Johnston’s Cranberry Ice Trail – OPENED TODAY!!!!

With much anticipation, Johnston’s Cranberry Ice Trail opened today!!!

(Cranboni photo’s courtesy of Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh, featuring their Cranboni! being driven by awesome Andrew! )  

On December 17th, I paid a visit to Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh to hike their snowshoe trails.

I had a fabulous time there and really enjoyed my visit, but unfortunately, the ice trail wasn’t open yet.

I have been keeping a close eye on Facebook, and today the post went up!  “The trail opens at 11am today!!!!”

I had made plans with my new friend Sam and her boyfriend Shylo to go for a skate if the trail was ready.  She messaged me to set up a time to go and a few hours later, we were on our way!

The parking lot was pretty packed and we were worried it would be too busy.  After finding one of the last spots, we headed inside to get our skate tags for the ice trail.

We looked around the store and found a room that wasn’t open when I was here to snowshoe.  It was where they kept all the rentals for snowshoeing and skating.

What a great idea!  This way, if you don’t have your own skates or snowshoes, you can come here and rent some, give either a try and see if you’d like to continue with it?

Speaking of great ideas, this entire ice trail idea is brilliant! I live in Port Carling and there are barely any businesses open in the winter time.

The tourists leave, and everything shuts down.

And we are left looking for things to do.

Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh is very clever.  They think out of the box and come up with creative ideas to provide people with unique experiences.

In October, I attended the Bala Cranberry Festival for the first time and stopped here on my way back from Bala. They had wine tastings, a wagon ride with a tour of the marsh, you could wade in the cranberries and have your photo taken, in addition to offering all types of fun food and drinks for everyone to enjoy.

There seems to always be something to do at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh. The wonderful people who run it, offer locals like us something to do, year round, and to me, that is really important and greatly appreciated! Thank you Johnstons!

After a few laps on the trail, which wasn’t overcrowded or busy at all btw,  Sam, Shylo and I sat by the fire to warm up a bit.  Afterwards, we headed to the store to check it out and noticed another fire pit behind the store, where they had hosted their wine tastings when I was here in October.

What a beautiful place to sit and enjoy a hot mulled wine or cider and enjoy the view after adventuring in the cold all day.

These two people were doing just that and I asked if I could take their photo.  Eryn and Nathan had driven here for the day from Alliston and were sitting by the fire warming up. We had a nice chat about camping and then I left them to their alone time, while Sam, Shylo and I headed out. I still had to make a few renovations on my tipi  before my big interview tomorrow !!!  (details coming soon!!ITS EXCITING NEWS!!!!)

I hope you enjoyed skating with us at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh!!!!  If you’re looking for a day of winter fun, head over to do some skating and snowshoeing and enjoy an awesome winter adventure in Muskoka!

Thanks to Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh for being so brilliant and offering us with fun things to do. Thanks to Sam and Shylo for taking some of the photos today and adventuring with me!  I had a wonderful time!

If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I am able to!

Happy Skating!

Camper Christina