Rattlesnake Point

In spite of the fact I have a long list of ‘must-dos’ to take care of, I’m distracted by a desire to be outdoors in the weak November sunshine, or lost in some creative endeavour.

Instead I started to poke around some photos I took last weekend while hiking with Deb from the Widow Badass. It had been a beautiful day which started out with glorious sunshine, eventually devolving into an increasingly moody sky.

So indulge me while I procrastinate from things I really don’t feel like doing …

Our destination last Sunday morning was Rattlesnake Point and a side trail that would take us to the main Bruce Trail and Crawford Lake.

Yeaaaah … no, we didn’t.

We never made it to Crawford Lake.

I misread the map and misread the trail markers. Sometimes it happens, but in the end it didn’t really matter. Just being outdoors was the entire point.

Most of the leaves were off the trees and we missed the magnificent views of autumn colours the top of the escarpment would have provided.

… but we didn’t care.

We had plenty of other things to distract us, like the caves and crevices that can be found throughout the Bruce Trail.

On rare occasions the trail will actually lead through one of these massive crevices, but for the most part it isn’t recommended to go off-trail, especially to descend into these rock caverns.

However, with the Badass as my hiking partner, ‘shoulds’ tend to get ignored.

The slippery leaves covering unseen hazards made us extra cautious (as much as abandoning the trail can be considered cautious), but that still didn’t stop me from scraping my leg on a large sharp boulder.

User beware.

Photo by Deb

You may be wondering how Rattlesnake Point got its name. Thankfully not from an actual rattlesnake, although the massasauga rattlesnake does make its home in the rocky areas of the Bruce Trail.

However with the cold temperatures, it was easy to be brave. I considered the risk of encountering a snake very low.

… but I digress.

Back to Rattlesnake Point … according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, it derived its name from “the snake-like path cut by glaciers along the edges of the Niagara Escarpment”. Personally, I think it’s a bit of a stretch, but whatever.

When I finally acknowledged that we had ‘somehow’ missed our trail to Crawford Lake, we decided to stop for a snack, sitting on a log by a pretty little creek, and then headed back to the parking lot where we had left our cars.

It was a great morning, on my favourite trail, with an awesome companion, at our badassery best.