MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2018

SPRING 2018 ML BLUE 47 While rock climbing all over North America for a year after college, my husband and I stretched our dollars so far that we were left eating out of a can, sometimes a dumpster. We’d reached the end of the road and had to move back in with our parents to get back on our feet, or in my case, back on the rocks. After scraping together change, we flew the nest again and this time in search of our own. Lion’s Head, on the Bruce Peninsula, was rumoured to be the best climbing destination in Ontario and seemed like an obvious place to start our search. We planned to go for a week, but on the drive up I stumbled across a job offer that led to an interesting twist of fate. The owners of a farm near Lion’s Head called me back about the job and soon we were unpacking into a trailer on their property where we would live in exchange for help around the farm. Lion’s Head moved me: turquoise waters waved below my feet as I danced across beautifully sculpted limestone, with not another climber in sight. I had to live near here. We soon discovered cliffs in the Beaver Valley and felt immediately at home in the town of Thornbury, on Georgian Bay, minutes from the Escarpment, and a day trip to Lion’s Head. I stalked the co-owner of Free Spirit Tours, Jennie Elmslie, begging her for a job as a guide, and my husband came out of “retirement” from serving tables to work at Thornbury restaurant The Mill. The community was incredibly welcoming and our jobs gave us the opportunity to meet people. Whenever locals found out that we were climbers, it was usually followed with the question, “Do you know Gary and Dee Posey?” Our friendship with them appeared to be written in the stars, as they were the only other climbers around. Ten years later, not only has our climbing community grown, but also the number of rock climbs, climbing businesses and the sport in general. With climbing making its Olympic debut in 2020, and new climbing gyms opening all over the GTA (plus Climbers Corner in Collingwood and Alt Rock in Barrie), the sport is flourishing. words :: Leslie Timms A community of local guides and organizations is now working closely with the MNR to create a sustainability plan for Metcalfe Rock … Leslie Timms on Roaming Gypsies , 5.10d, Lion’s Head. COLIN FIELD