photos and commentary by Emily
Three of us scoffed at the heat and humidity on Thursday and went for a hike south of the city. It was predicted to be 38c, so why not head further south?!
We parked at the end of Esten Dr. North and headed across Scott Rd to the entrance to EL ATV 2 trail .We followed it way past some swampy areas and rocky cliffs . One cliff served as part of the trail we hiked! It was the second most challenging part of the journey. More about that later. We took the south bound trail after passing an unnamed lake . We stopped at a large boulder with a quartzite layer through it. It was on a wet land area south of Slipper Lake. We then headed north. It started out as a fairly well defined path through hemlock and pine trees. Until we crossed a bridge. Then our leader stepped off the beaten path to give a truly wilderness experience to our hikers.
We found a patch of muskeg and tall beaver grass. We got our boots muddy but we were lucky and got them cleaned off because we had to step in water on our way back to the beaten path near the hydro lift station at Mississauga \ Canmet snow dump!!! We headed back east to the EL ATV trail 2 which led us back to the unnamed lake. We used another small trail through hemlocks to a rocky ledge for our lunch. We saw a water snake swimming by as we unpacked our lunches. It swam away and dove deeper into the water. I guess we were not interesting enough for the water snake.
Along our trail we saw a few animal tracks. Some we identified as bear and others we were not too sure.
We continued back to the vehicle and ended our hike early. It was 6 km of bugs, sweat, sunscreen with loads of fun and stimulating conversation. An added treat was a patch of blueberries for dessert. PHOTOS
