My day trip to Blue Mountain was the last trip I made before I moved to Dublin in September. Rather than go alone, I opened up the outing to the Couchsurfing community. It got a lot of interest, but I ended up taking a friend and one Couchsurfer. There were others interested, but one didn't show up the day of even though I was waiting at the subway station for them (absolute waste of my time). Getting out of Toronto was slow, as expected, but we made it to Blue Mountain around noon.
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It all started with a drive up Blue Mountain to Scenic Caves Nature Adventures, which offers cave exploring, double zip-lining, hikes, a suspension bridge, and more. There is a fee ($22.57 for adults) to go in and take advantage of the activities, but I lucked out as my work status got me and a friend in for free. I was expecting more to be honest but if you have young children, they would get a thrill out of it. We started with cave hiking, which it didn't really feel like. Most caves you can't go into as they are blocked off, but there was one larger cave that you could walk into! It was slippery and required careful maneuvering, but definitely not accessible for everyone. This cave offered opportunities for some great photos (see above). We then climbed back up and then went on to activity number 2: zip-lining! This was my first time, and I was a bit nervous, but once it got going, I was fine. I was actually expecting more of a thrill, but it wasn't high enough for me. It was nice to see the views though, and again, this is something young children would enjoy more than adults. At the end of the zip-line is a short path to the suspension bridge where you get great views of the surrounding area. The best time to go would be in the fall when all the leaves are changing colours.
View from the suspension bridge
We then hiked back to the car park and made our way into Blue Mountain village, walking around and exploring shops. Because the forecast called for severe thunderstorms, we decided on doing a short trail. We drove to the top of the mountain (yes this is possible, and no we weren't lazy but just wanted to make sure we did a trail before it poured) to the head of Memory Lane trail. This trail took us to a little grove about a quarter way down the mountain. At this point, it started raining hard and we heard thunder. Not wanting to be caught in the middle of it (and be hit by lightning) we ran back to the car completely soaked. We decided to head back to Toronto since there wasn't much we could do then, so this marked the end of our trip. Although the activities weren't as exciting, the company I had made it all the worthwhile and I probably lost a couple pounds from laughing way too much.
Plus, the adventures did not end there. Heading back on the highway, we quickly realized that my air conditioning wasn't working so the whole car fogged up because of the rain. One person was in the back of the car wiping the windows every couple minutes, and my friend in the passenger seat was wiping the front window...all the while I was driving. Talk about dangerous! Lowering the windows helped, and although it was dangerous, I found the whole ordeal quite amusing. Can't get more ghetto than having to wipe your car window because of a broken AC haha. Never an adventure without something going wrong.
Blue Mountain is open year round and there are plenty of activities aside from hiking and cave exploring, but unfortunately we didn't get the time or right weather to do more. Next time, I'll have to do some canoeing and maybe try my hand at skiing for the first time.