Hike-a-thon Wrap Up

Alright, so sometime in April I decided to support the Bruce Trail Hike-a-thon with the audacious goal of hiking 150km in May to raise $150 for the Bruce Trail (this would be matched, so in the end $300).   Keep in mind, as of April, the longest hike I'd ever done was about 15km.   I also set a rule that all 150km would be on the Bruce Trail, which meant things like my normal 5k dog walk (flat and easy and can be done in flip flops) doesn't count toward the total.   None of these are "real" rules - in fact, you don't have to commit to any distance at all.  But I figured I should set something theoretically achievable, but hard.

So - to enable it, I signed up for TWO end-to-end Bruce Trail hikes.   Cause, you know, why do just one insane challenge?   (*Background - feel free to skip if you just want hike-a-thon info - The Bruce Trail, which is a little over 900km long not counting side trails, is divided into nine sections, each of which runs an end-to-end of their section each year*)

The Trail Sections - Link to BT Website

So I figure over time it's reasonable for me to do the Niagara and Iroquoia sections on my own.   Caledon end-to-end is unfortunately on Thanksgiving and I'm not giving up Thanksgiving cottage weekend for hiking so a couple friends and I are planning on doing that one end-to-end but just us.   Some day - likely in fall :).  Toronto section (ironically nowhere near Toronto) is in Sept - sign up for it opens tomorrow, and I'm fully planning to do it.   Everything north of that becomes a logisitcal nightmare from home, esp if you're doing it by yourself.   So I signed up for the Dufferin Hi-Land end-to-end and the Blue Mountains end-to-end, both in May??!?  But sure, why not :).  Everything north of Blue Mountains will have to wait till next year because they're much longer hikes and I'm not spending all my vacation time on hiking.

SO - back to the hike-a-thon, 150kms, signed up for two end-to-ends so that'd get me:

- May 10-11: Dufferin Hi-Land: 31 km + 25.33km
- May 24-26: Blue Mountains: 22.18km + 24.23km + 26.20km

Also, Laura and I did 16.77km on May 3 from Crawford Lake to Kelso...

I even finished the Duolingo May Hiking Challenge.
Alas, it did not contribute to my km count!

Where I failed is that I had figured I could snag at least 10k between the first and second big hikes, even if broken up.   But then I hurt myself in the first hike and did zero activity until the second.   Yikes.   So it was with great trepidation that I added the numbers up after Day 3 of Blue Mountains and got to...  145.71.   FML.   BUT - I was feeling okay and still had a few days, so on the 30th, I went to the closest BT side trail near here and did exactly 5km (eg, I was tired and didn't want to be there right that second so I walked out till my tracker showed 2.5km then turned around and walked back ;)).   And that was all it took to meet my goal, more than 24h before the deadline :)

Been-there, done-that, got the badge ;)

So yes, I met the hiking goal, thanks to generous friends and family, I raised $175 (which is being matched by an anonymous donor so your money goes twice as far!) and can now take a break for a week or two.

Next crazy one?   Doing the Laura Secord hike at the end of June.   Then prob just short easy stuff till Sept.   The short stuff is sometimes more fun cause you can take side trails and random deviations without stress.  And let's be honest, the road less taken is generally where I like to be ;)