[2023 – Ontario, Canada –73 km – 2 days – Killarney Provincial Park]
When I look at a trail, I ask myself:
What are the logistics?
What is the distance?
What pace might I reasonably make?
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La Cloche Silhouette Trail has been listed at many distances on various blogs and the official website.
But generally, most agree that the through-hike is 78-80 km.
It’s also purported to take most people 7-10 days to complete.
I try to imagine hiking a trail at an average of only eight kilometres per day.
At even the very slowest pace, that would only be four hours of walking.
But, because there does not seem to be any reasonable location for resupply, one would need to start the hike by carrying twenty pounds of food.
That would not be much fun.
Not for me, anyway.
–
For myself, I plan on three days.
I buy a backcountry map from the park headquarters and am told the trail is very well marked, which it is, so I don’t look too closely at the map.
At the trailhead, the kiosk sign states that the trail is 100 km long.
What?
I decide that 100 km is still doable in three days, but to be sure, I put in extra hiking hours on the first day, spending eleven hours walking.
I camp at Boundary Lake and scramble into my tent, spending the next ten minutes locating and killing the mosquitoes that followed me in.
I stink from hiking and my many layers of mosquito repellent.
–
Inside my tent, I take a much closer look at the map, which provides detailed trail distances.
I calculate it twice and it looks like the through-hike itself is only 71.6 km.
With my additional side trail to the camp site, my hike will be 73 km.
Not for the first time, I wonder how bloggers calculate their distances.
Are they including side trails?
Or are all the distances screwed up, even including the distances on my map?
I decide it actually doesn’t matter at all.
–
I maintain a reasonable pace for what is considered a difficult trail.
Although some parts of the trail are slow going, there are some decent stretches where I can really pick up the pace.
I don’t spend much time idling in any one place.
The biting insects encourage movement.
–
The highlight of La Cloche Silhouette is The Crack, which can be a shorter day hike itself.
The view is excellent from the top, vast forest surrounding Georgian Bay to the south.
The Crack is the busiest part of the trail.
I meet four through-hikers on the main trail, but there are many day hikers walking The Crack trail.
–
On a rocky ridge,
only a short distance from the end of La Cloche Silhouette trail,
I take my first long break of the hike.
A breeze keeps the mosquitoes at bay.
I sit for two hours,
eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches
and sip treated creek water.
I stare.
Intently.
The vista is worth etching into my memory.