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Mono’s Drygas completes 922km trail trek and wants to do more




Written By Peter Richardson

One day this summer, Sebastian Drygas, a young man from Mono, decided to take a walk.

Well, not really a walk, but a hike, from one end of the Bruce Trail to the other: Queenston to Tobermory, 922 kilometres of forest trails and highland rocks culminating on the Bruce Peninsula jutting out into the pristine blue waters of Georgian Bay.

The idea first came to him while hiking in Algonquin Park with his mother several years ago and it never went away. He subsequently met some hikers who were attempting to complete the trail and the dream of an idea became a reality.

So, how do you do 922 kilometres in just 30 days? Well, you start with a good pair of hiking boots, a 40 pound pack and a lot of moxie. Add in some luck and a cup of determination, and you start walking north.

The Bruce trail winds its way across Southern Ontario, by way of the Niagara Escarpment before ending in Tobermory.

The cairn at trail's end in Tobermory, was erected in Canada's centennial year, 1967, marking completion of the trail for Canada's Centennial.

But back to our stalwart hiker and his ambitious endeavour.

The goal was to average 30 kilometres per day and to camp on the trial along the way.

As it turned out, his longest day was 38.6 kilometres while his shortest was in the low 20s due to the spacing of the rest centres; they were either too close together or too far apart for the 30 km pace.

As he travelled, Sebastian was occasionally accompanied by friends and family for part of the journey. In all, this totalled some fifteen days, or about half the trip.

In his pack, he carried his sleeping bag, camp stove, pot and water filters, well as clothes, and 10 days worth of freeze-dried food. He planned to restock food every 10 days along the way.

Although he did not take a store bought set of hiking poles, he did pick up a stick along the route and carved a head into the top of it to pass the time.

From the B&B owner who offered to let him sleep on the porch to a mother and daughter who gave him a ride to a TimHorton's in a rainstorm, Sebastian met an assortment of helpful individuals on his quest -- though not everyone was happy to see him.

When first offered the front Porch at the B&B, one of the paying guests objected to him being on the other side of the wall from them and so he was moved to a screened in gazebo on the opposite side of the building, complete with a camp cot for a better night's rest.

There was plenty of local wildlife along the trail: raccoons, deer, squirrels and even bears frequent the route, as do rattlesnakes!

The Massasauga Rattler is indigenous to the Bruce Peninsula. It is Ontario's only venomous snake.

Sebastian saw several sunning themselves on the rocks around Georgian Bay. A bite is very rare and only two people have died in the last fifty years in Ontario from Massassauga bites.

One of the highlights of the trek for 18-year-old Sebastian were all of the waterfalls in the southern part of the trail. He noted that they were very pretty and spectacular, a welcome respite from rocks and forest trails.

When asked about hardships, the rain was counted as first and heat as the second. July was not too bad for heat, but the rain struck frequently on his trek, making the rocks slippery and the ground wet and muddy, a good recipe for blisters.

Sebastian, however, had a solution. If one first rubs vaseline on their feet then wears thin nylon sock next to their skin before pulling on those heavy wooden hiking socks, blisters become a thing of the past. The wool can not rub the skin, but can still provide good protection from moisture and insulation from the elements.

It is an age old trick from soldiers an outdoorsmen that still holds true today.

So, what is next on the agenda of the adventurous man from Mono?

Well, he is giving some thought to the 3,000-odd mile Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia along the Appalachian Mountains, and there are some trails around Lake Superior. But they may have to wait until he returns from school, in Germany, where he has a scholarship to apprentice as a Blacksmith, beginning in a year's time.

Post date: 2021-08-12 12:40:29
Post date GMT: 2021-08-12 16:40:29
Post modified date: 2021-08-12 12:41:35
Post modified date GMT: 2021-08-12 16:41:35
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