A Small Unknown Treasure

It’s been almost a month since I’ve updated this space.

It’s not that I have given up on exploring the trails of this great country.  It’s just that when the warm weather arrives, there are just so many other competing priorities.

In the past 5 weeks, Helen and I have managed to squeeze in only one day together, and in spite of the forecast for rain, we headed out to explore the Rockwood Conservation Area located about an hour’s drive west of Toronto near the city of Guelph.

I’m discovering that there are dozens and dozens of Conservation Areas scattered around the province.  Some of them are large, while others – like Rockwood – are quite small.

We chose this particular location because of an article I had read about the cliffs, caves, and geological potholes which Rockwood was reported to have.

We arrived early on a Monday morning under gray and threatening skies.  The trail, which rings the small lake, is less than 4 km long, but we stopped so often to admire the magnificent scenery, it took us almost 2 hours to complete.

I would imagine this is a popular and busy location in the summer months, however we had the trail virtually to ourselves, passing only the occasional dog-walker and optimistic fisherman.

I had hoped to convince Helen to rent a canoe with me to paddle the lake and explore the cliffs from water level.  Unfortunately it started to rain heavily as we were finishing the trail and we quickly lost our enthusiasm.

The rain however didn’t slow down these young high school students who were on the lake practising canoeing skills.  We never did cool stuff like this when I was in high school!

Helen is now away for the next 4 weeks, so I will be venturing out alone next week to spend 4 days cycling the TransCanada Trail in Quebec.  I hope you’ll stay tuned!