First hike: Mountsberg

We decided it was about time to try a hike.  I picked Mountstberg Conservation area because its trails are reasonably flat (easy) and not too long.  The Pioneer Creek Trail his about 7 km or 10,000 steps.  My goal the last week has been 10,000 steps so it looked great.

This week I saw the surgeon that operated my knee to fix my severed  quad tendon and he discharged me.  He said I have about 80% of the range back and perhaps 50% of the strength.   We packed a lunch, filled up our hydration packs and went to the physiotherapist.  This was my last visit.  After we finished there to Mountsberg we went.

We arrived to the Conservation Area.  It was a glorious spring day.  There werte lots of ankle biters around the raptor zoo and the ply barn.  We had our lunch and crossed the train tracks to enter the trail.  there was no one in sight on the trails.  In fact we did not see a single person in trail.  My bad knee was working very well when we started around noon.  It is early enough that despite all the swamps around we did not suffer from mosquitoes.

  There were lots of flowers, in particular trilliums, Ontario's provincial flower

 And there were lots of frogs in the swamps

 That person in blue is my always companion, my wife and girlfriend

Around 1:30 pm we were at the far back of the trail and starting the way back,  there is a split on the trail, we had decided to go left so we would take a different way back,  funny we thought, after the split we did not see any trail markers though the trail was well packed and easy to follow.  That is until we found ourselves among some country houses and ended up in a paved road.  

We decided to go right and after 20 minutes we crossed the train tracks.  Well, the train goes through the Conservation area but that did not help since we could not walk following the tracks.  A few minutes later we found a minivan loaded with teenagers.  They told us we were very far from the Conservation area but told us how to get there.  In fact, this little excursion ended with us walking 15 km instead of 7 km.  Not exactly what I had in mind for my fist hike.  We were both very tired.

I did get my reward.  I had lost my Swiss army knife in our last trip to Mexico so we stopped at the Outlet Mall that has a Victorix sore I got myself a new beautiful knife. 

We finished the day a Chinese dumplings restaurant.

I we keep this up I'll be ready for the 1000 km Via de la Plata very soon.

Chinguacousy Trail

Today is the birthday of our youngest granddaughter so we went and parked our car at their house and walked a block to the Chiguacousy Trail, it is an urban trail that follows a brook across Brampton. The weather was great again, sunny, temperature around 10 C, just delightful.  It was a much shorter walk than yesterday but we keep trying.

The pictures:

This really looks like spring

 The Mallards were out

 The dandelions have arrived

 The blue jays were making  noise

 Have you ever seen a white squirrel?

 Starting to get green

 This is a red wing black bird even if we cannot see the wing

 A baby squirrel

 And of course Mr. Robin

Mountsberg Conservation area.

This blog has been inactive since November.  There are a good reasons for this; we have not walked or hiked.

In late November my wife fell, result broken arm in several places including the elbow.  She was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital where she underwent a two and a half hour surgery and ended with a metal plate inside her arm.  This left it complete incapable of doing anything for over a month.  By the end of January she was felling better although her arm had not recovered full mobility or much strength.

And then, walking down the street in Mexico City my knee snapped.  I felt a clear pop and I was down for the count.  Again, police arrived, paramedics, ambulance and hospital.  The doctor told me my quad tendon on the left knee had snapped,  totally severed. I needed surgery.  I could have right there or he could put me in a cast and come home for the operation.  So we came home and had the surgery here, the leg was immobilized for a month, lots of pain killers and a very slow recovery.  We are both going to physiotherapy, my leg is up to 60% mobility, her arm about 90% but we lost muscle mass and we have weak limbs.

So here we are trying to get back on the horse.

Our first outing was amazing.  The hesitant Canadian spring seems to have arrived.  Wonderful sunny skies, green grass, a few flowers peeking here and there.  I walked with an obvious limp and down hills are a tremendous challenge.  We managed 6 km in 3 hours.  I am still very slow and out of shape. I have to admit I was very tired.

We picked Mountsberg because it is pretty flat and with very well maintained trails.  It  is usually easy walks.  We will probably be back many times to train as we get better.  We still hope to go back to our long pilgrimages in Europe.  (See blogs:  gilcamino.blogspot.com and gilcamino2.blogspot.com)

Anyway, here are the pictures of a beautiful day and our start back on the trials:

 Montsberg bisons

 A lone Canada goose in the lake

 The swallows are back