My favourite things about winter hiking

You won’t be surprised to hear that at EcoAdventures, we love to get on our hiking boots and head onto the trails. I’ve found that winter hiking offers some things that other seasons just can’t beat.

1. Trails Transformed

The trails I’ve walked all spring, summer, and fall are long gone when I step onto a path in January. What was so familiar is now new again, with unseen mysteries to uncover. Last winter, on a trail where we were so used to seeing verdant mosses and pale lichens, we were thrilled to discover a frozen waterfall along the cliff-face. Exploring the glassy walls was like discovering the trail for the first time.

2. Animals Abound

Not everyone is hibernating this time of year, and the proof is in the snow. One of my favourite winter hiking activities is looking for animal tracks. A recent hike with a family of five had us pointing out rabbit, fox, and turkey tracks, among others. The tracks tell a story: of the fox that followed the Bruce Trail until it came upon a rabbit, of the squirrel that stopped for a while to chew on a leftover autumn mushroom, of the tiny field mouse that somehow made its way all the way up to the top of a snow-covered boulder.

3. Trekking by Snowshoe

I love hitting the trails with some snowshoes on, padding through the deep snow alone or with friends. Clearly I'm not the only one, because our Snowshoe the Grotto adventure is by far our most popular winter experience. Seeing the famous Grotto transformed into its winter iteration, with iced cedars standing sentinel above a frozen Georgian Bay is a once-in-a-lifetime thrill.