[2023 – Ontario, Canada –130 km – 3 days – St. Marys to Conestogo]
According to the website, the Avon Trail was the brainchild of Dr. Crosby Kirkpatrick and several volunteers.
One likely isn’t going to find a better group of trail volunteers anywhere.
The Avon Trail is brilliantly marked, has an excellent trail app, and seems to be well worn.
The website lists the trail as 130 kilometres, but it feels much shorter, likely because it’s mostly flat and it’s easy to get a decent walking speed for long periods of time.
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Despite that the trail is well maintained, I don’t see a single other hiker carrying a backpack.
There are a few day hikers, but they are found almost entirely around St. Marys, a lovely little tourist mecca with a rich history, excellent restaurants, and a quarry for public swimming.
The Thames River flows through St. Marys and I see people on kayaks and canoes.
I am delighted at the start of the walk in St. Marys, and I think that if the rest of the trail is as exciting as it is in St. Marys, this will truly be an outstanding adventure.
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Alas, the best of the trail runs through St. Marys.
The rest of it can’t even compare.
I can see that the trail organizers and volunteers have worked hard to encourage locals to embrace the joy of hiking, but the truth is that the trail simply isn’t very interesting.
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There is a tremendous amount of road walking on the Avon Trail, a necessity for a continuous route that seems to simply connect a series of narrow forest slivers that separate creeks and rivers from farmland.
And most through-hikers abhor road walking, which is why I suspect I don’t see anyone else on the trail outside of St. Marys.
I suppose instead of the trail, I could blame the lack of other hikers on the clouds of mosquitos that always seem to put a damper on a good walk.
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I admire the tenacity of the trail organizers and volunteers, and am grateful to the farmers who allow the trail to run through their property.
They have done the best they can with the materials at hand in a part of the country dominated by agriculture and automobiles.
I finish the trail near a golf course on the Grand River in Conestogo, take a break in a mosquito-free breeze and wonder how I’ll get back to my van in St. Marys.
