bruce trail
Slough of Despond
Lindenwood loop
Feels like the first warm day in years. We took the girls on a relaxed, hill-free, hour long hike complete with cookies and fruit (not shown).
Weekend visitors
Above Colpoy’s Bay
Last weekend’s hike from the Sydenham trails book created some mud monsters who later got dipped into a frigid Colpoy’s Bay. Also, I rolled my ankle.
Crevice Springs Loop
For yesterday’s hike, we did a short hour-long loop near Woodford. The springs weren’t very springy because it hasn’t rained in awhile, but it was pretty and serene. The highlights of this walk were:
- the little caves where villagers once hid moonshine during prohibition
- finding porcupine parts (quills and possibly a skull)
- watching Abbey leap off a boulder onto a fallen log– miss– bounce off her chest, and keep going like she didn’t notice
Ross McLean Loop
Despite grey skies Saturday morning, we decided to do another day hike from our new guidebook. Eric picked the Ross McLean Loop, which was added to the Bruce Trail in 2007.
We had to park in front of someone’s farm and pick up the trail from a path around their barn. From the field, the trail then gets into woods, then goes through a small section of mossy rocks and crevices, then back to woods, then to a creek with an underground waterfall, then past a lake which becomes marshy before the trail veers back into woodland. The hike took about an hour and a half and, thanks to all the rain the last few days, we all looked like mud monsters at the end of it. By the time we were done, the sun had come out.
Sydenham Forest East Loop
We recently bought a copy of Looping Through Sydenham, a collection of 25 local day hikes. Yesterday we did #9, a ferny mossy loop through trilliums and crevices. We got rained on, but it wasn’t overly cold. Coffee and cookies back at the car made it all better :)
Lion’s Head
Sunday we drove to Red Bay to check out the nursery at Earthbound Gardens where I bought a cute little Dwarf Balsam Fir. Then we saw a bear sneaking out between the cottages. We kept driving. Eric sized up a few boat launches (Bass Season Countdown has begun). The girls heckled seagulls as we snacked at a roadside chip wagon. I bought ceramic tea paraphernelia at a community art gallery. Eventually, we made our way to a side trail at Lion’s Head Provincial Nature Reserve and had a gorgeous hike through lilacs, pine, hemlock, and cedar.
Arboretum and Bruce Side Trail
On an afternoon hike at the Arboretum we stumbled upon the side trail to Inglis Falls. Didn’t go all the way to the falls, but the icy river was gorgeous!
