This year's adventure

Even with no leaves yet, some very pretty areas

Those who've been here awhile may remember that last year I discovered I really enjoy hiking.  So this year, in typical me fashion, I decided to dive in fully 🤦‍♀️.  I know, you’re shocked.  And the hike in Costa Rica reinforced how much of a mental health boost they are for me.   So, all full of excitement and ambition, I signed up for not one but TWO ridiculously long hikes in May.

The problem is, I haven’t so much as *walked* anywhere consistently since the weather turned icky and the dark started setting in before the workday ended.   Which means my fitness level is not exactly where it should be.  

Note the icicles...  Sunny, but still chilly

Cue panic training.  Friday afternoon was decent weather - cold but sunny and dry, so I went for a short 5k - of which I’d say about half counted as a hike and half was a walk in the park (literally) 😂.  The diff in my mind being difficulty of terrain - if strollers w babies in them can do it, it doesn’t count as a hike ;).   

Gratuitous waterfall photo; there were a few different falls

The rest of the wknd was supposed to be miserable snow-rain type weather, so I wrote it off entirely.  Then Sunday actually ended up being civilized?!?!  Chilly - hovering around zero - but sunny and dry.  And, well, Canadian - I know how to dress for chilly. 

An impressive first view - maybe 50m from the parking lot? ;)

So I planned out a hike route (look at me being responsible) and Chris helpfully agreed to help w transport so we drove to where I would end my hike, left my car there (free parking win), then he drove me to the start of my planned route (which would’ve been paid parking - hence the direction of travel) and dropped me off at the side of the road.  That way I could be as slow or fast as I wanted and wouldn’t interfere any more with his timing / plans for the day.

The two apps compared.
All Trails (left) - more accurate for tracking the path walked;
Bruce Trail - more accurate for navigating the path, but stops tracking path when hibernating

I told him likely 2-3 hours and set out.  I set All Trails to record my trek and also the Bruce Trail app - which I had challenges w last time and wanted to see if I could get it going.

So first learning, very quickly 😂, is that both it’s very easy to end up on the wrong trail if you’re just enjoying the hike and daydreaming while you’re walking.  Fortunately I discovered very early that I’d made a wrong turn and the BT app was great for helping me get sorted.  Win.  After that I paid more attention and no more navigation issues.

The trails within Rockway were easy to navigate and mostly dry

The first hike was the Rockway Falls Side Trail - this is pretty much an out and back to a little waterfall.  Easy and pretty and a good time to test the app out and figure out what was going on.  I didn’t see a single other person on this part of the trip.

I'm sorry, you want me to go where now???
Clearly marked - I just wasn't sure I believed it.
Marking on front left tree says turn right there...?
Sure enough, another marker to the right.

Then I took the main trail towards Louth Conservation Area (where I’d left my car).  I’d never even heard of this park before but it’s lovely and was well worth discovering.  Saw a few other people on the main trail right by the rapids - which were stunning - but basically nowhere else.  All of this trail was well marked - there were places there was no visible trail at all, but the markings on the trees made it easy and clear where to go.  It’s the first time I’ve ever had to rely completely on the trial markers for navigation and I was impressed by how effective it was.   

I don't see a trail, do you see a trail?
If you have a big enough screen, there are markings on two trees to show where to go.

Some of this trail was incredibly steep, some of it reminded me of the kids’ game “over, under, through” 😂 and it definitely wasn’t a trail any stroller I’ve ever seen could navigate.  But it was so lovely.  For all but that one tiny section, I was the only human I could see or hear.  Birds and water - or the occasional helicopter- were most of the noises.  I was very appreciative that I was wearing proper hiking boots and also that the ground was still at least partially frozen.  There was mud, but not the boot-stealing, soul-sucking quantity that there will be in real spring.

Steep enough there was a cable to help; in mud this would be brutal.

When I got to the conservation area I had planned a route to do all the side trails that roughly formed a figure 8.  This would have been significantly more challenging without the app.  But with it?  No problem.   

This was one of the few areas there were other people.
All of four, but still - other people.

I had texted C that I would be a lot later than expected cause I’d been spending so much time taking pictures, figuring out the tech, etc.  To put in perspective, I took 144 photos on this hike (?!?!?) of which 99 were in the first 3kms.  45 were in Lough Conservation Area.  Not because it wasn’t worth taking pics, but because I wanted to finish today so I slowed down on the pics after the first bridge.   Lol in the end I finished almost exactly on the 3h - which is slower than I’d like for the scheduled hikes but also not as slow as I expected given all the picture taking.  Not sore after either which is a hopeful sign.  Need to double the distance for May, but I now believe it’s actually feasible!  Also remembering that I did R2CC when I’d never even ridden a century in one day before, so my body is somewhat used to this kind of ridiculousness.  We won’t acknowledge that that was about 10 yrs ago!

