Dusk to Darkness

Saturday our team the Fantastic Four (minus one, because the lucky girl is in Japan!), did our first hike together - up at Horseshoe Valley in Barrie. The hike was organized by Oxfam as part of a familiarization of 100km trail, in this case, a 6% taste of what's to come in the last weekend of July.

Gearless as I was (notice the past tense reference :P), the three of us dropped in on Vaughn Mills Mall on the way up to the meeting spot. For those who have not been there, the mall's interior resembles a figure 8.. or an infinity sign :) You can wander in there forever!

Our first stop in the Mall was to hit the Bass Pro shop. The multitudes of things you can buy in there when you're planning an outdoor activity! Hydration packs, hats, flashlights, first aid kits, iodine, ponchos, sleeping bags, boots, shoes, tents, ... so many options.

First stop though was to get headlights. The title of the posting was selected purposely (and also named activity by Oxfam). I got myself a Petzl® Tikka2 LED Headlamp, followed by an sleeping bag (Can't even find a picture of it, but it resembles much like a emergency blanket), a 5-in-1 survival aid kit (liquid filled compass with a luminous dial, a waterproof match box, a whistle, a fire starting flint, and a nylon lanyard). My teammates got themselves a hydration pack (I was fortunate enough to have gotten one as a gift :P Now I get to put it to use!), headlamps and flashlights.

We grabbed a quick bite and headed off to our destination, excited with our purchases. Sadly to note, at this point, I have not bought my hiking boots -- I was going to make do with my old runners. May as well make use of them before they are officially retired.

We arrived at Carriage Ridge Resort (a place we booked for overnight stay) a bit earlier, and had time to unpack our stuff, and gear up for the night hike. Before we left, we took a quick team picture (see first pic), and drove to the meeting spot to sign in.

There was, as it was, a big turnout for the hike, approx 94 people. A school bus full of hikers. They drove us to the start point of the event, and we started the hike approx. 8:19pm.

I was eager to try out the headlights -- it said it could give visibility up to 29m! It didn't get dark until 9pm, (between all that time, cracks of daylight could be seen through the tall trees, lighting the trail for us), but it was hard not to want to turn it on earlier - :) I do love to try out new gadgets!

When darkness did finally fall, turned out my headlamp was as awesome as I had imagined it to be. On its own, it could light up the trail enough for all three of us AND the people ahead of us. Sweet. Got my money's worth! *grin*

The hike continued with light chatter, some talk about "what kind of bird would I be?" We have the answers: Goose, Phoenix, Penguin. Lol, Guess which one I am? ;)

A few times during the hike, I tried to convince my friends (inspired by the headlamp) that we should go Spelunking again. They.. have yet to be persuaded. I have learned, thought, that no doesn't always mean no...

We finished the hike in a little over an hour, signed out, and drove back to our resort. Having settled in and microwaved up some Uncle Ben's rice (surprisingly good after a hike), and indulging on some munchies, we settled down on the couch and watched the ending of "Goonies" (ah, such a classic!) on the tele. Following up with it, we all somehow (ok, it may have just been me :P) hooked on watching "Holes". We slept away at around 1am, and checked out promptly around 11 in the morning... and headed to the Cookstown outlet mall.

Originally, we had had planned to put in another hike in the morning, but it had rained during the night, making the ground exceptionally muddy, so as an alternative, we opted to use the time to get some uniforms for our team and any remaining necessities for the hike.

In Cookstown we found ourselves with some good bargain deals on a dryfit shirt for our team, but nothing else jumped out for us, so we headed back down to Vaughnmills Mall to check out other options. This time around, we found our team hat, another set of team tshirts, and most importantly, hiking shoes. I also found myself a pair of new runners that matched the current series I had been wearing. Made my selection much easier! One of my teammates also bought a pair of hikers.

Noted, all these purchases took us nearly 5 hours. And we had only ventured into the stores that were relevant to our "mission". Compared to the hike itself, I was more tired after shopping :P We ended the day at the mall with a Gelato icecream/milkshake. *grin* I can't complain, my weekend was well spent! :)