Beaver Valley E2E - Day 1

Today's Stats:

Distance: 25.26 km 
Elevation Gain: 1125m 
Weather: 25 deg and overcast
Duration: 4h 24 min
Avg Pace: 10:29

Finished 7th

Thoughts from after:  

Today was interesting in that I was dying after the first 5k with some v steep hills and really worried about my fitness level and my ability to complete the rest, but then that was it.  No more particularly steep hills, no particularly interesting or impressive views, no interesting or challenging footing.  It was just a long, fairly boring, walk.   Also, instead of check points every 10k, they just did one in the middle, which - not the end of the world - but slightly disappointing and mentally challenging when you're expecting a break at 10 and it doesn't come till well after.

During:

5:30am - I’m awake.  I don’t need to be awake for another 90 mins.  This is okay now but will likely make the end of the hike a challenge.

7:40 am - the parking ladies are taking their jobs very seriously and yet not great at it 😂.  So much so that getting out is likely to be a challenge.   That’s a future me problem ;)

7:45 checked in and good to go.  I’m number 26 for the day.  Bus is not here yet…. This one maxed at 50 people and I got in from the wait list so pretty safe bet it’ll be about a 50 person start

8:00 “Bus departs at 8am sharp”.  It’s 8am, bus has yet to arrive much less depart ;)

9:07 What goes down must come up.  That might not be what you remember from physics class, but it's definitely the rule for hiking.  You go down a nice nice lovely trail, across a tiny bridge over a stream of some sort, and then straight up.  And up. And up.  And...  you guessed it...  up. 

10:26 So I know logically the whole point of this trail is that it follows in Niagara Escarpment, but somehow the first thing I think when I get to the giant rock crevices is "this reminds me of Niagara" ;).  Lol you'd think it'd clue in by now.   (Edited after - little did I know, this would be about it for rocks on this hike)

Nice place for a break

11:53 Love this bench and view.  Tempted to stop and enjoy it for long enough to let the extremely loud person behind me catch up and pass.  The other two people with her are no issue, but wow - what a shrill voice.  I've been lucky not to have experienced that for very long on other previous hikes.