Happy Trails

I just discovered an awesome place to take a walk, not too far from my house. How did I not know about this place before? It's almost 4 km of trails in the woods about a 15 minute walk away!

I saw an article in the news about Scouts doing some tree planting in Laurier Woods, and it was talking about this event "in the middle of the city," which really piqued my interest. So I looked it up, and discovered this great secret place! We decided to take the whole family for a hike right away, so after an early dinner on Monday we went for a little drive. (I wanted to be sure we'd have time to walk the trails with the girls before bed, otherwise we could have walked over.)

Trying to find it was interesting. The entrance and parking area (I wouldn't call it a lot) were down a little industrial road, squeezed between the railway tracks and some large commercial buildings. I've passed this road, which resembles a driveway to a business, hundreds of times, and never suspected that there might be hiking trails at the other end.

The girls really loved running along the boardwalks, but we had to put a stop to the running once we reached the marsh. With no handrails between us and the water, I was a little bit nervous. Especially since Dhara kept forgetting to watch where her feet were going; she fell down a lot. The lower end of the trails were a little bit squishy and muddy -- we had a fun adventure dodging muddy puddles. I totally expected Dhara and Elora to do a face plant in the mud, but luckily we made it through, with only our shoes getting muddy.

We saw red-winged blackbirds, ducks, a couple of snakes, plus signs of beaver. There was a beaver dam, that was leaking fairly badly, and old trees that had been gnawed, but I didn't see a lodge. I think if there had been an actual beaver currently living there, he or she would have fixed the dam.

We finished the easiest loop of trails in about an hour, just as the sun was beginning to set. I so want to go back and do the longer trails soon!