“I’m only worried about one turn.”
As we piled out of the vehicle on the foggy and humid Saturday morning, we realized our under-preparedness in navigating this new trail connecting North and South Falcon trails along the eastern shore. (Greg had the GPX file on his watch, but if we didn’t stick together with him, we might be hooped!)
The North and South Falcon trails are part of the Suffer on Centennial course, which some of us knew all too well, but the new connector was new territory, making a complete 38km loop of Falcon Lake possible.
With our packs full of water and snacks, we set out on familiar trails, in search of some new adventures.
As we neared Toniata, just where the story might have gotten interesting, with the Trans-Canada Trail forking north to West Hawk, Dale jumped ahead of us on his mountain bike and steered us safely southwest onto the new trail, and into an exploration of beautiful Canadian Shield scenery, with its pops of autumn yellow, towering trees, and moss-covered rocks. With each climb and corner we saw a new side of Falcon Lake, and also skirted around the new-to-me Camp Lake as the fog was slowly lifting.
After connecting through to Falcon Ridge Ski Resort, popping out on the familiar nordic skiing trails, we crossed paths with many eager Swamp Donkey racers who were finishing their first biking leg. We also met a man who’d been among the first to dream up the connector trail back in 2000. Incredible amounts of work had been put into making the dream a reality over the past 25 years.
The loop has been deemed an “instant classic” (by our very unofficial group), hope you have a chance to explore it soon!