Hikes

Seventeen hikers met at the McTaggart Sanctuary parking lot for a hike through the Whitemud Creek Nature Reserve. This beginning of this trail is more wild and adventurous than most of the trails in the city as much of it is narrow paths on slopes. It reminded us of some of the Waskahegan trail sections along Coal Lake or Battle River West—only less maintained.

We sneaked past some wasp nests and kept our eyes to the ground for sections that had eroded away. When we lifted our eyes we were treated to stunning views of the valley with the creek down below.

Once we reached the outskirts of the neighborhoods, the trail widened and leveled out, resembling the Whitemud Creek trail that runs north of Snow Valley.

When we reached the Snow Valley Ski Chalet, we stopped for a pleasant lunch at the picnic tables and benches in shade.

On this hike we saw high-bush cranberries and chokecherries starting to ripen, and some summer flowers in full bloom.

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Thanks to Johanna for scouting and leading this hike. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Fifteen people came out to hike the Miquelon Lake area going northward. We started at the visitor centre parking lot and walked through the group sites until we reached the open trail in full view of the lake.

Earlier in the week, Trail Maintenance had cleared a wide path, which made it very easy to walk.

As we alternated between the meadows and the woods, we saw numerous mid-summer beauties: soapberries (Sheperdia), the ghostly white Indian-pipe (Monotropa), wild strawberries still in fruit, many-flowered asters and purple asters, fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia), vetches, fragrant white sweet-clover, Western dock, grass-of-parnassus (Parnassia), Canada thistle, gooseberries, goldenrod, and sow thistle.

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We continued on the path until we reached the next woods, where we had lunch in the cool shade. Total distance hiked was 9-3/4 km.

Thanks to John for scouting and leading the hike. You can find more photos on Flickr.