Hike in Walker Woods

One of our favourite activities to do as a family is to hike.  Usually by now we would have hit far more trails than we have, but with the Covid19 and all the rules around distancing and self-isolating, this is the first trail we’ve hiked in a while.  We were all very anxious to get out, including our crazy Dalmation-Husky mix who spent the 45 minute car ride whining, crying and trying to pull the gate down in the back of our SUV, while our daughter tried to block out the sound with her headphones.

We decided on the Walker Woods Trail, a 5 kilometre loop near Uxbridge.  Walker Woods is named after James Woods Walker and his wife Olwen.  This property was his passion and, at one time, the best and largest private forest operation in southern Ontario. We chose this trail because it wasn’t heavily populated and it was fairly easy to hike without a lot of rocks and tree roots which posed tripping hazards for our daughter. She did fall once however but with a lot of kisses and cuddles she made a quick recovery.

It was a beautiful spring day with the sun shining and a lovely temperature for hiking at around 14 degrees Celsius.  We wanted to take full advantage given all the rain we were about to be inundated with in the next two days. This trail is almost exclusively canopied forest with both deciduous and coniferous trees which made it quite dark in some areas. When the path lead us to a clearing we were warmly welcomed by the sun, then it was back in the trees where the sun winked at us through the gaps in the trees.  The path was mostly a narrow single-track with both uphill and down-hill stretches (which the little one enjoyed running down) with no bridges or boardwalks since the trail was mostly raised and dry. There were a few bugs, but neither of us thought to bring bug spray, but luckily they weren’t biting, just annoying.

Cilla has a propensity to always be first so she ran ahead to “scout’ out the trail. This girl follows no one, except when she thinks there may be a witch nearby (Her favourite movie at the moment is the wizard of Oz) and then she will walk with us for a bit.  This never lasts long though and will soon be fighting Dottie to be leader.

Trish and I are both directionally challenged and had to refer to the map a few times when we hit a fork in the road.  There was a confusing mish-mash of back trails that would sometimes leave us very confused as to the right direction. The map wasn’t enough to help us though and often we would find ourselves on the wrong path and have to back track and try another path.  Luckily it was a map with GPS so we could see right away whether or not were on the correct trail or not.

There were hundreds of white trilliums growing out among the dead leaves which blanketed the forest floor. We rarely see these flowers in Toronto so it was a nice treat. Fun fact: Trillium seeds are primarily dispersed by ants. Ants are attracted to the protein-rich elaiosome on the seeds of trilliums, which they eat after carrying the entire seed back to their nests. The actual seeds are not harmed during this process, and are later discarded to grow a new plant.

The trails were shared with mountain bikers, runners and horses, but we were still able to socially isolate by stepping off the trail and letting others pass. There were quite a few mountain bikers out, but they were friendly and gave us a warning in the distance to let us know they were coming.  Cilla, with her super hearing usually let us know before we even heard them. For the most part people were good at staying 6 feet away but there was the odd ones who had clearly given up.

It was a peaceful hike and a great way to pass time and forget about everything else that’s going on. It was Cilla’s first time she could hike the full 5 kilometres without having to go in the hiking backpack and she was very proud of that; Dottie was excited to be somewhere other than the streets of Toronto and took every opportunity to sniff at everything; and Trish and I were happy to have something else to do with the wee one besides playing Candy Land or taking her on her scooter.