The annual club dinner will be at the Wayside Dining Lounge on Saturday, January 20th. We will meet at the restaurant at 5 pm for some socializing. Everyone will be able to order off the menu or enjoy their prime rib buffet. We hope to see you all out for this social event. Please let any of the executive know if you are planning to attend by the eighteenth.
Come and join us on a starry night walk thru a candlelit woods enjoying the performances. This event has been organized for many years by Brian Wilsdon and we as volunteers appreciate all he has done and continues to do to make this event a success. Hope to see you out this year, enjoying the carols.
The trail is now 93% complete and some 22,000 kms long going through 13 provinces and territories. The Great Trail is comprised of 432 individual trail sections of which the Dutton Dunwich trail is one. There is The Great Trail app for IOS and Android designed in partnership with ESRI Canada.
Everyone is invited to celebrate the near completion of the Trans Canada Trail with a hike on August 26th. It would be awesome if we had a real good representation from the club. Long time member Marg Hulls will be leading the hike with a barbecue to follow. Information in poster above and a nice article in the St. Thomas Times Journal last Friday. The first 75 registrants will receive a commemorative embroidered badge.
Hope to see you there.
Be sure to attend our AGM and hear about the adventures of club members Avril and DJ as they relay the story of their journey to Santiago this January. The event is held in the Carnegie Room of the St. Thomas Public Library, 153 Curtis St. Doors open at 6:30pm and business meeting starts at 7pm, then the Way presentation. You will be able to renew your membership or new members may sign up at meeting. There are open positions on the executive available, talk to any current executive if you are interested in joining. Look forward to seeing you all their.
The annual dinner for the Elgin Hiking Trail Club is at 5 pm on Saturday, January 21st. Please let any executive member you are planning to join us. We look forward to seeing you there for a great meal and social hour. DJ will not be able to join us she is backpacking the El Camino in Spain.
We had a total of 15 people out for the fall end-to-end. Four people completed the whole trail with new member Joan being one of them. Congratulations Joan. We had three regular hikers miss the first hike which was cut short due to rain. The rain make up hike was also poorly attended due to slippery conditions. The trail was in pretty good condition and everyone enjoyed themselves. We saw a buck on second hike. Nine new people jointed us on at least one of the hikes and we hope to see them out on our winter hikes. Thank you to all who came out and made the hikes so enjoyable.
The annual Spirit Walk in coordination with Catfish Creek Conservation Authority is the first Saturday in December. Bring your children and follow the candles for an evening of caroling, magic and visit with Santa in the forest. Hot chocolate, apple cider and cookies will be available for all to enjoy. Hoping for mild weather.
There were only 5 of us but the trip was very worthwhile, with a clear blue sky and the leaves changing colour.
I originally planned a 8 km hike but half way through the weather was so nice we decided to add some of the Flood Plain Trail along Dedrick Creek where we saw the huge puff ball. The water was crystal clear. The forest had many young Sasafras and Tulip trees. The paths were quite wide and maps were at every intersection. You could hear the turkeys, but they did not show themselves.
After the hike we all went to the Boathouse in Port Rowan, surprisingly we saw Roseann and Wilf there. After lunch Loretta and Wendy headed to the Pumpkin Festival in Waterford and Tom, Joan and myself went to Long Point where we saw mute swans and sandhill cranes and a praying Mantis on the deck of Long Point Bird Observatory. All in all another wonderful excursion.
Picture above shows Anne Faubert of London, Ann Hoover of Aylmer, Loretta Vaughan of Port Stanley and Pat (seventy at the time) after they hiked 900 km from Port Stanley to Tobermory over five years. Pat’s favourite memories of the trip were using ladders and ropes to traverse the escarpment at Devil’s Pulpit near Orangeville.
Pat and her husband Joe volunteered many years fundraising and other duties for the Elgin Hiking Trail Club, especially at the Spirit Walk.
Her funeral is today.
Loretta talks of this hike regularly and how much they all enjoyed the challenge, well maybe not the waist deep snow and wicked thunder storms.
Sincerest condolences from the Elgin Hiking Trail Club.
Received this week and it is nice to see that the teacher and students took the time to thank our trail maintenance crew. Nice to know others outside the club appreciate the effort put forth by our volunteers. Good job to our trail maintenance director Tom Beharrell.
Pretty cool!