Hike: Beaver Valley – Eugenia and Hogg’s Falls

First a big thank you to our hosts for the weekend – John and Laurie. I can’t imagine hiking the trail all day and then driving home – your chalet was a godsend!

Our first real winter hike. In April?! We have been putting off buying snowshoes for some time now – always concerned that the year that we finally broke down and purchased them would be the year with no snow. But after long consideration – we went for it. Of course at this point we had waited too long and most stores had put away their winter equipment but after much searching we found a store that still had snowshoes available.

April 5 – After a long and frightening drive up to Beaver Valley (they actually closed the highway just as we turned off!) we were ready to strap on our snowshoes and get hiking. We parked the car at Eugenia Falls Conservation Area and walk the short distance to our first waterfall of the day. The falls are beautiful – although a little hard to see through the trees. After a few photos we ready to see what these snowshoes could really do.

 

Our prints were the only ones on the trail as we trudged along. We all took turns falling through the snow and pulling each other out. Toby had the roughest time – once he fell through it was hard to get back out. This is about the time that we realized we would not be hiking through a valley but rather through many valleys. And up many hills. And then back down many hills. After 2 hours of hiking we were exhausted – and we were still far away from our turn around spot. After eating lunch and taking a rest we continued on our journey.

Although we do look at our maps ahead of time and we carry them in our packs sometimes we are surprised when a new obstacle greets us on our path. Today’s obstacle – two river crossings. With snowshoes off our feet and strapped to our backs we were ready to battle the mighty current, or more accurately, the quick moving, shallow creek. Toby of course splashed through the water as he pleased – no matter how many times we told him to get out of the water.

 

After a few more ups and downs we started to see signs for Hogg’s Falls – rejoice! We pushed forward happy to see our destination, while dreading the fact that we still had to hike back to the car. Once again this waterfall did not disappoint and the day started to feel a little more successful. After consulting our maps we realized instead of just turning around we could walk the road at least part of the way back to our car – a shortcut we will always take if it means giving our tired bodies a break and not retracing our steps.

We still had a long way to go filled with many hills, valleys, slips and falls but we were headed home.

After a long hike we treated ourselves to pizza in Flesherton and a movie. Although we planned to hike the next day as well, the consensus was to cut our trip short (even Toby didn’t argue, mostly because he couldn’t lift his tired head from the dog bed).

Toby’s 13.8 kilometre hike can be viewed at Beaver Valley Hike – happy hiking!