Terry Fox Annual Marathon of Hope - We do our own Marathon in his honor :)

Tower Trail loop hike

Today being the annual Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Run, we do our own marathon in his honor. We begin with a 4km bike ride to The Tower Trail hike within McGregor Point Provincial Park. The hike is a 3.8 km loop trail that encircles a Ducks Unlimited wetland where you can view wildlife from either the two-level tower or the bird blind. 

Being mid September, the colors are starting to change. 

Green frog 

There are a lot of different kinds of birds, a beaver working away in the water and lots of frogs hopping about. This guy is so colorful.

Monarch butterfly

We heard the Monarch butterflies are starting to cluster and get ready to migrate south. This guy has yet to find his travel partners. 

View from inside the bird blind

Osprey nest - appears empty

There are signs saying this is an Osprey Nest, but it appears empty now. 

We finish the hiking loop and bike back to our campsite where we load our bikes and set off to do a kayak and bike run. 

River Access #11

We drop our bikes at Saugeen Bluffs River Access #11, which is a popular river access point and a nice campground. It's a great place to safely lock our bikes for a few hours and has a dock for pulling our kayaks out later. 

Saugeen River access map

We head to the Town of Paisley and put our kayaks in at River Access #9A near the local Rotary Park. 

Kayaks at River Access 9A-Saugeen River

With our picnic lunches stowed and the truck safely parked at River Access 9A, we launch the kayaks and head downstream. 

Town of Paisley

We are immediately going through the Town of Paisley and one would think you were traveling by boat in Europe. 

Fall colors are beginning to show

There are numerous little rapid runs and the low water makes us often be on the look out ahead for safe passage through. We get hung up once and have to put our feet out to push off, but largely we can effectively use our strokes to get us through some of the mazes of rocks we come upon. Fun challenging run. 

Kayaks out at River Access 11

It takes about 2 hours of easy paddling to go our 8.5 km from The Town of Paisley to where we dropped our bikes at River Access 11.

Swapping kayaks for bikes

We haul the kayaks up the ramp and now chain our kayaks to the same trees our bikes were locked to and head off on the 7.5 km bike ride back to our truck :)

War memorial in The Town of Paisley

We safely make it to the Town of Paisley, another beautiful old town in Ontario. 

Original River Access #11

Once back at the truck, we load the bikes and drive back to pick up our kayaks...whew, what a day. 

Supper time :)

By the time we are back to our RV it is getting dark. Sun sets about 7:40 now. We cook a nice supper and raise a glass of wine to Terry Fox and Gerry, our friend who recently passed away from cancer.

Who's on dish duty.....no dish washer on board :(

Feels like every dish in the RV is dirty.