Mountainview Cons Area – Awesome Bruce Trail Hike!!

When I was a wee thing in my single digits, my family used to rent a cottage on Green Lake, Up North, Ontario.  LOL.

My parents would spend alot of time fishing while we were there and my mom didn’t like the boat so much. My dad and brother would fish in the boat and drop my mom and I off on the shore nearby.  My mom would fish and I would play in the large boulders on the shore.  I remember pretending the boulders were parts of my house, a stove, a fridge, dining room table, sofa. The boulders were so shapely and with my huge imagination, I could make them out to be whatever I imagined them.  I spent hours playing in those big rocks and I truly could’ve stayed thee forever.  To this day, I still really love rocks and boulders, boulders and rocks! 🙂

It had been a long weekend of hiking and Mountainview Conservation Area was the last trail on my list.  I was tired and part of me wanted to totally skip it, but the other part recognized it was a gorgeous fall day, I had only done one other trail previously, and I wouldn’t be able to hike a trail for at least a month, maybe two.  With blog posts to write, skipping wasn’t an option.

A good percentage of trails you hike on, lead you to something, like a story, there is a beginning a middle, an end, and hopefully, a climax at some point along the way.  Some trails have waterfalls, overlooks, a colorful magical view, something of importance that you hike towards to see.  From what I could tell from the map of the Bruce Trail that ran through Mountainview Conservation Area from Mountainview Road to Walker Road, there wasn’t any of that. The trail, was just a trail, with no significance that I could see, running from one street to another.  Hence, why I almost skipped it.

As you can see so far, I was wrong. i totally judged a book by it’s cover and I almost missed out on one of my favourite things to be around, rocks and boulders, boulders and rocks!

From the trail starting out climbing straight up a steep hill to jumping over deep crevices, over roots, between boulders, over them, around them, among beautiful trees, with colourful life bursting all around… I was in heaven and I loved this trail!

There were so many cool things to look at all at once.  Roots growing between rocks, bright green plants, colourful leaves, wild flowers, mosses, fungi’s, blue jays and hawks flying around and the constant creaking of trees, making you wonder if you would see one fall right in front of you?

I was definitely longing for my hiking boots. They made a huge difference and I had noticed it since having to abandon them after my first two hikes yesterday.  I could feel myself loosing my grip on some of the rocks, sliding on damp logs and roots and just not feeling 100% stable in my environment in my running shoes.  And thats  not as in the Canadian term ‘running shoes’ meaning sneakers, it’s like running shoes meaning, I bought these shoes for  the Grapes or Wrath Obstacle Course and had to run 5K in them type ‘running shoes’. lol.

They weren’t really made for this environment, but I worked with them as best as I could, doing my best to step carefully and avoid any unecessary injuries.

I continued on my way enjoying every minute, every twist and every turn.  There were a few spots on the trail where you were on flat dirt, but literally, only a few.

I just couldn’t seem to get enough of this trail and again, was really happy I didn’t skip it.

As i’d been hiking along I had noticed in a few differernt places on the trail, scratch marks, looking like they were from a claw of an animal with 3 or 4 sharp claws.  I figured it’s probably just someones pet coming along on the hike with their owners, but you never know.  Here are a bunch of the pictures.  I took of them in various places throughout the trail.

Let me know if you’ve seen these before, if they are just a dog, or a coyote or fox? Or whatever you think they could be?  I”d love to hear back from everyone on this, pretty please! 🙂

Fall colours popped everywhere and I had a hard time not taking photos every few steps  There were lambs ears bigger than I’d ever seen them, growing so strong beside fallen trees all around them.  It seemed so bizarre and unbalanced.

I have just started hiking on the Bruce Trail the last few weeks. Mainly because I honestly didn’t know where it was?  I have come to find out that many places Ive always hiked, are in line and part of the Bruce Trail, so I guess then I have technically hiked some of it, just wasn’t aware I was doing so?

Thanksgiving weekend while hiking with my mom at Louth Conservation Area, I saw a sign for the Bruce Trail App.  I checked it out later on in the week and found out it was $19.99 and would give you access to all the Bruce trail maps, like everywhere in Canada.

I decided after some serious thought to purchase the app and believe after using it all weekend, it was totally worth it.

I hiked today from Mountainview Road to Walker road along the Bruce Trail. As you can see by a screenshot of the app above, at 3:29pm I, (the blue dot) was just approaching Walker road.  (meaning it was time for me to turn around!.)

Yesterday, and earlier today, I also hiked along parts of the Bruce Trail and there were quire a few places where a fork came up in the road, and I honestly was not sure which way to go?  The app, however, totally helped me and without it, I could’ve ended up going the wrong way!  If you can be in love with an app, then with this one, I am!

I continued on my way back along the trail until me (the blue dot) arrived back at Mountainview Road and the little parking lot where I had parked my car.

I was happy to arrive back at my car safely and in good time.  It had taken me 45 minutes to get to Walker Road, taking my time and taking lots of photos and it took me 30 minutes to get back from Walker Road to my car at Mountainview.

I got in and started driving towards home, slightly teary eyed.  This would be my last real hike for about 6 weeks  as I would be having knee surgery shortly. The good news was that I would get to go virtual hiking with you during that time, reliving the hikes that I’ve done in the last few weeks in my upcoming blog posts!  Stay tuned to hike on another new trail with me soon !!

Thanks so much for reading my post. I really hope you enjoyed it! If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi, please do so!

Happy Hiking!

Camper Christina