Shortly after my sisters’ birthday, we took a road trip up to Killarney to take on The Crack. Mom, Amanda, and I loaded up my car after a rendezvous in Parry Sound, and hit the road for Killarney. From some previous reports we heard that it was a challenging hike, but our grizzled guide reassured us that we all would be capable of finishing the hike with ease. After about an hour and a half hiking in cool/foggy conditions we had reached the base of The Crack, and started our incline to the summit. This was not a path for the weak spirited; in fact, there was no path at all. There was no “path of least resistance”, it was simply rocks to climb up and over to the next waypoint marker; more of a “choose your own adventure”, which I’m a fan of.
Once we all made it to the summit, we took some time to enjoy the view, “celebrated”, took pictures, had a snack, repacked, and started our decline back down the “trail”. The hike up was challenging because of the uncertainty of where we were going, but the hike down was challenging because of the certainty of the difficulty we experienced on the way up. Plus, when gravity is factored in, walking down a rock faced “mountain” is always a challenge. We all made it back to the car, finding the last kilometre to be the longest…which makes no sense given that spatially it was the same distance, and temporally we were walking faster than any other part of the hike.
It was then off to the village of Killarney for some fish and chips, a shower, and some libations at the hotel bar, with an Englishman folk singer playing his best Gordon Lightfoot and Lady Gaga renditions.
