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Welcome to Journeys Ontario! Your one-stop website for information, personal accounts, maps and pictures of great Ontario and Greater Toronto Area (and beyond) hiking, camping, geocaching, adventure, canoeing, community festivals and anything exciting that happens outdoors.
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New Adventure: Carassauga
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With only our passport, we visited 7 different countries in a single day. We were greeted by friendly people, offered scrumptious food and drinks, and entertained by singers, dancers and musicians. By the end of our day, we were exhausted but extremely happy and entirely satiated. It was amazing that we never had to leave the city of
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Mississauga
to have such an amazing cultural experience. Yes, you may have guessed that we recently attended
Mississauga
’s Carassauga festival!
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New Adventure: The Toronto After Dark Film Festival
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Don’t be surprised if you see something or someone very frightening hanging out in the Annex neighbourhood of
Toronto
this week… be it a zombie, a vampire or worse! Dressing up is all part of the horrifyingly good times to be had at this
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year’s After Dark Film Festival hosted by The Bloor Cinema.
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New Adventure: Toronto Zoo
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We visited the Zoo in the beginning of its busy season—end of June. Since it was a bright and sunny day with only moderate heat, most of the animals were out and about when we first arrived in the morning.
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| Although, by mid-afternoon, the increasingly warmer weather became a bit of a bother to some of the animals and so we ended up peering at some of them sleeping rather than meandering about their enclosures. To be honest, I don’t blame them! Besides, even a sleeping lion is an extraordinarily beautiful and majestic lion! |
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New Hike: Island Lake Conservation Area
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There are a few trails to choose from if you’re looking for a good hike in the woods or alongside the lake. The Vicki Baron Trail follows the lakeshore, taking you past a wee little beach area, through forest and then into fields filled with flowers. Where there are this many flowers, there is bound to be bumble bees! I don’t believe that I have seen so many bees in one field since I was a
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| little kid (let’s face it, when you’re a kid, you’re a little closer to the ground and perhaps a little more concerned with the fact that your hands and legs are in the bumble bees’ field of vision). |
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New Hike: Glen Haffy Conservation Area
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We arrived at Glen Haffy later on in the afternoon (closer to
4 p.m.
) which is apparently a calmer time of day to visit this park. The attendant on duty at the gate left not five minutes after we got there and there was just one other car in the hiking parking lot. Of course, there was about a dozen cars and plenty of people fishing around the well-stocked lake.
As it is still early season, considering that many conservation areas only open in late April or early May,
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| we were surprised but not overly shocked by the fact that there was a small but powerful sign on the trailhead that said that the trails were closed |
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New Hike: Shade's Mills Conservation Area
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Even though we pulled in about three hours before closing time on its first weekend, we were still pretty surprised to see no other car in the parking lot and only one other person (and their dog)
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| along the trails. We’re thinking that this probably isn’t the norm during the warmer, sunnier and less wet months of July and August. We followed the Toyota Trail along the river and across the footbridge to the other side of the conservation area. |
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New Hike: Dumfries Conservation Area
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On our way home from my parents’ house, we got off the 401 to satisfy a coffee craving and ended up hiking our way through Dumfries Conservation Area. Rob had passed by this park many times but had never had a chance to stop and enjoy a stroll on through.
Right in the middle of
Cambridge
,
Dumfries
was originally a piece of land that was donated to the Queen but to be maintained for the benefit of the local public. The Grand River Conservation assumed responsibility
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| for the land about 30 years ago with permission for the donator, Mr. P.R. Hilborn. |
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New Travel Log: #10 Winter Camping in Algonquin Park
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Our last winter camping experience in Algonquin was in a yurt—comfy, warm and dry. As promised to ourselves, we planned out yet another winter camping trip but this time we opted for trying out our tent with what we hoped would be the same results—comfy, warm and dry.
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New Adventure: Haliburton Dogsled Derby
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| Being that this was our first experience of a dog sled derby, we really didn’t know what to expect. To say that we were pleasantly surprised, would be an understatement. It is so incredible to see how wild and excited the dog teams get at the start gate. Yipping, barking, hopping up and down, all psyched up for the big race—these dogs were just so pumped to get running! |
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Time for a Roadtrip to Chicago -
St Patty's day parade is March 14 2009
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Three days, a car and a mini-budget… where to go?
New York
? Rob had already begun to explore the Big Apple.
Montreal
to visit friends and family? We’ve been there fairly recently for a friend’s wedding.
Chicago
? Yes! So, I hop on the internet in search of affordable accommodations in a fairly convenient location to major attractions. “Affordable” and “
Chicago
accommodations”
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| is not a search string that yields pleasant results, though I find “hostel” to reveal a collection of budget-friendly options. |
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NEW Adventure: Learning to Scuba Dive!
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As a child, there was a time when I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau. There were no wall-sized posters or fan mail, but I had just about every book about underwater exploration and marine biology checked out of the library throughout my childhood.
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| My dad happily shared in my marine obsession and we spent many afternoons watching Cousteau TV specials about his “Undersea World” andocean odysseys. I read about the “Aqua-Lung,” one of the first fully automated regulators, created by Cousteau and Emile Gagnan that supplied oxygen to divers underwater. In my youth (and to be honest, still to this day) I adored pictures of seemingly mythological creatures that could only be found deep in the sea. Of course, despite this ongoing infatuation with the undersea |
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NEW Hike: Burns Conservation Area
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Part of the Halton Region’s collection of protected lands, Burns Conservation feels like a natural best kept secret. There were all of four other people in the area when we visited on a very sunny afternoon. Of course, it was extremely hot and humid—which could have accounted for the measly attendance. Even we almost didn’t make an afternoon of it,
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| but not due to the sun’s spiky rays—thanks to the inundation of blood-sucking mosquitoes! Not two minutes up the trail and we were very rudely reminded of the fact that we had neglected our typical soak-down in insect repellent. |
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NEW Adventure: Summerlicious - A Gastronomical adventure
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Summerlicious offers Torontonians and its visitors the opportunity to sample foods from 130 of
Toronto
’s top eateries. Restaurants create unique, 3-course, prix-fixe menus for lunch ($15-$20)
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| and dinner ($25-$35 per person). Reservations begin in mid-June and many popular venues fill up almost instantly |
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New Hike: Luther Marsh
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| Luther Marsh is fundamentally a bird sanctuary and home to many varieties of duck, sparrows, owls, and geese. Many areas are hailed as sanctuaries in order to restore bird populations, wooded areas and to rejuvenate watersheds. Fishing and hunting are permitted in some areas at certain... |
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NEW Hike : Heart Lake
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Heart
Lake
Conservation
area is a natural oasis in the middle of urban sprawl-ville. Yes, as the GTA continues to grow out and up, it is becoming harder to find that taste of the natural world untainted by honking horns and that oh-so-lovely smell of smog.
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| We were so pleased that we found this significantly sized conservation area a mere 20 minute drive along the 401/up the 410 from our home. We were equally pleased to see the sprawling picnic areas, a network of trails and a large lake! |
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NEW Photographic Location: Shooting Moose
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I know, I know... big surprise that Algonquin Park is a good place to shoot nature BUT did you know if you go at the beginning of May you are almost guaranteed to get some great shots of moose?
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| All winter long we salt the heck out of our roads, and when the spring rains come it washes all this salt into the ditches and wetlands. Moose LOVE this salty water and come out in the early morning and late afternoon to have a good munch. |
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Hike Revisited: Hendrie Valley Trail
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| This is fast becoming my favorite place to go for hiking or animal watching. There is a huge assortment of animals, and if you have some time and patience, they will let you get close enough for a great picture. |
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