Where to meet:  Varna Bluewater Municipal complex located 1 km west of Varna When:  Saturday January 12, 10:45am for an 11am start The Winter Walk provides occasion to breathe fresh air, explore a local trail,Continue reading

The featured trail this week is the Front Road Trail. The trail is on the West side of Front Road between the Bayield river and the Railroad tracks. (Front Road is the 1st South offContinue reading

The featured trail this week is Point Farms Provincial Park (#6 in the Hiking Guide). The hike on Sunday afternoon on November 4th was well attended by 19 hikers and three dogs who enjoyed aContinue reading

The featured trail this week is Naftel’s Creek Conservation Area maintained by Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (#12 in the Huron County Hiking Guide). This is one of the trail gems of Huron County. It hasContinue reading

On my evening walk on the Woodlands Arboretum trail, where the trail skirts one of the greens there were about 100 Shaggy Mane mushrooms at the edge of the green. The monarch butterflies have allContinue reading

On Saturday I hiked down the Black Hole road hill to River Bend. The pond is usually empty of birds but that day there were over 100 Canada geese on the pond. Along the roadContinue reading

I went back into Morris Tract on Friday afternoon and was grateful to find my lost pruners lying on the trail. As I hiked on the trail a black squirrel ran across the trail andContinue reading

The Maitland El Camino was again a success with 277 participants who enjoyed great weather and near perfect trail conditions on Saturday. On Sunday the day started with quite heavy rain, but later on thereContinue reading

Two weeks ago I mentioned invasive plants, the longer list of 88 species also includes following that I have regularly seen in our area: coltsfoot, black locust, box elder (Manitoba maple), hawthorn, periwinkle, St Johnswort,Continue reading

January New Year’s Day Hike Tuesday Jan. 1 at 2 pm. Level 1 Moderate Pace  1 to 1.5 hrs. Contact: Wendy Hoernig (519) 525-6976   Hike (perhaps snowshoe depending on conditions) at Lobbs Saturday Jan.Continue reading

One insect in our garden that is probably on our trails but rarely seen is a Katydid. It is part of the grasshopper family. It will tend to hop or jump away but as aContinue reading

On October 4th Chewy is celebrating his twelfth birthday. On September 15th he was quite happy to hike for four and a half hours from River Line to Cherrydale road without any obvious after effects.Continue reading

On a couple of hikes some people were stung by wasps. This prompted me to look up my first aid books (Action First Aid, St John’s Ambulance, and Red Cross). They agreed that if aContinue reading

One of the plant “Species of concern” is the green dragon. I have found it in several places all in the flood plain of the Bayfield river. It has a very distinctive swirl of greenContinue reading

There is quite a lot of spice bush on our area trails. Although I am not fond of most spices I love the smell of crushed spice bush leaves, described as a spicy citrusy smell.Continue reading

There are trail closures in place for hunting season, and the Menesetung Trail has been re-routed.  See the TRAIL CONDITIONS page for details (see link above).

A quite common pretty flower is the Himalayan balsam, which unfortunately is another of the unwanted invasive plants. The flowers are pink with green or red tinged stems. The green seed pods, seeds, young leavesContinue reading

On Friday July 27th we hiked from Lobb road to the Lobb’s parking lot. In the part where the 2011 tornado had broken the trees there were a lot of blackberries, some of which wereContinue reading

Maitland Trail (Two day Hike) July 7, 2018/July 27, 2018 Tania Tucker and Ken Gaudreau In early May, I completed the Maitland trail with a fellow co-worker, however, my long time hiking partner has alwaysContinue reading

Maitland Trail (49K in a Day Challenge) – May 5, 2018 Chris Monteath and Ken Gaudreau Here are the highlights of the trail. After completing the Avon Trail end-to-end over a 6-week period in summerContinue reading

On Thursday July 19th at the bottom of River Line I surprised three Great Blue Eastern Herons, I believe two were juveniles, I don’t recall having ever seeing more than one together. On Monday JulyContinue reading

