The trouble with the trail system in this area, is that there are so many little loops and turns, that you can easily go the wrong way - we never said lost - but with 30 km of trails, you can be out for a looooooooooong time, and not see civilization. Luckily these trails are bordered on all sides by major roads - so you're never truly lost - but it sure felt that way at times. I've biked back there a number of times, but rarely gone the same way twice...
Mistake Number 1 (pink star #1 on map below)
We started out ok, made our way in and found the bird feeder intersection and turned right. We cursed this decision for a good part of the next few hours. A left turn limits the area we can go before hitting a big road, and is usually good for a quick tour. But this time, I felt like going right. Like I said, there's lots of little loops and usually you can make your way out pretty quick from that area. After awhile, we did come up to the big pond (missing one out point already), and from this point I was fairly certain that if we continued this way, we would make our way around the pond and come out near Klondike road by the flat rock section.
Mistake Number 2 (pink star #2 on map)
I'm not sure that you can call this point a mistake - as we really didn't see the connections that the map is showing. We really did not have that many decision points. Lots of places have spots that could be trails, but don't look like a main trail. So that could have been the case here - but we didn't see it... If we had seen these connections, we might have been able to get back relatively quick - but we didn't.
Mistake Number 3 (pink star #3 on map)
Keeping in mind the looping, we came to an intersection and had the option of continuing further into the forest, or turn right (which theoretically would have kept us in the direction I wanted - back toward home). Guess which one we chose? Yup the wrong one. If we had gone left, we could have looped around and been back within 30mins or so...
But no, we continued around the lake and finally came to the Inukshuk.
Mistake Number 4 (pink star #4 on map)
I remember having gone past this pile of rocks before (named the Inukshuk), but couldn't remember what to do at that point. Looking now at the map, there's supposed to be another unofficial trail leading off from that point which would have put us back towards Second Line and Klondike road. But again - we didn't see it...
At this point, we were happy we hadn't started the walk at 4! We had already walked for a good hour or so and ~6km. The girls were still keeping up pretty good, but were definitely wanting to get home soon. We were able to keep their spirits up by taking in the scenery, and finding lots of little animals and snakes along the way.
However, not seeing any options at this point, the only thing we could do is continue forward. For the next 15 mins or so, I thought we were close to our exit - but it never seem to come. And once we started looping the wrong way - away from the pond, and further west - I knew that we were on our way to Huntmar or Old Carp road at the opposite end of the forest from where we had entered.
Every once in awhile we would see bikers, or other hikers - thinking that we were getting closer to an out point, but soon after were back to being completely alone and in the middle of nowhere. We did run into one biker more than a few times, and like me, had been out a few times before with friends, but didn't have a map this time, and he wasn't exactly sure where he was either. He did have GPS though, and we could see that we were heading towards Huntmar. Problem is - it's not a straight line - and that part of the forest is some of the most difficult terrain in the area. Lots of rocks, ups and downs - and it was starting to take its affect on the girls.
The joking and minor complaints about being lost, and wanting to get home were becoming worse. They were tired and thirsty - the only one able to drink was the poor dog, who had never been on such a walk - not that the girls had either - but at least the dog could drink from the area ponds.
This part of the trail seemed to go on forever, and just when it seemed to start heading in the right direction, it would turn back the other way. Looking at the map now - I can see that we were on the Outback loop. 6 km of Very hard, technical terrain as listed on the mountain bike map. Every once in awhile the same biker would catch up to us. We'd check his GPS to see that yes - we were getting there...slowly. He joked that his girlfriend was really pissed off from being out this far, was supposed to be back home an hour before!
Out finally!
We finally started hearing cars. I took a path less traveled this time to continue towards the sound of the cars and a few minutes later we were out of the forest, on the rail line about 100m from Huntmar Rd.
While we were happy to be out, we were pretty far from home. I had been at this point on my bike before, and it had taken a good 20mins or so of hard biking to get home. We had been out already for 3 hours over hard terrain, tired, hot, thirsty and with kids ready to drop - although not heavily complaining or willing to take piggy-back rides. They were real troopers.
Good decision #1
At that spot too, was a massive uphill walk to start our way back. By the time we got to the top, they were all ready to drop. I was ready to go ahead and come back for them with the car, but we didn't feel comfortable splitting up. They'd have to sit there and wait another 30-40mins easily. Had to do something...
Emma was just about done. I picked her up and continued down the road. At one of the houses on the road, there were a couple sitting out on their deck with their grandchildren playing in the front, and I could see they saw us struggling along. Knowing that we wouldn't be able to make it without killing ourselves, I walked up to them, explained the situation and asked if I could call a cab. He offered the phone, but then quickly instead offered a ride! PHEW!
10 mins later and many, many thanks to our driver, we were home and completely exhausted after over 3 hours and ~15 km of hiking!
We said that we should never again talk about this hike - but I guarantee - this will be one of those moments that we'll all remember for the rest of our lives.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a nice little gift certificate at the beer store for that guy... he really was a life saver!
(btw - here's a map of the area, the blue line is our path as best as I can guess it...and if you ever think about heading out in this area - bring the map!)
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