Ganaraska Trail sections 1&2

I have some plans to complete a couple of big hikes this summer, so I’m currently in focused on getting some kilometers hiked while carrying some weight in a backpack. To that end, I recently headed out for my first long hike of the year.

A few weeks ago, my friend Peter and I headed out to hike a 25 km section of the Ganaraska Trail. This trail system is around 500 km end to end from Port Hope to Collingwood. If you want more information about each section, check out their webpage.

On this particular day, we started in Port Hope at km 0 and hiked North 25 km to complete the first two of the five Pine Ridge sections. With Strava up and running, we took a couple of pictures at the starting marker stone and headed on our way. This first section was through the roadside trails in Port Hope, following the Ganaraska River. Some interesting features were the Farley Mowat monument, old bridge footings, and this cute bear carving.

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We didn’t make many stops after exiting Port Hope until we came to Sylvan Glen Conservation Area. By then we had passed under the 401 highway and walked a long section of road. It was soon after this conservation area where we finally headed into the woods and walked through fields and trails behind private property. Something that I found to be really interesting was the blaze marks on random object along the trail, which on a normal day, would go unnoticed.

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This trail is labelled as a beginner trail, but there were definitely some challenging sections along the way. One of my favorite spots was crossing a river over these tied together logs. The water was very low this spring, but by the slickness of these logs, the river must flow much higher in other times of the year. I can’t imagine crossing this during those times. One other cool feature were the stiles that are placed to climb over wired fences along someone’s property line.

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As we passed through small towns and meandered behind private property, we came to one section of the trail that passed directly through someone’s backyard! When we started approaching the house, I was reminded of the trail in Newfoundland that goes around The Battery and Signal Hill which passes over the front porch of a person’s house. Just amazing that homeowners are so comfortable and willing to allow hikers to do this. I am truly thankful for that.

We were nearing the end of our hike and my feet were starting to tell me that it was almost time to be done. Something that this hike made clear is that the boots I currently use are not the best and I will need a replacements before my summer trips. When we finally saw the vehicle waiting for us at the end I was happy to be able to sit down and release my feet from the boots.

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This was a great day and probably the longest hike I have completed in one day. There were so many other pictures of scenery to share, however, why spoil it. If you are truly interested in seeing the sights I highly suggest planning a day and hiking this section.

One of the best things after a long hike such as this is rewarding yourself with a burger and fries.

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