The Passionate Hiker: Skywalkers

Sat. 4 April: Skywalkers: Calabogie Peaks

Calabogie Lake through the trees

It doesn’t get more spectacular than this in Eastern Ontario.

From the 1,285 ft. summit of the Calabogie Peaks, or Dicksons Mountain as it is also called, you can see right across the Ottawa Valley to the Quebec hills, at least 50 km as the crow flies.

Calabogie Peaks is a small ski resort, about 69 km north of Perth. There are two ski lifts up the mountain, which has a vertical drop of 780 ft. The longest run is 2.1 km – not bad at all.

There are also some wonderful hiking trails here, and we were to explore some of the most spectacular of them today. We knew it was going to be icy up there, and had our icers on our boots, which turned out to be a very wise move.

A number of modern resort buildings line the foot of the hill. The lower slopes were dotted with skiers on what looked like a short slalom course, and we could see a few skiers higher up the mountainside. For an Easter weekend, it was not busy.

Our first trail, the Skywalk Trail, immediately headed up the steep wooded slopes. I might have been back in the Rockies! Without too much effort, we came up to a ski run, which took us to the summit. Here the modern quad chairlift was offloading occasional skiers, and a lone ski patroller was testing the snow. What a view! We stopped at some handy picnic tables with panoramic views of Calabogie Lake below us, and on the horizon the hills of Quebec.

From here we contoured around the summit before dropping steeply down to the Manitou Mountain Trail and Indian Pass. Here on the steep icy woodland trail our icers got their first real downhill workout of the day.

To our left, through the trees, we saw a high cliff with a huge icefall. This proved to be a perfect opportunity for our photographers, although I was a little worried that the whole slab of ice might fall off the cliff at any moment. A little further along the trail was a tiny waterfall with ribbons of ice on the tree branches. This was truly an idyllic trail.

Along the trails we noticed raccoon tracks, and in the trees we spotted nuthatches and a hairy woodpecker. A single vulture soared above the trees.

Our lunch stop was at Juniper Ridge Lookout, high above Calabogie Lake, with the Lanark Highlands stretching off to the horizon. Passing through the Lost Valley, we plunged down a dangerously steep hillside, clinging to the trees for some added comfort. There was all-round relief when we reached the bottom with all limbs intact. Bearclaw trail took us back to our cars. Markings on the beech trees showed us that this was not just a handy name for a trail!

To round off a spectacular day, we found a cosy restaurant near to the lake for a welcome snack. We had picked a perfect day for our mountain adventures. It was hard to leave this magical corner of the world behind, but we were already planning further explorations in the area, on the lookout for new hiking trails.

Note: single-click on the first picture above to scroll through the photos separately

Statistics:

Total Distance: 6.0 (hike)

Height Gain: About 700 ft.

Time on Trail: 3 hrs. 25 mins.

Start: 10.23 am

Skywalk Lookout: 10.59 am

Ice Cliff: 11.52 am

Juniper Ridge: 12.39 pm

Ret. to cars: 1.48 pm

Temp: Minus 5 C rising to Zero C

Weather: Cloudless, clear, cool N. wind