Ontario

I love Ontario for its beautiful colouring in the fall. I enjoyed my hiking in the northern areas of Ontario (well from Toronto's perspective). I really enjoyed my hikes in Algonquin Nat'l Park. I went on a Thanksgiving lang weekend which might have been a mistake from a certain perspective. The weekend was a beautiful weekend! It was sunny, all the trees were out in its fall colours! What I like about Ontario is the variety of colours of leaves on the trees. From the colours we get out here in BC - the yellows and browns - plus the reds and shades thereof. It was beautiful! I arrive there on Friday night, get my hotel room and then early the next morning woke up, had the usual McDonalds Pancakes and Sausage breakfast, and set out into the park. It was a great day for a hike or two or three. The fog was lifting out of the lakes and hovering just over the trees. I arrive at my hike - a posted 6 hour hike and I was only the second car in the parking lot. That was great as I didn't want to be hiking in a large line-up of people.

I hiked this hike and the scenery was great! I saw some otters, many birds, and other similar animals. On this hike, I met several people and had great conversations. But on the whole, most people just nodded their head hi, or a quick smile. When I got back to the parking lot 3.5 hours later (on a 6 hour posted hike), wow! All the cars, it was packed full with cars and it was all lined up the road. I drove away and got out onto the highway to a zoo of cars, busses, people, everyone was out here it seemed! All hike’ parking lots were jammed pack with people and there were many accidents. So the rest of the hiking was amongst rush hour foot traffic. Guess that was what I got for going up on the last long weekend of the season. So I did three hikes that day. Sunday I went to church and then out again in the afternoon to do some more hiking. But with all the people, I sat on a beach, read and then did a couple of smaller hikes. Monday I drove home and that ended a wonderful weekend in the Algonquin.

Now, hiking for me in the other areas a little closer to Toronto was not as scenic. It was great getting out but the people there were more to themselves and weren’t as friendly. The trails were more like old railbeds or roads and in my way of thinking were more for bikers and ATV-ers and in the winter months, snowmobilers. But that is just one persons opinion.

The one thing I missed from my hikes in Ontario were the mountains, but I guess with the mountains, one loses the reds in the trees. Never hiked in Quebec though, so I am not sure of what its like there. So that is my experiences of hiking in Ontario! The colours in Ontario in the fall time is quite 'heavenly'..:)