I was fortunate to grow up with the Canadian rockies in my back yard. However, when I moved east to Ontario I wasn't sure what would be waiting for me. There were the big ticket items that everyone knows about like Niagara Falls, but outside of that I really had no idea. Luckily when I got here I was able to find so many treasures, my favorite being the Bruce Trail. I had been hearing about it for the last couple of years, but didn't get out to hike some of it until recently.
The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest continuous footpath in Canada. It runs along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara to Tobermory, spanning more than 850 km of main trail and 250 km of side trails (It runs through everything from city streets to people's back yards). Every year, 400,000 visits are made to the Trail as people walk, cross country-ski, snowshoe, watch wildlife, take photographs and admire the glorious scenery of the Escarpment. By providing an opportunity to explore the Escarpment, the Trail has helped increase awareness of the uniqueness and rich diversity of this landform. The Bruce Trail was instrumental in the Escarpment being named a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1990 - one of only twelve such reserves in all of Canada. Today 47% of the Bruce Trail is secure and safe from development. However, 53% of the Bruce Trail corridor is vulnerable. The Bruce Trail Association is committed to securing the Trail in its entirety.
Here are some websites to check out if you would like to learn more and see where the trail leads you:
- Homepage: http://www.brucetrail.org/index.asp?id={E66FB2D0-2550-4D3D-8EF0-287002BFAA5F}# (this is where I got my information above from!!)
- Map: http://www.brucetrail.org/explorethetrail.asp?id=%7B459E67E1-7954-433E-B457-71C6BBDD2A5D%7D
A few weekends ago I managed to get out onto the trail and it was unreal!! I did a 25km hike with two friends, Melanie and Victor. We took our time and enjoyed a lot of the scenery and it took us just over 6 hours. I've included some pictures below to give you an idea.
Just under half way through we got to talking about all the hikes we'd like to do and things we'd like to see in our lives. Things like hiking the entire Bruce Trail from start to finish in one go, the West Coast Trail in Western Canada and even the Trans Canada Trail by bike when completed and those were just the ones here at home. The global list was endless. At the end of our discussion Victor said something to me that stuck. He said "I hope when we meet 10 years down the road we'll be talking about all our adventures instead of talking about how we still hoped to do the things on that list".
It's amazing what you can find close to home. I firmly believe that every place on this planet has it's treasures so tell me, what's in your back yard?
No comments:
Post a Comment