It was a beautiful morning and we just had to be out in it.

We weren’t sure where precisely to go and then I remembered that a new-ish geocache had been published on my favourite sections of the East Coast Trail, the portion between Stiles Cove and Red Head. Since Stiles Cove is quite tucked away, it boded well to approach it in the morning, when the sun would fully illuminate it.Time being somewhat limited due to other obligations, it fit the bill as a beautiful, but relatively short, walk.

So off we went, GPS and camera packed up complete with spare batteries for both.

No first aid kit, though (that’s foreshadowing).

We parked at Satellite Road and took the access trail in. When we got to the ECT, we decided to take a left and head out to a lookout point from which you can look back at Stiles Cove for a better view.

We were awfully glad we did!

Katherine liked that this one had its own swimming pool (the birds are Black-Backed Gulls).

There was happiness and sparkling water and sunshine.

We even stopped to check on a geocache we’d found before (One Sweet World), owned by our friends Gilligan & MaryJane, and it was in fine shape. I rehid it and pushed out of the overgrowth.

Then I put a tree into my leg.

It was not good.

Someone had cut off a tree (possibly in winter) and left a stump that reached to just above my knee. I didn’t even see it, but turned and walked through some overgrowth and whammed into it. My immediate reaction was to clamp a hand over it hard and twist to sit/fall down. This resulted in pulling some other muscles in both legs. Once I could bring myself to pull my hand off, I spotted the hole in my thigh. Let’s just say that it was messy and inordinately painful and that I will henceforth be carrying a good first aid kit and a hiking stick on all future day hikes.

I managed to stabilize things enough to hobble 200 metres across the bridge and on to the other geocache, where I got to sit and take pictures. We probably should have packed it in right there, but it was an absolutely perfect day and I figured that a bit of a sit-down would make the walk out easier.

So we walked very slowly and got to the sitting place. There was a snack, which afforded good Rowan pictures (she always poses nicely during snack time).

There were sea caves and they were almost enough to make me forget about my leg.

Except for my leg, it was a perfect day. There was even ice cream, which I think *might* have taken some of the sting out of the disinfectant when I got home.

On the plus side, I didn’t have to try to fit a 16k run in during the afternoon…