Pinery Provincial Park - Outdoor Fitness Hotspot

For the Labour Day long weekend, I made my return to Pinery Provincial Park for the first time in 22 years, give or take. The park, located a short drive southwest of Grand Bend, Ontario, is one of the province's busiest.

Despite my usual complaints about crowds, inadequate washroom facilities, high fees, too-small dog beach, crowds, oh - did I mention crowds... I enjoyed the park for what it is, a recreation area. Ontario Parks may have a different idea about that, considering it a Natural Environment class park.

The park has 10 'Interpretive Walking Trails' ranging from 0.8km up to 3.0km. These are well-groomed trails with no serious technical terrain. These are perfect for those living the shareware, bubble-wrapped version of Life 1.0 but not much of a challenge for any serious athlete. Yes, that was a little harsh, but I don't mean it in a condescending way - really. Click here to view the park's trail map.

However, most of the trails are connected via a 14 km biking trail that loops around the park. Still not overly technical, the bike path does provide endless possibilities as far as distances are concerned. Add to that the beach that runs on seemingly forever and a municipal trail that runs along highway 21 from the park gates 8.5km to the town of Grand Bend, and you can put in some serious running while enjoying the great outdoors.

Possibilities for water sports are endless at the Pinery. Canoeing and kayaking can be done on the river or on Lake Huron. Swimming is great in Lake Huron and the water is clear enough for snorkeling, however, there probably won't be much to see other than sand, old band-aids and the odd rock.

I should say something about my earlier complaints. If you're like me and don't much like crowded trails or crowded anything for that matter, do not go to the Pinery on a long weekend in the summer! The park becomes one giant mass of humanity. Trails are crowded, beaches are crowded, roads are busier than a city street with drivers travelling at well over the speed limit and kicking up dust.

As for the washroom facilities, they would be fine if the park was running at about 30% capacity. There are 100 sites per section and you'd have to figure an average of 3 people per site. That's 300 people sharing 6 toilets (3 men's and 3 women's). If you have a site within a few hundred feet of the washrooms, you will smell it and it won't be nice.

There are 9 parking areas/beaches. One of them, #9, is the only one where dogs are allowed. Parking for this beach was overflowing by noon on any given day. The other 8 beaches had ample free parking and were not nearly as crowded. It looks like there are a lot of people camping with man's best friend these days and the park needs to allot more space to accommodate.

And lastly, the fees... Close to $37 per night is now the going rate for a basic site with no electricity or water. That is getting up there with the price of a cheap motel room. At least put in some extra bathrooms to justify the cost!

As far as being environmentally conscious, the park has a good idea in promoting their 'park once' program. They encourage people to park their vehicle when they set up camp and not move it until it's time to go home. Great program. Large park. They could probably throw in a shuttle or two for trips to the beach, etc. Also, I think making sections where you park in a large lot and have to hike in your equipment would be a cool idea. This would certainly encourage guests to avoid their vehicles as it would be a hike just to get back to them. It would be so nice to not have cars constantly whipping by your site, kicking up a perpetual cloud of dust on all your belongings.

Would I go back? Yes, but as I couldn't state any clearer, not on a long weekend.

Boyne Provincial Park / Bruce Trail - a 5-hour hike

I took a week off to recover from the Mississauga ½ Marathon. The half was Sunday, May 10, 2009. I finished and was able to walk the 8km back to my car, but I fought with cramping in both calf muscles and a little soreness in my right hamstring. I had been training pretty hard for the past 3-4 months and had run a 30k and the half within 6 weeks. With the week after May 10 ending with the Victoria Day long weekend and no race in sight for about 3 weeks, it was the perfect time to put the running shoes away and put the beer drinking hat on!

Unfortunately, there was still work to deal with from Monday to Friday and, of course, Wednesday night featured the duo of Ultimate Frisbee and late night pickup hockey. So, it wasn’t totally a week off…

This morning, with the whole day ahead of me to myself, I felt like easing back into things and welcoming spring back to the trails. I headed up to Boyne Valley Provincial Park, which is a tract of land just North of the intersection of Hwy 10 and Hwy 89. For those that aren’t one of the 40,000 or so that live in Dufferin County, Ontario, that intersection is about 20km north of the town of Orangeville, Ontario, where I happen to live.

Boyne is an unmanned park with no comfort facilities. That alone is a feature because it keeps the weekend crowds from Toronto away. Since the Bruce Trail runs through the middle of it, obviously it’s a fair bit hilly due to the good old Niagara Escarpment. You can follow the Bruce for quite a distance before the single track gives up to country roads – today, I walked close to 2 hours from where I parked along the side of the road, just north of Primrose (10&89), before having to turn around because I ran into civilization.

There are a few different side loop trails that help add on the mileage while staying within the park. For the most part, the trails were in good condition. There were still a few muddy sections and not all the fallen trees had been cleared yet. The temperature was a cool 4 or 5 degrees when I started out but rose to the low teens near the end. The sun shone the whole time and the air was clear enough that the CN Tower could be seen from the highest point in the park (called ‘the pinnacle’).

My fuel for the hike? I started out the day with a mix of fresh vegetables sautéed in olive oil with marinated artichoke hearts mixed in. Along the trail, I drank from my 800ml bottle of water and snacked on a ‘Special K’ bar – kind of like a granola bar but make with ‘Special K’, I guess – on sale at Price Chopper this week!

This was the unofficial first event of the unofficial series of events taking place this summer, involving only me and known by only me (and you). The name that sticks in my head is the ‘Because I Can’ series. I want to bike the rail trails from Cambridge, ON to Hamilton, ON and back which would constitute a 160km ride or a century ride (100mi). I also want to walk from home to Bellfountain via as many trails as I can and back – this would be about a 40-50 km walk depending on the route. Those are the only two unofficial events that I’ve thought of so far, but the training alone for those two events will keep me pretty intense along with the more boring legitimate events that I may enter.

As I end this post, I am getting ready for an intimate hour alone with the weights. So, yes, it is very possible to put in a 5 hour hike (25-30km) and do weight training on the same day on a vegan diet! In fact, I also mowed the lawn as well, which can be a bigger chore than the other two combined!

Spare the animals. Save yourself.