1st Line Car Park = 545km
Peace Valley Ranch, Mulmur.
Overnight temperatures dropped a little and we started off the day at 19C and it just got cooler from there, fabulous walking weather.
After a short walk up a gravel road we turned up an old gravel road, not maintained. This soon entered a beautiful woodland avenue and became no more than a wide track for the next 3km and was simply stunning both visually and to walk. We then left this road for a fabulous walk trail through hardwood forest, then conifer forest which then descended down the escarpment to Black Bank river, a beautiful strong running stream. Then the 1st challenge of the day, ascending the opposite side of the valley over very steep and rocky terrain. We crossed the road just a short distance up the road from our lodgings as the trail actually passes through the Peace Valley Ranch.
The rest of the day was a mix of woodland trails and road work on undulating hills, as we dodged onto on off the Prince of Wales road heading for Pine River valley. We came across some really different and weird Fungi today some of which are big and round almost the size of a soccer ball. Sadly the drier weather has meant most of the Fungi are well past their best but they must have been spectacular when fresh. The trail went down a steep track to pass the Pine River Fishing pond then followed the river downstream past an old abandoned Hydro Power House. The story behind the Powerhouseis as follows. A gentleman built one of the first Hydro electric generating systems in Ontario to supply power to the local village. He used to like to ride to the Pub for beer or three and sometimes more. If he was away from home too late his wife would flip a breaker and kill the power to the entire community so locals would send him off home so they could get their power back on. The river was a beautiful substantial river and if the weather had been warm as we have experience this past week I would not have hesitated to strip off and lounge in it’s pristine water. The signs and notes mentioned “Kilgorie Village”, we had hoped it might be big enough to have somewhere with refreshments. Sadly no, the village turned out to be 4 houses and that was it. From Kilgorie the hill out of Pine River valley went on up a gravel road for ever but thankfully the overcast and cooler day made it bareable. Still fabulous hiking country that enabled us to cover ground at a very healthy rate.
Our destination today was in the Carpark where the The Bruce trail is Friendship twinned with our Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. This means tomorrow we get to walk the part of the Bruce trail that brought us half the way around the world to walk.