I wanted to get some early training in and was looking for some decent weather. So I went south to my hometown of Wheatley. It had the best current weather in Ontario, and I got to visit my parents as well. I decided on this route and put it together last minute. I have done many, many parts of this route in the past, and I thought putting it all together would be an interesting experience. I also knew the way I was going to approach this, would not give me an overall time that would be too impressive. Nonetheless, I was happy to attempt an FKT with an overnight element in it, in mid March.
Day 1-I started at 6:30 AM in Tecumseh(thanks dad for the ride). It had been a while since I have seen the Windsor riverfront and view of Detroit, but it was nice. I continued through Malden Park where I have ran countless times in the past. Next was the parkway and then the rail trail. One challenging thing on this route is finding good water. Luckily, it was chilly out so I didn't need to drink too much. I just took advantage of the times I did run into good water. I eventually made my way through Harrow, Kingsville and then Leamington. I knew of a possible good sleeping spot that my brother had told me about. It was just off the rail trail north of Leamington. Darkness was coming and my legs were getting tired. Also, something was going on with my stomach and I didn't feel all that great. So I set up camp and decided to sleep more to hopefully feel better by morning. 54 miles.
Day 2-I slept way too much but that's OK. I got packed up and hit the rail trail. I did feel a lot better. For now. The rail trail was so lit up from the greenhouses that I didn't need a headlight at all. I enjoyed the last section of rail trail before I hit the roads. It would be roads now until the finish. I once again, took advantage of good water when I found it. I still most likely didn't drink enough. Or eat enough for that matter. Something just felt off and my stomach didn't feel like it could handle much. I kept putting one foot in front of the other though. Some of the latter road sections are very monotonous. I had a young, beagle dog who joined me for a few miles actually. I was hoping he/she was able to get back home after. Eventually I turned onto the main road in Wheatley. I tried to enjoy the last couple miles, but just wanted to get the job done. I finished at 4:09. The coolest part of this route was that I could walk home to my parents place after. 40 miles.
I'm very happy to have done this route and it's great that Essex County has a decent amount of pathways. Probably 3/4 of this route involved paths with no cars. I'm also originally from this area, so it was nostalgic seeing these sights that I hadn't seen in quite a while. My pack was very light since I only carried a day and a half of food. I tried out some new gear which worked well. I wanted to cowboy camp but rain was in the forecast at night. So I got to try out a new tent. Finding water on this route may be scarce in the summer or fall. I used this as training and I feel like it will set me up for some other stuff I want to do soon. It's hard to train for some of these adventures so I feel like doing a shorter thru-hike like this is the way to go. On to the next one...