When Plans Go Awry

There is an old Yiddish saying that “Man plans, and God laughs”.

Did I inadvertently jinx myself when I posted a photo on Instagram about a future plan I had made? It certainly felt that way to me.

Helen and I have recently returned from a 2-day excursion back to the Beaver Valley region to re-explore a few highlights we remembered from the Bruce Trail.

Beaver Valley is two-and-a-half hours away from our homes in Toronto and we had not been back since we completed our end-to-end hike back in 2013.

Since we had long ago established an informal rule that any excursion more than 90 minutes away from home would require at least an overnight stay, we made plans to stay in the area.

Demonstrating my limited technical skills.

Our agenda for day 2 of this excursion was to be a hike over Metcalfe Rock. This is a major landmark of the area and one of my favourite memories of our epic hike.

In my excitement, I took the following photo the previous day and posted our plans on Instagram.

… and then the gods laughed.

I sometimes forget that Helen is approaching her mid-70s. She has energy and enthusiasm to spare, but her agility and balance are declining.

There are areas on the Bruce, particularly around large urban centres in the south, that are heavily trafficked and easy to navigate, but there are far more sections of the trail that are true wilderness … rugged and challenging.

Beaver Valley checks all those boxes on the challenging scale – isolated, steep climbs and descents, rough terrain, hazardous footing, and occasional rock scrabbling.

The carpet of leaves were beautiful to look at, but created a hazard for Helen’s faltering sense of balance. They hid the many jutting rocks and tree roots that littered the trail.

Having had several serious falls on various trails in the past few years, Helen has become understandably hesitant. Her spirit was willing, but the body was weak.

Scrabbling down the rocky trail at Pinnacle Rock.

We knew this 11 km (6.8 mile) loop was going to be rugged in many places, so we allowed for 3-4 hours to complete the hike before we would have to head back home.

We were much too optimistic.

Our day started off with dull grey skies and temperatures barely above freezing. The easy terrain at the beginning lulled us into a false sense of security in our plan.

After 2 hours on the trail, we were only about 4.5 km into the loop.

We were faced with the difficult choice of continuing on for what was now surely going to be a 5 or 6 hour hike … or turn around.

Helen made the decision to turn around, and so we never made it to Metcalfe Rock.

Was I disappointed? Hell, yes.

… but it still an amazing day, out in nature, amid the wonder of autumn colour.

In other words, it was a perfect outing.