Hiking the Maitland Camino

The Maitland Camino is a 52km hike along the Maitland River in Huron County, Ontario. This 2 day event runs each September for your hiking goals.

I was scrolling the interweb when I came across a post from the Maitland Trail Association advertising registrations for the 2022 Maitland Camino. I had heard of this hiking challenge before and wondered if someday it would be a challenge I would take on myself. Now, since starting this blog and our travel business, after the years of C*vid, I thought isn't our whole premise on just do it? Just get out there and see the world? Have adventures? So it took me all of 2 minutes to text Jeff and say I am doing this, want to join me? Thankfully he said yes.

So we registered. A few clicks of the keyboard, our payment was made and shuttle time slot secured. This was in early summer. Now if you have been around for a while you know that we love to hike. We regularly hit up our local trails and have challenged ourselves to section hike the entire G2G Trail. So, although we would not call ourselves hiking experts, we are not newbies. What we did not take into consideration was that most of our hikes for the last 3 years have been with a baby/toddler and a dog. They have been in and out trails, where we are gone for 2 hours tops. Fast forward a few months and September is here. I am getting excited for the Camino, Jeff is concerned that we have not trained for it.

I will admit he was right. This is not a leisurely stroll in the woods.

a) Day 1 is 32.5km, Day 2 is 20km.

b) The Maitland is up and down hills and switchback turns. It is not what would be considered an easy trail.

c) This event runs rain or shine.

With this being said Day 1 was tough, but so worth it!

Start of the Camino

Day 1

Our alarms went off at 5am to begin our day of hiking. We prepped our bag with snacks, water and layers and we were off. We got checked in at the Bennmiller Community Hall and seated on the shuttle by 6:45am. Our first check point was at the shuttle drop off. They stamp the map provided to you as a keepsake, but also to ensure you checked in for safety purposes. By 7am we were on the trail. The start was my favourite part of the trail. It may have been the sun rising over the river, or the fact that we weren't exhausted yet. Either way the trail ran directly along the water and had a great mix of hiking in the woods, with views of the water.

Along the trail, in various spots there are detours, this actually added .5km to our hike. We were around the 10km mark and making excellent time. This was during part of the detour. We exclaimed, "We got this, we're a third of the way done already!" We pushed on, stopping to take sips of water, and the occasional photo. The trail and weather were beautiful. A perfect mix of sun and cloud and perfect hiking temperature.

At around the 20km check in I was nearing the end of my hiking capacity. Knowing we still had another 12km to go, I grabbed a snack and slowed down my pace. I knew I would finish, there was never a doubt. But I also learned that 20km is my enjoyable hike limit. We headed into the final 12km trying to remain positive...Okay mostly me...Jeff was a Rockstar through the whole thing and never complained, I cannot say the same 🤷‍♀️

The final 12km was a lot of hills and switchbacks. While this was extremely challenging for my aching back and quads, it was absolutely beautiful. Throughout the entire hike it felt like the Geese were traveling along with us. They would fly in and out of the water while we walked alongside them. We found hidden hideaways and gathering spots, interesting mushrooms and plant life. Walked through sun, clouds and misty rains. We sweat, we laughed, and I know I felt like I was connecting to the nature around me.

Side Note: not all parts of this trail are worth visiting. This may be an unpopular opinion but it is true. There was way to much walking on the road. Both gravel side roads and HWY hiking. In my opinion you can skip these sections. I understand why it is necessary to have some roadways. The Maitland Trail follows the Maitland River, like directly along the river. Roads go over the water sometimes, and sometimes to follow the river you would have to hike on private property so to remain on track you have to kindly and mindfully move to the roadway. I mention the road walking because it happened often enough to make it worth mentioning. I didn't track the distance we were on roads, but I would guess in total we spent more than a couple of hours of our whole hike walking on roadways.

The first of many roadways

Logistics

You do have to register to officially participate in this hike. You get a pin with your ID number, a map to check in and if you complete the full 2 day event, or specific portions, you get a badge.

When you register and make your payment you will also have to pick a shuttle time as there is not a lot of parking at the trail head and you do not want to have to hike all the way back to the start to get your car.

Maitland Trail Artwork

There are multiple check points along the trail to check in for safety and souvenir reasons, fill your water, and grab a light snack. Each booth had something different and was serviced by volunteers. Some examples of the snacks are; cookies, bananas, oranges and nuts. There is not enough food to sustain you so you will want to bring your own lunch.

Bathrooms. I feel like this is something everyone wants to know, but no one wants to ask. So I will tell you. Get comfortable squatting. It is true. Have to do a #1? Find a tree and let it go. Have to do a #2? Find a tree, dig a little hole, do your business, then cover it up. May I also add if you are leaving the trail to do your business please be mindful of the environment, respect matters. Of course you also have the option of using one of the 3 very well maintained outhouses along this section of the trail. But you do you.

Clothing. Wear layers. Jeff and I both started out with our fall jackets but after the first 10km we were in just our sweaters. By the end of the day we were down to a long sleeve for me and t shirt for Jeff. I wore leggings and hiking boots. Jeff wore jeans and running shoes.

Gear. I carried a 13L Osprey Pack with a 3L water bladder. I also had a Nalgene Water bottle, snacks and sunglasses. I wore my Keen mid rise hiking boots with light wool socks. I did have a slight blister at the end of the day but it never bothered me. I also brought my crocs to change into at the end of the day to give my feet a break for the drive home.

To wrap up day 1: We checked back in to the Bennmiller Community Hall by 3:30pm. By 4pm we were sitting at the Albion ordering food and a beer.

Day 2

We did not make it back. There are many reasons for this. Most importantly being that Audrey came down with a high fever overnight and was clearly very sick. We also were depleted. I welcomed the excuse to not have to go back for the final 20km. This is not like me at all. My stubbornness does not allow me to give up easily. However, my body, and maybe Audrey's too, knew we had nothing to prove to push ourselves another 20km.

Now that we know what to expect we will be better prepared for next time. We will train more, eat better for a long haul hike and take more breaks. We will not push ourselves as quickly or limit food and water intake. The Maitland Camino runs every Fall after-all. We will be back, get the badge, hang out with the geese and explore more of our beautiful back yard.

We thank all of the Maitland Trail Associations volunteers for putting on such a wonderful and challenging event. Everything ran so smoothly and allowed the perfect mix of planned activity and wild nature. We were left alone to do our own hike, while hiking with others. It was wonderful to see so many people out completing the Camino from, seasoned experienced hikers, mothers with daughters, single men and women, friends, people who were very fit and people like us. We learned about ourselves, challenged ourselves as a couple and explored an area of our County that we never would have known existed.

The end of the Camino Day 1

Let us know in the comments if you have completed a hiking challenge before. We are always up for a new adventure!