The long dry spell has resulted in many plants getting that wilted look, and the Bayfield river has been just a trickle, however the mosquitoes don’t seem to be as bad as usual due toContinue reading

I was reminded on Monday how easy it is not to notice things when hiking along the trails. I only noticed the Michigan Lilies on the section up stream of Sharpes Creek Line when IContinue reading

Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush the mulberry bush, here we go round the mulberry bush on ta cold and frosty morning. This is a familiar Nursery rhyme from my BritishContinue reading

I was reminded while walking on the Lobb trail of my walk last July 1st when I took Chewy there at night to get him away from the noise of fireworks. We were welcomed byContinue reading

Hiking in the hot weather can be a problem, so it is wise to bring water along to drink. There are still interesting sights along the trails but the abundance of spring flowers is nowContinue reading

I enjoyed a week up in the Sault Ste Marie area, the big difference is that there were more bugs and they have a tent caterpillar infestation, which was not quite as bad as theContinue reading

On Friday June 1st we saw great displays of barberry which is a prickly shrub with yellow flowers, later on it has oval shaped red berries which are sharply acidic, rich in vitamin C butContinue reading

Frogs, Toads, Turtles, and Snakes.  With the warmer weather there comes the chance to see some reptiles and amphibians. All Ontario turtles are at risk, the ones most likely to be seen are the smallContinue reading

The Thursday May 10th birding outing had fourteen bird watchers out seeking our feathered friends. Common birds sighted included turkey vultures, Canada geese, red-winged blackbirds, mallards, ring-billed gulls, herring gulls, robins, grackles, swallows. Also sightedContinue reading

The trail is re-opened between Pinery Line and School Road and the trail has been re-routed.  Please: watch for the new signage watch out for the small trees planted stay between the blazed stakes. ThanksContinue reading

The Saturday’s May 5th wildflower hike at Jenkins had five hikers out enjoying the many wildflowers which were flowering due to the warm weather. As well as the ones mentioned in previous trail talks thereContinue reading

The Saturday April 28th wildflower hike at Lobb’s had seven hikers out which outnumbered the wildflowers due to the cool two degree temperatures! On Monday April 30th going down from Sharpes Creek Line across theContinue reading

The ice storm on April 14th and 15th surely set the spring plants back, however on April 12th I saw the first violet in bloom before it was covered in snow. On the Friday hikeContinue reading

Spring was a tease on Thursday April 12th so I expect that some trails (such as Lobb’s) will have patches of ice for a while. I’m eagerly awaiting seeing spring flowers, violets and coltsfoot usuallyContinue reading

Spring seems to be rather slow in coming, however most of the trails are clear of old snow/ice the probable exceptions being the Lobb trail and the Maitland trail at the top of the hillContinue reading

There were 84 people at the Maitland Trail meeting on March 23rd when we heard about Erica Clark’s trip to Manchu Pichu. It was amazing to see how tightly the Incas formed large rocks toContinue reading

The Friday LIFE hikers were in Exeter on the MacNaughton –Morrison and Morrison Dam trails. Part of the group had hiked there on the Tuesday when the trails were all in good shape, however onContinue reading

On Friday March 2nd I joined the L.I.F.E. hikers on the Varna trail. Fortunately there had been only a little snow overnight. This made for some very interesting patterns of snow on the trail. OnContinue reading

While driving on Stone School Line on February 24th I was surprised to see a white squirrel running across the road. This is the first white squirrel I have seen North of Clinton. White squirrelsContinue reading

Well we had quite the flood on February 19th and 20th. We were fortunate not to get the problems that were experienced along the Conestoga, Grand River and Thames River which resulted in a lotContinue reading

Two Upcoming Evening Events: The Maitland Trail AGM on Friday March 23rd at 7:00PM at the Goderich Livery (all are welcome), featuring a talk by Erica Clark on “Hiking in Peru” and Dave Bagnall “HikingContinue reading

Hi Everyone!   We’ve had some reports of poison ivy on some sections of trail.  It has always been around but has been noticed closer to the trail in some locations.  Before you go hiking,Continue reading