THE SECOND ANNUAL CALEDON HILLS BRUCE TRAIL CLUB LOPPET

By Ross McLean

On Sunday February 6th, 45 Caledon Hills BTC members headed to Hockleycrest Farm for the second annual Caledon Hills BTC Loppet.

What is a “loppet”, you may ask? A “loppet” is a Scandinavian term for a day of public participatory fun in the snow. The term can mean different things to participants. For some, it is an event of intense competition, but for others it is a relaxing way to spend a winter's day outside, while taking in the pristine beauty of the countryside, and enjoying the fun of socializing with like-minded people and the great food and drink that are an integral part of the day.

Dave Moule, Sally Cohen and family have shared Hockleycrest Farm often with the Caledon Hills Club, including growing the club's Christmas trees. Once again the Moules generously shared their land as the site for the loppet, and they did the vast majority of the organization and the physical work of setting up the route. Such an event, of course, does not “just happen”; it involves a lot of work by a number of people. Preparation of the trails started last year, shortly after the 2010 loppet. With snow still on the ground, a route had to be confirmed, and then during the summer and early fall, minor trimming was accomplished. In late fall and early winter, a more concerted effort was necessary when heavy snowfall brought many heavily laden branches down into the trail route. Then the week before the event, Carol Sheppard with her GPS walked the route with Dave, thus allowing an accurate tabulation of distances. Dave tied the blue flags, and then installed the directional signage.

The trails used for the loppet crossed five private properties with the owners' consents. They all agreed to the marking of alternate routes for skiers, because some sections of the Bruce Trail or its side trails are simply not suitable for skiing. Some existing trail sections were also marked as ONE WAY, since they could be safely skied uphill but could be hazardous when going downhill. The entire main Trail north of 5 Sideroad and east of Airport Road, plus the Hockleycrest Side Trail and Harmony Side Trail was flagged and marked as either suitable or unsuitable for skiing, and the markings remained up for the rest of the season as long as there were good snow conditions. Dave hopes to continue this signage every winter.

A loppet is usually for cross-country skiers, but Caledon Hills this year expanded it to include snowshoers. 33 participants arrived at 9:30 a.m. for either a 5 or 10 km outing. 13 participated in the afternoon ski, which Dave Moule won for the second consecutive year with a time of 1 hour 25 minutes. Carol Sheppard should be congratulated; she alone completed both the snowshoe and the ski!

As always with a Caledon Hills event, a number of other volunteers deserve our thanks, especially for the lunch of chilis, salads, baked goods, hot cider, and cookies. The winter activities were enjoyable, but the lunch was the real highlight!

It appears now, however, that the loppet is becoming a fixture in the Caledon Hills winter social scene, and people are already talking about “next year.” In the fall, a date will be set, and we encourage you to mark your calendar for 2012.

By Carol Sheppard

On December 29 th 2010, Dorothy Medhurst passed away peacefully. Since the inception of the Bruce Trail almost 50 years ago, she has assisted our Caledon Hills club in many ways.

I first met Dorothy 8 years ago when I became our club's landowner relation director. At that time, she was in her late 80's, sharp as a tack and still very much full of zest for life. She was taking great joy in telling me about the hungry raccoons who waited on her doorstep each evening for handouts.

On Sunday October 23 rd , we will rename the current Brimstone Side Trail to the Dorothy Medhurst Side Trail. It will be a great honour for the Caledon Hills club to have this side trail dedicated to one of our strongest supporters and tireless volunteers.

Meeting at Willoughby Road and Escarpment Side Road in time to leave for 9:30 am, we will hike 2.7 km to the Brimstone Side Trail where we will hold our renaming celebration. You can either return to your car along the same path for a hike of 5.4 km or you can continue along for an 11.6 km loop hike through the Forks of the Credit Park. See hike listing for details.

Please join us to recognize Dorothy's great contribution to our club and to celebrate a long life well lived.

The new Bruce Trail/Jeju Olle Friendship Trail – Unveiling September 10 th , 2011

By Jackie Randle, BTC Director of Volunteer Programs

Olle is the Jeju word for a narrow pathway that is connected from the street to the front gate of a house. Olle is a path that comes out from a secret room to an open space and a gateway to the world. It has the same sound as "Would you come?" in Korean, so Jeju's Olle sounds the same as “Would you come to Jeju?”.

The Jeju Olle walking trail is located on the beautiful island of Jeju, South Korea. Jeju Island is located 130 kilometers south of the Korean Peninsula. It is a large volcanic island, almost sub-tropical in climate, with incredible scenery from the coastline through orange groves crisscrossed by distinctive stone walls and up to the peak of an inactive volcano. The Jeju Olle is the most popular walking trail in Korea providing over 200km of pathways, and plans are underway to extend the trail to encircle the entire island in the coming years.