Large portions of the hike were super pretty

So yeah - overall my ambitious goal is in 2025 hike the Bruce Trail from its start in Niagara to the end of the Blue Mountains section (~450 kms) and all of the side trails in Niagara (cause I can do those without quite as much of a transportation nightmare).

Tempting, but I behaved myself ;-P

If that’s fun and achievable next year I’ll strategize to do the remaining parts - I don’t have enough vacation time to get that in this year unfortunately.  It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare.  My friend Janie is in for the challenge as well but timing wise prob not all together, so hopefully at least the far ones work out.  We shall see.

Any trail that accidentally both starts and ends with waterfalls is a win.

Costa Rica - Power Outage

We kicked off our resort day w couples massage.  For both of us they were somewhat unlike massages we had had before but while different, both were excellent.  So much so we’re considering another round on Friday.

The walk to where the massage ladies were

Other than that mostly spent the day bouncing between beach and pool.  Water in each is super warm - like -*really* lovely.  And flag still yellow so got to play in the waves again.  We’ve found the pool that so far seems to be the quietest and no scrapping it out for chairs which is nice.  

This was not a bad view to see every time we left our room

Only sad part is everybody on the resort speaks English so well that every time I try to speak Spanish they immediately switch to English *sigh*.  I get that they’re being polite but it’s both sad and disheartening for sure.  Our driver on the trip yesterday chatted w me a bit in Spanish but wasn’t fair to do too much of that cause C doesn’t speak it so that’s just rude.  But for random hotel staff things….  Ah well.  Plus side - I understand pretty much everything on the radio (professional speakers tend to enunciate more in any language) and I’d say a strong 70% of random conversations I evesdrop on with no context IF I pay attention.  Lol if I’m not paying attention there’s next to nothing, but arguably the same in English.  My ability to laser focus, even while daydreaming, is impressive.

Not a bad way to spend an evening

Dinner tonight led to an incredible evening when the power went out.  😂. Somehow they finished serving (to be fair, we were almost done), and tried to reassure everyone that this isn’t a usual occurrence.  But C and I just took it as a good time for a moonlit stroll on the beach.  Power was out everywhere within sight so no light pollution other than the occasional cell phone, and a brilliant almost-full moon that made it so it was easy to safely navigate the beach without a light (those who were at our wedding may remember similar nights).   No sound but the waves crashing, no lights but the moon and stars, being a mostly nocturnal water-loving introvert, it was basically perfection. 

I love the beach at night - esp when the moon is full

Power came back on about the time I was starting to think I might want long sleeves, and then the rest of the evening flowed as it should.  This resort has a coffee bar similar to the one we experienced in Mexico, and their hot chocolate is amazing!  So as we did in Mexico, we’ve taken to stopping in there after dinner :)

Really enjoyed the little coffee bar

Costa Rica - Playas y Pueblos

It's the first time I've ever had paparazzi ;)

Today we went on a beaches and towns tour - we honestly weren’t really sure what this one was about but was one of the few “shorter” tours and Chris wasn’t super into a full day one so all good (this one said roughly 9-3 or 11-6).  And it was private which most of the time is an amazing luxury but on March Break almost critical.  There was another one I wanted to do but there were only 3 seats left on the bus and I get motion sick and, well, Costa Rican roads are an adventure ;).  So sadly we had to opt out of that one for now - another trip.   

This stop was just for the view - literally side of the road, nothing else around.

Anyways - back to today’s adventure.  We booked w Frank the Tank.  I’m not even kidding 😂 but reviews were excellent and I’m pretty over Sunwing so why not 🤷‍♀️    It was also the closest we could get to a guide and driver for the day that came with some level of security (aka a step up from random taxi driver).

Our driver / guide, Noelvin, showed up exactly on time and off we went.  He gave us the rundown of a much longer day, saying we’d leave our last stop of Tamarindo about 4, but sure why not ;)

Definitely an ex-pat town.  Pretty, but nothing Costa Rican about it.

Stopped for a few good views along the way to our first, very gringo, town of Las Catalinas - which was not really even on the original tour.  Interesting spot of all expats and air b&bs, but, while in there, we found some hiking trails ;)

We also found a slack line?!?!
Unrelated: this has reinforced my desire for a slack line in our back yard ;)

So we checked in w our guide that we wanted to do the shorter one and he could relax and have some coffee while we did (didn’t want to make the poor guy go on a hike in 35 deg weather up a mountain 😂).  He didn’t seem thrilled about it but went along w the idea.

