August 4, 2011: Tallow Rock Loop and Lime Kiln Loop
"We did the Tallow Rock Loop last Saturday, and while the description in your book is pretty accurate, there are a few things I’d like to share with you:
"We did the Tallow Rock Loop last Saturday, and while the description in your book is pretty accurate, there are a few things I’d like to share with you:
You list the trails to the Coves campsites as “shortly after the 5 km marker” while, in fact, they are shortly *before* the 5 km marker. Also, doing the side trip (2km) to the Coves, there is a lookout (Bach’s Lookout) shortly after the split between Captin’s Cove and the other (whose name I cannot recall now) cove, resulting in the most spectacular lookouts of the entire loop. I was surprised that you hadn’t mentioned the Bach’s Lookout at all (it isn’t on any map either). The trail to the lookout is 1 km exactly (from the Tallow Loop split) and has fairly steep sections going up and down, going mostly through hardwoods, but nothing worse than the Tallow Loop trail).
You may also mention, for those early risers, that the parking lot in Charleston Lake only opens at 8:15 in the morning during the summer (no self-serve parking fees until after labourday). We arrived at 7:15 hoping to complete the loop before it got too hot, but alas, had to wait for the gate to open to buy a parking pass for $14.
Following that loop, on the Monday we did the Lime Kiln Loop. While, again, your descriptions are excellent, there are a few items that need clarification: when arriving at the Lime Kiln, you simply state “follow the most obvious path” (paraphrasing). It would help if you’d said “to your left” or “heading East” or even “down the hill”, because the “most obvious path” is an old road to the quarry and it runs to both east and west (both left and right). Luckily for us, we’d been there before, and knew which way was Moodie drive was, but visitors may not be so lucky.
And a final thing: when arriving at the parking lot P11 after completing half of the trail #26 portion, you say “re-enter the forest to your right” while it is actually to your *left*."
Thanks to Erwin Gerrits for these comments.
