Hike Your Butt up the Hill

Now that the cooler weather is here, I'm back to hiking my favourite trail - The Village Way Trail at Blue Mountain.  I love this hike because it starts off relatively easy and then once you get into the trees (yes...nice and cool in there) and you follow along the edge of the Ridge Runner the hike gets more challenging - except for the guy that ran - yes, literally ran past me going up hill yesterday.  There are about 3 bridges along the way that I use for my designated rest spots.  I give myself about 1 minute at each spot so my heart rate can calm down.  The folks at Blue have done a great job making sure the trail, wooden and stone steps are nice and secure and the dirt surface is hard packed and dry at this time of year.  Once you reach the clearing and pop out of the trees, you can enjoy a magnificent view of The Village and the Bay as you cross over one of the ski hills and then you're back into the trees zig zagging your way to the top.  The folliage is lush and the hike is fairly easy from this point on.  Take your choice of the free Gondola back down - a welcome reward or you can hike the same trail back down or pick the more challenging Cascade Trail at the South End or the Happy Valley Trail to the north.  Happy hiking your way to better fitting ski pants.  My ski pants are already happy that there will be less stress on the seams.