Favourite Day Hikes

[+gameoftheirlives]

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

Edited September 19, 2013 by gameoftheirlives

[+Cute&Cuddly]

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

 

Coincidentally I just bookmarked that Multi yesterday as a must do cache. Would you be willing to provide a bit of insight? How long did it take you? What were some of the challenges? Is it a cache only a triathlete can finish in one day? Anything special in your preparation that really paid off during your hike?

Your response may also help others identify what type of caches you're looking for.

Many thanks.

[+gameoftheirlives]

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

 

Coincidentally I just bookmarked that Multi yesterday as a must do cache. Would you be willing to provide a bit of insight? How long did it take you? What were some of the challenges? Is it a cache only a triathlete can finish in one day? Anything special in your preparation that really paid off during your hike?

Your response may also help others identify what type of caches you're looking for.

Many thanks.

[+gameoftheirlives]

Sure, I'd be happy to relay our experiences. I have to admit that it took us three trips to finish the hike. The first day we set out, the temperature rose to 30 degrees celcius. We didn't bring enough water and to add to this, we got lost a couple of times. We also stopped for lunch at the Falls and spent far too much time looking for caches there. It was late in the afternoon and we were only halfway through the hike so when we met some fellow cachers we took their offer to give us a ride back to our car.

The second day we picked up where we left off. When we got to the end, we had to do some math to figure out the co-ordinates for the cache. We miscalculated which took us to the wrong spot to look for the cache.

We went over our calculations when we returned home and realized our mistake. We returned and found the cache with the right co-ordinates.

We now have TrakMaps on our gps' which would have helped us greatly. I'm sure that if one started early enough in the day and kept walking without stopping too long to sightsee, then it could be done in one day. My partner was 62 at the time and I was 55 so we aren't spring chickens. I loved that the terrain was varied. It was a very enjoyable adventure even with the setbacks.

I would also think that now would be the perfect time to do this hike since the weather is cooler. We weren't bothered by bugs on our trip.

It's been over a year since we did the hike so I may have forgotten some details. If you have more questions, please ask and I'll do my best to answer. Again, if we hadn't wasted time in getting lost, I'm sure we would have done much better.

[+Dr. House]

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

 

Coincidentally I just bookmarked that Multi yesterday as a must do cache. Would you be willing to provide a bit of insight? How long did it take you? What were some of the challenges? Is it a cache only a triathlete can finish in one day? Anything special in your preparation that really paid off during your hike?

Your response may also help others identify what type of caches you're looking for.

Many thanks.

 

Hilton Falls loop is about 20-25km long and will probably take you 6 hours or more to do in one day. I'm a bit of a fat guy, so I wouldn't say you need to be a triathlete to finish it in one day, but you should be respectful of the distance you will be travelling and the varying terrain you'll encounter (anything from well-trodden access roads to dolostone spotted Bruce trail). Good hiking boots are a must, and ample water, food and spare socks are needed. Start early in the day if you plan to park at Hilton Falls CA since their gate closes in the evening and will lock you in if you're not back in time.

 

My suggestion would be to download the Ontario Trails Project maps created by northernpenguin (here) and follow the instructions to load them into your GPS. These will help you with the routing and will help to ensure you do not get lost. If you look back through the previous logs, you may even find that someone created a spreadsheet that should help you with the math component (for which you won't need a math degree, either).

 

Lastly, don't push yourself. This, to me, is the holy grail of multicaches in Ontario so completing it in any amount of days is something you should be proud of.

[+hamgran]

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

 

Coincidentally I just bookmarked that Multi yesterday as a must do cache. Would you be willing to provide a bit of insight? How long did it take you? What were some of the challenges? Is it a cache only a triathlete can finish in one day? Anything special in your preparation that really paid off during your hike?

Your response may also help others identify what type of caches you're looking for.

Many thanks.

 

I did it in one day; took me about ten hours, I think, but I do tend to walk at a fair clip. And I did it alone, so didn't have double the pitstops and other distractions. It was a memorable hike, one of my favourites for sure.

[+gameoftheirlives]

Well said, Dr. House!

[+CanadaKate]

Here's the first cache along a 4.7 km loop that has 6 caches along the way. Not nearly as long as Hilton Falls Loop but an interesting hike over varied terrain that my family and I enjoyed a few years ago:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCR6QC_gest-1-who-let-you-drive

 

Happy hiking.

 

One of my favourite adventures was the Hilton Falls Loop. Are there any other hikes with caches similar to that one which would take a whole day to do in Southern Ontario? I'm also interested in hearing about picturesque or challenging hikes that have become your favourites. Thanks.

[+gameoftheirlives]

I thought this one sounded familiar. About a year and a half ago I did Light at the End of the Tunnel - my first cave cache. I love this area. This is a hike I will definitely put on my list to do in the coming months before the snow flies. Thank you for the great suggestion.

[+gameoftheirlives]

For anyone who is interested, I found a great hike which turned out to be approximately 14 kilometers. It started in the Boyne Valley Provincial Park, northeast of Shelburne. I followed the series of caches "I was hiking one day and I placed a cache here". There are 8 caches which are hidden along the Bruce Trail. It ends at Rock Hill Corner Crevices and Caves which is a spectacular finish with an Earth Cache. A walk along the 10th sideroad west leads to a cache hidden at a small country church and then directly south, along Centre Road, a 3 kilometer walk back to the parking lot with a cemetary cache thrown in there just for fun. The series doesn't have to be done as a circle route. There are a few parking spots along the way which are mentioned in the co-ordinates for the "I was hiking" series which cuts down on the hike mileage. It is a hike with varied terrain, similar to Hilton Falls. I used my Bruce Trail Reference Map and Trail Guide to plan out the walk.