Sun.
17 January: The Marlborough Forest
The forest can be a mysterious place, as we know. But this forest seemed to be able to play
tricks with time.
Thirteen hikers assembled at the Roger Stevens Drive
parking lot, in the centre of the Marlborough Forest, ready to explore the
trails to the south of the road. Snowshoes
were probably the ideal choice today, although good icers also worked for some
of us, especially along the road sections.
Marlborough Forest makes an ideal winter playground,
but it can be a different proposition after the snow melts. Part of our route today was along narrow
woodland trails which would be soggy and unpleasant in a different season. At one time the Rideau Trail followed this
route, running to the east of Rogers Pond, but we could see why they moved the
trail across to the west of the lake. We
had some fun looking for old forgotten orange triangles on the trees, which we
removed.
You might think that thirteen people walking in a
single file through the trees would not have much chance to strike up
conversations. This was not so! In fact, the mysterious thing about this
place was that we were enjoying the company so much that we seemed to defy
time, arriving back at the cars just as our toes had started to warm up.
Perhaps it was not surprising that we saw no wildlife,
except for a few squirrels. The
footprints in the snow showed that there is a large resident wildlife population
here – which today had plenty of warning that a group of enthusiastic hikers
was in the forest!
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| Entering Marlborough Forest |
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| "Chinook" skies over Rogers Pond |
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| Winter shadows in the forest |
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| A narrow trail doesn't stop conversation! |
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