Louth Conservation Area – Virtual hike w MUM!!!

Here it was, already Thanksgiving weekend. The summer had gone by and I had camped my way through all of it.  Since May I had been on 13 trips, 9 of them provincial parks, 7 parks I’d never been to. On top of that I had hiked 9 sections of the Trans Canada Trail along with countless other hiking trails and kayaked a large amount of creeks, streams, rivers and lakes!  I was one happy camper, literally!!!!

It would seem since summer had come to an end that the adventuring should also, but I wasn’t accepting of any of that non sense.  I would adventure whenever I could adventure and today was no different!!!

I started my day paddling in Parry Sound at Lake Manitouwabing at a cottage with my adopted up north family, The Burnetts.   Today was thanksgiving Monday and my mom was all alone, meaning it was time for me to go home and spend the holiday with my mom.  I left McKellar at 815 making it home before 11. I put my kayak away, changed my clothes and went to pick up mom to go on a thanksgiving hike before putting our delicious turkey into the oven!  I wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been.  I discovered a place called Louth Conservation Area that had a waterfall and looked like a great place to go, so I’d settled on that.

Louth Conservation Area is a park in the town of Lincoln, Ontario.  It is connected to the Bruce Trail as well.  The directions took me to Staff Avenue where there was a small parking lot.  It was clearly a popular place as the lot was almost entirely full.  It was also a gorgeous fall day, sunny and warm and I assumed alot of people were working off a big dinner they had already eaten, or were about to eat.

After hiking a bit we came across this sign that said “follow the blazes”. It was a Bruce Trail sign that basically told you the legend the trail uses and how to read the blazes along the trail so you don’t get lost. I personally, had never seen one of these signs and I found it extremely interesting. I looked it up when I got home and it’s below so you can clearly see it as well.

The Bruce Trail portion of the hike, which wasn’t what we were planning on being on today, was very clearly marked, but the Louth Trail, didn’t have any markings at all from what we could tell. This always made my mom nervous as we’ve gotten lost once or twice in the past and she always wanted to see trail markers since those experiences and gets very antsy when she doesn’t.

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At first after seeing the side trail marker we’d decided to take it, but when I pulled up the trail map on my phone, we decided we didn’t have time to do that today, and turned back to continue on the small Louth Trail loop we’d planned to do.

So we went up, and then came back down! 🙂

After fifteen minutes or so we came out into a big open field.  We continued on the loop around the field and could see a marker taking us back into the forest around the way.

We followed the trail and soon were back in the forest, heading back the way we’d originally come but on the other side of the open field.

This side had quite a few boardwalks but none of them really went over anything that we could see.

After hiking a little farther along we found a creek bed lined with rock that was completely dry.

After that the trail proceeded to go up with lots of roots along the way.

Then shortly after we noticed to our right a huge dropoff with an area that looked swampy at the bottom.

We continued on and then saw what would’ve been, with water, an incredible waterfall.

We checked out the plaque that stood by the falls and then went to check out the falls, or where the falls would be, if there was water here.

After taking a bunch of photos, other people started to come to explore the area, so mom and I got back on the trail to head towards the car.

And before we knew it we were back out at the parking lot! We had been gone for only an hour and a half but funny thing, when you are in nature, time seems to stand still.  Doing the small loop here I know we missed some things and am anxious to go back and see them when we have some more time.  I would also like to come back when the water is up and there are actually falls at the falls!

I asked my mom on the way home how she liked the hike. She wasn’t super excited about it.  She told me she liked it and it was fine, but she wasn’t sure if she’d want to do it again.  It was a little on the boring side for her, it seems! LOL!  She still doesn’t quite seem to get being anywhere in nature truly refreshes your soul and that’s the important part, I’m still working on that part!

I hope you enjoyed your hike with me and my mom today!  Time outside, no matter how exciting or strenous, is still important time spent!  If you have any comments or feedback, or have done this trail, or some more of the loop other than what I’ve done on this visit, please let me know? I’d love to know what the rest of the trail is like!!!

Ontario Trails Council does a great job of taking care of all the the trails in Ontario.  Find out how you can help today!

Thanks so much for reading!

Camper Christina