Day 1: 15km, Kinmount to Burnt River
Sorry that it took so long to post this, I had written my usual end-of-day notes while walking in a small notebook and then misplaced it… and spent more than a month trying to find it before giving up and writing from my memory so the daily notes on this walk won’t be as detailed as I would like. My apologies!
But on to my recap of the first day… this was the easiest (read: shortest) day I had planned for this walk, 15km according to the map of the trail and low and behold, it was actually 15km (although only 14.3km according to one app on my phone. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The morning of Tuesday, October 10, although not too early because I’m so not a morning person, my mom (thanks Mom!) dropped me off in the village of Kinmount, my starting point for this walk. It had rained (a lot!) over Thanksgiving weekend, both Sunday and Monday, so there were giant puddles everywhere on the trail. Which meant I definitely wasn’t walking in a straight line as I kept wandering around them. Thankfully, it didn’t rain while I was walking, but it was a mostly gray day, around 12C. Not bad for walking and around the normal temperature for mid-October but it felt a bit cold as the week before it was in the high 20s.
The first little bit of the trail follows along side the Burnt River and you can see it frequently but gradually, the forest replaces the river. It’s still there of course but there’s enough space and trees that you can’t see it as well. Because the trail is used by snowmobiles in the winter, the former railway bed is still quite wide so there’s lots of room if someone on a bike or ATV needs to pass you. And since if was a former railway, it’s quite flat and a relatively easy walk.
There were several other trails that crossed the Victoria Rail Trail in this section and I even passed construction (see the orange sign in the photo above), which I found funny on a trail but I suspect they were getting things ready for the winter. Not long before I passed the construction crew, I accidentally flushed two ruffed grouse, first a female and then a male from the same spot. Interestingly, I saw quite a few grouse along the trail – at least one, sometimes two or three, each day.
Even though I knew it was only 15km, I was quite surprised when I reached the Burnt River sign, which is just outside the village. There’s not much in Burnt River so I went to the Canada Post office, hoping there would be a bench where I could sit and wait for my ride (there was, yay). I’d made arrangements with the B&B I was staying at, Sweet Dreams B&B, to pick me up and drop me off at the trail the two nights I was staying there (which was thankfully a service they offer) which was super helpful.
After arriving at the B&B and checking in, I had a quiet night in a comfy bed, ready for the next day of walking. All in all, it was a lovely, easy and quiet walk with lots of nature to look at
Rambles and Walks 