Hikes

Sunday, September 25 was the WTA Annual Membership Barbecue at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park. We were graced with summer-like weather—minus the mosquitoes!—and the beginning of leaves turning colour. As there were lots of geese and ducks still in evidence, it bodes well for continuing warm conditions.

The morning hike wound through lovely scenery: gently undulating hills and ponds (also called knob and kettle terrain) where  beavers have been busy.

The trails here are grass-covered and as wide as a road. This allows for easy walking, as well as conversation with acquaintances new and old.

The socializing continued over lunch at the fireside and picnic tables.  

After the  barbecue, a few members stayed on to read, do some sketching, or go for another walk. We took full advantage of being out in the wonderful, peaceful setting.

Thanks to Anita for all the preparation she did for lunch, to Scotty for fire-tending, and to Irene for leading the hike. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. You can see all the photos on Flickr.

A small but enthusiastic group of five people met at the Berg –Triple B Section A89a trail head on Sunday where they hiked 9.23 km led by Delaney Schlemko from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). The leaves on the trees and shrubs were starting to change to beautiful yellow, orange, and red colours. We could not have asked for better fall weather – the perfect hiking weather where there are no bugs, and it is not too hot or too cold! Throughout the hike, Delaney shared her biology knowledge and discussed how the NCC does their conservation work in the area.  

We hiked through the Ministik Game Bird Sanctuary up and down the “Beaver Hills” and around stunning wetlands. Partway along the trail on the side of a hill, there was an excellent view of a large wetland and the fall foliage. We also found signs of recent beaver activity along this section of the trail with recently cut trees.  

Eventually we made our way to the NCC’s Ball Berg conservation property where we ventured off the Waskahegan Trail to explore the trail system on the NCC’s property. We stopped for lunch along one of the larger wetlands on NCC’s Ball Berg property shaded by birch trees and enjoyed each other’s company. Afterwards, we looped back to the Waskahegan Trail along the shore of another wetland where there were several beaver runs created by the local beaver family. Before leaving the Ball Berg property, we checked out the Berg Stopover. 

On our hike back to the A89a trail head, we were spooked by a large flock of ducks taking off a wetland in the Ministik Bird Sanctuary. It was difficult to tell what species they were because they no longer had their colourful breeding plumage (feathers). However, they must have stopped in for a break as they continued their migration south. 

Stella captured great photos of our hike and they can be found here: Flickr. Lastly, a big thank you goes to Trail Maintenance for maintaining this trail back in May – we were able to get in two hikes this year on this section of the Waskahegan Trail!