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Published: August 13th 2009
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We hiked several trails today, starting early in the day to see as much as we could. We started with Shady Lake trail, billed as a “moderate terrain 1.7 km loop”. Then there is a 1 km spur trail taking you to a lookout tower called Height of the Land. Sounded easy. Boy was I wrong! I walk every day, and this walk just about did me in! It took us almost 2 hours from start to finish (you couldn’t walk any faster, due to the grade and condition of the trail.) The trail went down a long way using stairs, and then it turned into a narrow, muddy, uneven trail full of big tree roots that had us climbing up steep grades, then down, then up again till our legs and lungs burned. If you dared look up away from your feet, you would trip or turn an ankle. The mosquitoes were so fierce, we spayed ourselves twice and still got bitten. Having said all that, it was very pretty, and well worth the trouble. But for most of us average folks who don’t spend hours in the gym every day, I think “strenuous” would be a better descriptor than
“moderate”.
We drove down the road and on a whim, followed a side road to Namekus Lake. What a pretty little lake! Smaller than Waskesiu, it has a nice (although narrow) sandy shore all the way around the lake. No motorized boats are allowed, so it was very quiet and peaceful, with several canoes pulled up on shore, and a few kayaks. A nice little picnic spot by the main beach, and camping spots for both campers and tents. The tenting spots were right close to the shore, and very clean and nice. It almost made us wish we had a tent and could stay an extra night or so.
After a break for lunch, we walked 1 km Amiskowan trail, and then 2 km Mud Creek trail. These trails were billed as “easy”, but we thought they were more like “moderate”, based on our aching leg muscles. The trail head for Mud Creek had a number of pamphlets describing various spots along the trail, the type of trees, etc, and made it a much more interesting walk than it might have been otherwise. This creek was once a big river flowing through a low area carved out
by the retreat of northern glaciers. At the end of the trail was a beaver dam, but the beavers were sleeping….. or whatever beavers do in the day time 😊 We went back to town for ice cream and a break, then tried to walk the Waskesiu River trail - the easiest one of the bunch since the first 1 km is boardwalk and wheelchair accessible, but we were both so tired that we turned back after about 15 minutes. I guess we need to work out more!
Went back to our place and sat on the porch with our feet up for a while. Then, changed out clothes, and off to the Elkridge Resort for supper (fancy shmancy place catering to the moneyed golfing crowd, not all it’s cracked up to be….mouldy tomatoes on our plate, and they weren’t even going to discount our bill until I insisted…). We made it back to town in time to sit on the beach and watch the sun set over Waskesiu Lake. All in all, a very nice day!!
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