Happiness is Warm Feet
(hiking Killarney's secret places, Thanksgiving 2002)
       
Don't we look intrepid? No? Well, what if I told you that 20 minutes before I set the self-timer for that picture, Lee and I were huddled behind some bushes in a snow squall at Heaven Lake? And that, earlier that day, we got surprised by a different snow squall on Blue Ridge? Or that the day before, we got rained on and bushwhacked through wet brush, and got soaked right through our leather boots and they're not dry yet in that picture? Now do we look intrepid?
Maybe "intrepid" isn't the word most people would reach for when you tell them you went camping in the rain and snow in the fall when the daily highs hover around 10 degrees. But most people aren't me. And it wasn't just rain and snow and cold, it was also bright sunshine and fall colours and breathtaking vistas and a great campsite and good company. It was a hiking trip to Killarney with Lee on Thanksgiving weekend.
So what if I had never done a real hike with a full pack before, and what I knew about hiking could be summed up quickly: it looked like work. You can't take a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. You don't need a wetsuit (or full scuba gear, for that matter). Lee, however, has done everything and been everywhere (relative to me, anyway), and he's good at all of it to boot, so I figured I'd just follow him around and figure things out.
When I set my sights on something and I want it badly enough, it takes a lot to deter me. This weekend, my sights were firmly set on Silver Peak in Killarney Provincial Park. The cosmic deterring forces were time (it isn't supposed to be possible to hike to Silver Peak and back on the Silhouette Trail in a weekend, even if it is a long weekend), weather (rain, fog, snow, wind and cold), and the parks system (all the sites on the hiking trail on that side of the park were booked).
On the enabling side, we have maps, compasses and GPS units, several sunny chunks of weather, a willing companion whose physical abilities and camping skills mean that I'm the limiting factor in an adventure, and my ability to interpret the parks mandate so that I'm within the spirit of the system while breaking most of the rules.
It turns out that there's a secret Killarney, starting with a well-hidden logging road which lets you bushwhack to meet up with a portage trail. And our off the beaten path adventure intersected with Gary and Dan's unconventional approach to day use in the park, which meant that we got let in on a few secrets - such as the location of a gem of an unmapped campsite high up on a cliff with a view to die for (no, really - get too close to the edge of the cliff of death, and you're a goner). Gary also confirmed my suspicion that you can get to Silver Peak from the south, which cuts off another huge chunk of the marked trail distance. The secret Killarney also includes a gorgeous waterfall and dozens of pretty cascades down gullies on Blue Ridge, not to mention an unmarked network of trails.
We took three runs at it, but eventually, we (almost) made it to Silver Peak. The first time, we made it to a point where we had a good view of the ridge. The second time, we made it all the way to the ridge and even up it, but then we had to turn around because we got hit by a snow squall (instead, we turned around and did our only bit of on-trail adventuring up to Heaven Lake far to the south).
The third time, our momentum carried us all the way up the ridge. And down into a gully, and up again, and down again, and up again… and you get the picture. I thought I was motivated by peak bagging, but it turned out that all I really wanted was a 360-degree view. When we got that on the peak immediately to the west of Silver Peak (the GPS said we were 300 m off), I happily ate my smarties and decided that our (non-financial) objective had been met.
The days were just jam packed. There was sun, wind, rain, snow, a shooting star, and a heavy frost. There was hiking on marked trails, unmarked trails and through dense bush and bog. There was navigating by instinct, compass and GPS. There were scenic vistas, cups of hot coffee, and lots of snacks. There were campfires complete with sock drying sticks.
There was hiking with a pack, hiking without a pack, and some challenging scrambling. There was white quartzite, red maple leaves, and crystal clear streams tumbling down from the mountains. There was the discovery that provincial parks hold secrets that the vast majority of visitors will never see. There was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
The objectives of the Ontario Parks system are protection, heritage appreciation, recreation and tourism. The way I see it, our approach to Killarney achieved all of these: though we were off trail, we committed no environmental no-no's. We appreciated the natural environment - and the resource that is our crown land and parks system - more than if we were going through the pre-selected "experience" that we would have had had we followed the directions and done what our permit said we were doing.
We recreated quite effectively, and we not only contributed tourism dollars with our park permits but we went for burgers and fries in the town of Killarney after that. Furthermore, we achieved goals like education - doing the off-trail thing meant that we worked on our navigation skills. Thus, our adventure - regardless of what our permits said - was entirely within the spirit of the parks. Whether or not a ranger would have seen it that way is questionable (and I suspect my explanation would have involved less analysis of park objectives and more references to pterodactyls), but we didn't meet any rangers.
So much more exploring to do. This backpacking thing opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities, and I thought my list of things to do was endless already…