The start of it all...

The hike was *amazing* and very well signed but we pretty soon realized it was not the hike we thought we were going on as we were well over the half-way point and the path hadn’t turned around yet oops 🤷‍♀️   However, C was playing Pokémon and could see the trail did an abrupt turn slightly ahead so instead of going back, we followed it (those who know…)

Any trail that starts with a beach is likely to be good in my mind.

Long story short - it was a loop trail but not the one we thought we were going on.  This one was significantly longer, and the terrain was not really appropriate for the sandels we were both wearing or the complete lack of water we had with us.   We skipped the very last part of the trail because we found a road we could see provided a shortcut and we’d been gone about twice as long as expected.

Remember the beach?  It's the one waaaayyyy down there.

And when we got back, we couldn’t find our guide :(.  We checked the car was still there so he was around, so we got ourselves some drinks, and maybe an ice cream, and hung out for a while.  Eventually he reappeared, turns out he’d gotten worried when we didn’t come back so he got a copy of the map (good to know, there’s a map ;)) and did the route we said we were taking backwards, but didn’t find us.  From the timing he gave if he’d waited 10 mins more we would’ve been back but oh well.  Said at least now he knows a new trail to bring future clients on ;)

The terrain changed abruptly at one point

But omg I loved the trail.  Proper footwear definitely recommended but it was just a stunning trail, clearly marked, with lots of fabulous views.   Significant elevation gain though for sure - we earned that ice cream / beer (I feel you can prob guess which of us had which treat ;)

About 2/3 of the way around

Anyways - that put us prob an hour behind schedule ;). 😂 but C and I weren’t fussed - there was only one place on the schedule I really cared about seeing so if we had to leave others out to get in an amazing and unplanned hike, so be it.

Stunning views from all parts of the trail

However, we did not ;).  😂 we powered through the next couple stops including a marina with some gorgeous yachts that I can’t even afford to take a photo of, and Flamingo beach (super pretty and white sand - our beach has black sand which is too hot to walk on).   

Yachts to rival those in Miami

Some nice houses near this one too!  Then we drove to Brasilito, opted to skip the tourist shopping but walked the whole length of the beach because *after* it - which was lovely in itself and had a dog supervising its owner swimming 😂- was Conchal Beach which is protected, so you can’t drive to it, and was the one I really wanted to see.   

Flamingo Beach was super pretty;

Noelvin captured this as C and I walked the length of it.

This beach is effectively all seashells.  When I mentioned it to C, the comment was “aren’t all beaches?” 😂 not quite like this one.   Chris loved the feel of it under his feet, but since I had burnt my feet on the pool deck the day before they were super sensitive and I found it painful to walk on in bare feet.  However, the feel of it IN the ocean was amazing.  So we swam there for a bit - not nearly long enough - and had ourselves a lovely pineapple beverage (which was negotiated entirely in Spanish - including Chris’ pineapple coming loaded w my share of the rum ;).  

C enjoying everything Conchal has to offer :)

We made the long hike back to the car before heading to Tamarindo - which really was where we were supposed to spend most of our time but all we did there was have lunch/dinner and take a photo 😂.  The beer Chris ordered and quite enjoyed ended up being called Gato Malo (bad cat), which given his love/hate relationship with Moriarty seemed wildly appropriate.

Lots of our friends went here the first time, but we never made it before

After all that we ended up back at the resort 6 or 6:30ish - a much longer day than expected but also far more interesting.  Had quite a laugh when I heard a shout from the shower followed with “I have seashells stuck to my a**” 😂 under the category of “phrases I never thought I’d hear”.

The entrance to the magic seashell beach

But yeah - great day, w lots of CR info / education along the way, and our guide took a ton of photos along the way - some set up and some candids - which were emailed to me this am.  So that was awesome.  I was half expecting a “view and purchase” model but no - legit just here’s the pictures I took.  127 of them ;).   Alas, I can’t dl them till I get home cause wifi challenges but I love the concept!

Gratuitous beach photo, since they're lacking other days

So yeah - if you’re heading to CR - Frank the Tank for the win.  It’s legit.  The only extra pitch was for reviews which I did write because it was earned, not because it was asked for. 

 

**edited long after to add -- turns out that trail was on AllTrails lol.   Not that I had internet anyways, but if I had... ;)