Day 124: Lake Middleton Campsite to just past Birchwood Road (2472-2503)

Sunday, April 2

It was a really warm night last night compared to what it's been lately. I woke up around 6:30, but it was a lot brighter out than normal. I checked the time on my phone and it said it was an hour later than my watch. Daylight savings time had happened overnight!

I packed up a bit faster than normal and hit the trail at 7:30, but I had wasted a half hour more of daylight than I had planned because of the time change. Since I don't like walking in the dark, the time relative to sunrise matters more to me than the actual time.

I walked a few kilometers down the road to get onto the trail. Yesterday I thought about staying at the Glen Mary Ski Club at the end of the road, but I'm glad I stayed at the campsite. It had garbage cans and toilets and a lake view. The ski club didn't have any of that and it was hard to tell if what I walked by was a home or the ski club where trampers were supposed to be allowed to use the bathroom.

The trail was really nice and started in the woods, then it went above the bush line and along a river. I stopped for a snack break about 10 kilometers in for the day. It was about 10:30.

After my snack break, as I was going over the high point for the day, I briefly met a NOBO girl. We said a few sentences to each other and I continued along the river, listening to podcasts.

Eventually I saw a sign for the 2500-kilometer mark. It was really exciting, but it was about 11 kilometers early. I still took photos because I'd eventually hit 2500 kilometers today and didn't want to make my own sign to photograph.

I had originally planned to stop about 20-kilometers into my day for a snack break, but I was feeling hungry earlier than I thought I would. The trail went over a little hill and I saw two people taking a break. I sat down and talked with them while I ate some food.

Jen was from Canada and Alex was from Massachusetts. They were really nice and planned on camping about the same place I was, so I walked with them. They had just finished a lunch break where they made falafel. I was impressed. I never tried making anything like that when I hiked.

We walked for a bit and they said their friend Bart was ahead of them. Eventually we saw someone walking towards us and they recognized him. It was Bart. He'd gotten worried about them and made sure they were ok.

The four of us walked the last 12 kilometers or so together and had fun talking. Bart was from Holland and Alex had walked this section of the trail with some people she met last summer. She knew exactly where we were going and knew what was coming up.

We eventually saw another 2500 kilometer sign made out of rocks but I didn't take a photo. This one was probably more accurately placed, but the last one looked more interesting.

Around late golden hour we hit the big river crossing. Bart found a great place to cross a bit more down river than I would have gone if I was by myself. It was a deep river but in the area Bart found the tips of my shorts didn't even touch the water.

The light was going away pretty quickly by this point, but we were really close to the carpark. The spot where we wanted to camp was less than 2 kilometers past that.

We got to the carpark, and the trail on the other side of the street began on a farm. The farm had merino sheep and deer. The deer with big racks were ramming each other. It was pretty impressive (and they were all behind a fence so we didn't need to worry about them).

The noise the deer made when they called to each other sounded just like a mechanical cow sound from an old kids toy.

We reached some big bushes or little trees near a small river and set up our tents. The sky turned an amazing pink color and the moon came up, even though it was still twilight.

I went to go filter some water. I haven't been worrying about filtering too much, but there were lots of cow pies around here. After filtering water, I made dinner and set up my tent. Jen, Alex and Bart were all so happy and were making very fancy meals compared to me.

Now that daylight savings had happened, it was dark a little after 7. The deer were still making heir loud moo-like calls, so I decided to watch an episode of the West Wing. Maybe they'd stop or I'd be tired enough to sleep through it when it was over.