The Bruce Trail Conservancy is creating a friendship trail with the Jeju Olle. On route 2 of the Jeju Olle you will find signs for the Bruce Trail, providing visitors to the Jeju Olle with a chance to learn more about our magnificent trail. This September representatives from the Jeju Olle Foundation will travel to Canada for the unveiling of our part of the friendship trail, which will be located in the beautiful Hockley Valley. A sign from the Jeju Olle trail will be installed at the trail head, and by walking the entire route of the Hockley Valley main trail and three side trails, you can complete the Bruce Trail/Jeju Olle Friendship Trail.

Please join us on September 10 th at 10am for the unveiling of the sign and the first hike on the new Friendship Trail. Lunch and entertainment will be provided. Dropouts are possible at 5km.

Recycling event a huge success by Joan Richard and Jean Kerins

On the only sunny Saturday in April, our club sponsored an electronic recycling event at the Caledon Fairgrounds on Hwy 10 in the Village of Caledon in honour of Earth Day. The event was conceived by the Bruce Trail Conservancy as a way of raising awareness of our club and of conservation in general. It was the BTC who located SIMS Recycling Solutions as an appropriate company to partner with to carry out responsible disposal.

No one could have imagined how successful the day would be. Everyone did their bit, and at least 140 volunteer hours were expended. But the happy result was $1800 raised for the BTC, and 20,000 tonnes of electronic waste safely diverted. I turn it over to Jean Kerins, who was the heart and soul of this enterprise, to thank everyone.

Thanks go to Scott Hurren and Jan Graves who came up with the idea - a truly great day for the environment and also a truly great event to help lower everyone's blood pressure.  Countless people vented some "electronic" frustration by hurling their e-waste as hard as they could into the bins.

And does everyone in Caledon own a pickup truck or SUV?  I've never seen so many- all full of e-waste.  The traffic was almost constant from 9am until 3pm and we weren't even supposed to be open for business until 10am.  When we arrived at 8am to start setting up there was already e-waste waiting on the grass to be loaded into the bins.  We were all absolutely stunned by the steady turnout.  And there were even several people who delivered a load then came back with more. It was truly amazing.

Some more thank you's -

To Lorri King who co-ordinated the event for Sims Recycling and ensured that we had flyers, signs, collection bins and refreshments - we couldn't have done it without you.  It was a pleasure working with you throughout the planning stages and at the event.  And on top of that you provided an extremely interesting tour of the Sims facility. 

To Jan Smith-Bull and Sara Peckford at the Town of Caledon who ran an offshoot e-waste collection also co-ordinated by Lorri King at Sims, all in support of the CHBTC in honour of Earth Day.

To Stanley Dacres, President of the Caledon Fairgrounds who is one of the most co-operative people I have ever met.  The Fairgrounds even promoted the event on their website too.  Stanley was always available to meet with us and answer any questions and he just generally pitched in to support the event in every way he could - even showing up at 7am to greet the dumpsters! 

To Karen who found the heaviest typewriters ever created.

To Jackie Randle and Beth Kummling at Rasberry House who cleared out some serious e-waste .

To Norm Randle who spent many hours delivering several loads in his pick-up truck both prior to and at the event.

To Dave Sarginson who co-ordinated his Probus club collection and Carol Sheppard who shook some e-waste loose from her company.

To Dave Peacock, Colleen Darrell, Joan Richard, Carol Sheppard, Marilyn Ross, Gord Ross, Alison Pollitt, Dennis Gallant, John Maxwell, Carol Maxwell and Norm Randle who hoisted how many tonnes? of e-waste and brought lots of their own e-waste too.

To Peter Leeney who arrived with his heavy-duty dolly plus more e-waste, even as he was recovering from becoming a new grandfather.

To Sally Cohen and kids who delivered the road signs and more e-waste.

To everyone involved who circulated flyers to their friends, neighbours and co-workers.

To Councillor Richard Paterak for blitzing the community with an email flyer.

To Gosta Isakson who made sure notices went in all the local papers.

To Gary Hall who took photos all day for the local magazines.

And to everyone who dusted off the scary pile in the corner of their basement and drove it over to the fairgrounds - Thank you!  It couldn't have happened without you!  

Several tonnes of e-waste have successfully been diverted from landfill and/or saved from being shipped overseas for unsafe destruction.  Every piece we collected will be 100% recycled through Sims Recycling Solutions.  What a great way to celebrate Earth Day and to promote environmental responsibility!