[2023 – Ontario, Canada –130 km – 3 days – St. Marys to Conestogo]
According to the website,
the Avon Trail was the brainchild of Dr. Crosby Kirkpatrick
and several volunteers.
One likely isn’t going to find a better
group of trail volunteers anywhere.
The Avon Trail is brilliantly marked,
has an excellent trail app,
and seems to be well worn.
The website lists the trail as 130 kilometres,
but it feels much shorter,
likely because it’s mostly flat
and it’s easy to get a decent walking speed
for long periods of time.
Despite that the trail is well maintained,
I don’t see a single other hiker carrying a backpack.
There are a few day hikers,
but they are found almost entirely around St. Marys,
a lovely little tourist mecca with a rich history,
excellent restaurants,
and a quarry for public swimming.
The Thames River flows through St. Marys
and I see people on kayaks and canoes.
I am delighted at the start of the walk in St. Marys,
and I think that if the rest of the trail is as exciting
as it is in St. Marys,
this will truly be an outstanding adventure.
Alas, the best of the trail runs through St. Marys.
The rest of it can’t even compare.
I can see that the trail organizers and volunteers
have worked hard to encourage locals
to embrace the joy of hiking,
but the truth is that the trail simply isn’t very interesting.
There is a tremendous amount of
road walking on the Avon Trail,
a necessity for a continuous route
that seems to simply connect a series
of narrow forest slivers
that separate creeks and rivers
from farmland.
And most through-hikers abhor road walking,
which is why I suspect I don’t see anyone else
on the trail outside of St. Marys.
I suppose instead of the trail,
I could blame the lack of other hikers
on the clouds of mosquitos
that always seem to put a damper
on a good walk.
I admire the tenacity
of the trail organizers and volunteers,
and am grateful to the farmers
who allow the trail to run through their properties.
They have done the best they can
with the materials at hand
in a part of the country
dominated by agriculture and automobiles.
I finish the trail near a golf course
on the Grand River in Conestogo,
take a break in a mosquito-free breeze
and wonder how I’ll get back to my van in St. Marys.
