The Passionate Hiker: A Shoe-In

Saturday, January 9, 2016

A Shoe-In

Sat. 9 January: Early Winter Season Hikes

Hardy hikers enjoying a rainy picnic

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

A snow-shoe trip in the rain sounds just a little crazy.

But as you can see from the picture, this small group of hikers looks sane enough. It might not suit everyone to sit at an ice-covered picnic table in the rain, eating a soggy sandwich, and that, perhaps, is why only five of us ventured out today.

We were rewarded with an enchanting route through Murphy’s Point Provincial Park, sometimes on familiar paths but also off-trail, making a perfect loop of 6.4 kilometres around the park. Two of us had pre-hiked the route the previous day to map out the best path.

Our lunch stop was at the semi-frozen boat dock, whose setting was simply magical today. The bay was starting to freeze over, but through the trees we could see the rippling waters of Big Rideau Lake.

A large bird silently flew across the treetops – perhaps an eagle or an owl. It had disappeared into the grey, rainy skies before we could get a good look. Later we saw some deer. They had been busy foraging for acorns beneath the snow, unearthing piles of leaves now littering the surface of the snow. There were several squirrels racing about, oblivious to the weather. Yet there were no other people, apart from a lone skier seen in the distance. The forecast, and the conditions, had kept the skiing crowds away. Sadly, the heavier rain, forecast for tomorrow, will do enormous damage to the nicely groomed trails.

Our 2016 hiking season started with a flourish the previous weekend when sixteen enthusiastic hikers enjoyed a snow-shoe trip around Millpond Conservation Area – our so-called “New Year’s Resolution” hike, always a popular first outing of the year. Now the challenge is to keep up the momentum.