experience.

The photos show a determined group who weren’t in the slightest way deterred by the terrain.  It was an adventure.  And we all emerged onto the road amazingly dry.  The carnage in the final field was quite a sight.  Deep muddy ruts and water-filled trenches had turned the fields into a quagmire.  Some crazy person had tried to drive a car into the field, and there it sat, buried up to the axels in mud which will freeze solid any day now.  What was the driver thinking? 

In the meantime we had picked our way carefully through the minefield and were congratulating ourselves on yet another splendid walk. 

“Undeterred” would be the right word for our team today:  a characteristic common among those who are to be found exploring this amazing Rideau Trail.

A  determined group of walkers heads west from Poonamalie Side Road

A light dusting of snow under foot

Plenty of soggy patches

Navigating the flooded cart track

Quagmire in the final fields approaching Port Elmsley

Now (what) was this person thinking?