[2023 – Manitoba, Canada – 63 km – 2 days – Whiteshell Provincial Park]
The logistics are challenging for the solo hiker on the Mantario Trail.
How does one get from one trailhead back to the start after completing the trail?
Would an end-to-end-to-end hike work?
Well yes, but was there another way?
I opt to park my van at the south trailhead, just outside the Provincial Park, where the parking is free.
I start at sunrise to cycle 75 km to the northern trailhead by road.
It’s an exhausting ride, replete with steep hills; it takes me five hours.
I hide my bicycle in the woods and take to the trail by foot, hiking for another eight hours before fatigue demands I stop for the night.
There are many campsites along the route, but I end up stealth camping off the trail.
The last campsite would have had me finishing earlier than I wanted and the next campsite is too far away for my tired body.
–
I see no through-hikers on the trail, just a couple of people out for a day hike.
The mosquitoes are smothering, but DEET helps, though the deerflies don’t respect my chemical defence.
After a fitful sleep, I am on the trail early, by 0500.
My body aches, but I feel strong, pushing the final half of the trail in less than eight hours.
Some have criticized me in the past for hiking trails too quickly and not stopping more to enjoy the scenery.
The sign at the trailhead kiosk states that most people take 5-7 days to complete the Mantario Trail from end to end.
Seven days for a 63-km hike?
That’s hard to imagine.
I would go batty from the inactivity.
–
Perhaps if the bugs hadn’t been so bad, I would have enjoyed shorter hiking days and longer rests, sitting on the rocky hillsides overlooking the lakes and boreal forest.
But the bugs encourage movement.
An autumn hike may have been more enjoyable at a slower pace.
The trail is excellent, and varied.
Forest paths, escarpment-type stone, reminiscent of my time on the Bruce Trail, beaver dams, lakes, stream crossings, and, unhappily, mosquito-infested bogs.
–
There is one precious moment.
Standing on a granite ridge in the evening,
looking east at the vast forest
that extends beyond the limits of my sight,
no cell coverage,
alone in the wilderness,
a breeze that discourages the bugs,
tired,
filthy,
and the sound of…
Of nothing.
Just a small human.
Standing in silence.
So tiny in the vastness of this forest blanket.
