When you play Minor Sports of any description, you often spend a bit of time traveling from here to there as part of the experience.
The experience is often heightened by incidents or conversations that take place during transportation.
Such was the case in August of 1975 when the Midland Indusmin Bantams came to Port Elgin for Game 1 of the Ontario Baseball Quarterfinals.
As we rolled from Simcoe County into Grey, we got talking about Blue Mountain and Craigleith Ski Hill and a debate broke out as to how fast you could climb the mountain on foot.
John Faragher, a good batter and a versatile fielder, felt the time would be about 20 minutes from bottom to top.
” No WAAAAY “, I responded and for most of the last 40 years whenever I’ve been along Highway 26, which is a lot, I’ve remembered that conversation……and wondered.
So, finding myself at Blue Mountain on Thanksgiving Sunday morning, I set out to conquer ” Tranquility “.
My elapsed time was 28 minutes. But keep in mind I’m 53, not 14.
Furthermore, when you erase the 20 stoppages on the hill to catch my breath and admire the view, I came to the realization that in August of 1975, John Faragher, now an esteemed educator at Midland Secondary, was accurate in his 20 minute hill-climb assessment.
I can also verify for one and all, it takes a lot less time to get down Blue Mountain than to climb it.
I’m Fred Wallace