19 August 2016, Friday
It was finally cool last night. The high today will only be in the 60’s. We devour our cinnamon buns and then drive to the historic East Gate of the park, historic because this is the only original entrance structure remaining in a national park in Canada. The day is drizzly and gray when we leave camp. We catch a glimpse of the view from the lookout atop the Riding Mountain escarpment out over the plains of Manitoba as we drive by. It looks like the postcard of Rehoboth, DE in the fog that O and I once saw…all gray. By the time we drive down to the East Gate the sky is blue. We take some photos and drive back up to the lookout. Now we can actually see out over the plains. It’s a classic Manitoba vista with the highway running in a straight line to the east over the flat landscape and disappearing in the distance.
After admiring the view we proceed to the trailhead for the Gorge Creek Trail. It is 6.4 km long in one direction. We plan to hike out and back. The trail initially passes through a moist forest of pine and aspen and birch. It travels along the south rim of the gorge and then descends to the creek at the bottom and climbs the opposite side. Amongst the trees are patches of tall yellow flowers and blue asters with occasional thistle. As we climb the opposite side of the gorge, the trail becomes very narrow with a steep drop-off to our right. The surface is loose flakes of shale. O comments that he wonders what holds the trail up. His comment works wonders on my confidence as I hike. I have visions of a flaky shale landslide tumbling into the ravine, carrying O and me along with it.
We stop to enjoy our PB&J sandwiches on a high flat area from which we have a glimpse of the plains beyond the escarpment. There is a cool breeze and the day continues to be sunny. After lunch we descend many steps which are shored up with logs or planks of wood, eventually reaching more moist forest with some of the healthiest patches of poison ivy that I’ve ever seen. Some of the plants are up to my elbows. They crowd the trail. To add to the scenic poison ivy, a horde of mosquitoes follows along. Thank goodness for permethrin!!
We reach the end of the trail and turn around to do it all again, uphill. As we ascend out of the poison ivy-mosquito jungle we hear loud voices coming our way. It is a happy group of hikers, amongst which is a tall man with a Scottish accent, wearing shorts. I warn him of the poison ivy below. He has no idea what it looks like or that he has already walked through many patches. He says he will just take some antihistamine. I recommend he wash off with lots of soapy water as soon as he can. He may actually be OK since he’s never been in poison ivy before. The cheerful, noisy group proceeds down the trail wondering why they have not seen any wildlife.
O and I make it back to the car in record time. We head for the campground showers which turn out to be delightfully warm and very clean. After showers we go to TR McKoys which, despite its name, is an Italian restaurant. We sit outside in the cool evening air. Our waiter lights a little firepot in the middle of our table to help us warm up. Dinner is a delicious curried pasta with shrimp and scallops (no shrimp for O!) And now, we are back at the “loondromat” washing poison ivy resin off our clothes before we depart for Saskatchewan in the morning.