Pinery Provincial Park: the Hickory Nature and Bittersweet Trails

For our second full day at the Pinery, my Mom suggested hiking the Hickory and Bittersweet Trails.  Both are short loops through the forest along the Old Ausable Channel.  The Hickory Trail starts right from the parking area west of the of the road, while the Bittersweet Trail is on the east side of the road and is accessed via a short crosswalk.

Pinery Provincial Park: the Heritage Trail

 

Frankie and I joined my mother and her husband on their annual Memorial Day camping trip to Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario.  The park is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Huron, near the small town of Lambton Shores.  Mary and Keith have been going there for many years, and told us many wonderful things about it, but this was our first time.  What a place!  We loved it.  Our campsite was in the Dunes Campground -- it is an enormous park with three separate campgrounds -- and as the name implies, it was a very short walk from our campsite through the dunes to the shore.

Clark in May

I've worked part time since Frankie was born, initially just 20 hours per week, then increasing over the years to my current four days per week.  On my day off, usually Wednesdays, I drop him off at school at 8:15 am and pick him up again at 11:45 am.  It was a gorgeous day, so after dropping him off, I returned home and went out for a bike ride (12.7 miles).  After showering, I packed a trail lunch, and went to gather the boy.  He is transitioning away from naps, which frees some afternoons up for other pursuits.  We went directly to Clark Reservation.

Jones Hill via Tinker Falls

 
Sunday Frankie and I had a lazy morning around the house before heading out for a hike.  I couldn't bear not being in the woods; it was simply too beautiful outside to stay home.  Tinker Falls and the hang glider launch pad on Jones Hill have long been a favorite spring hike of mine, one I haven't indulged in since Frankie was born.  In 2013, we took a family hike to the base of Tinker Falls, out and back, no further.  In 2014, it was a combo hike with Erin: a Tinker loop behind the falls, then the boardwalk loop at Labrador Hollow.  This year I decided Frankie was finally ready: he could handle the hike to Tinker Falls, and then continue on to the top of Jones Hill.

Pratts Falls

Frankie and I have been doing a lot of urban adventuring in the last few weeks, ranging beyond the rectangular grids of our immediate neighborhood into the surrounding environs.  Just in the last week, we’ve taken walks of 1.5, 2.7, and 3.1 miles here in the city, exploring South Campus, the water towers, two long sets of “secret” stairs, and various woodlots that were never developed due to steep terrain.  And of course the playgrounds, of great importance to a 4-year old, albeit somewhat less exciting for me.  Although we’ve been out in all sorts of weather conditions, the weekend forecast looked especially promising.  I decided we’d go to the woods for a real hike on the best day.  And what a day it was!  I truly love spring. 

Clark in March

I made a concerted effort to get us outside in March, with some success.  Prior to this hike we'd spent about 20 hours outdoors, and walked about 15 miles, mostly in the neighborhood.  The weather remained unusually cold, and our tallies included quite a bit of time shoveling, sledding, and herding ice.  We sorely lacked in the woods department though.  I was eminently conscious of the depth of the snow, and didn't want to get Frankie in over his head again, like on our snowshoeing adventure in December.  We finally got a day with both sunshine and above-freezing temperatures, so we headed back to Clark.  

Barry Park

In terms of spending time outdoors, this has been a rough winter for us.  January was officially The Month of Sick: I had influenza, which took me out of commission for several weeks, and Frankie, the poor kid, had everything else.  Unfortunately, I'm only half joking.  He had an ear infection, and a salivary gland infection, and strep throat, and a horrible allergic reaction to a penicillin-based antibiotic that made him miserably inflamed and itchy for almost two weeks.  February was better health-wise, tempered only by the on again off again cold that seems to be a permanent feature of preschool.  But the weather was brutal.  I generally hold to the principle that there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing, but February really put that theory to the test.  It was the coldest month in recorded history here, with an average temperature of 9 degrees, never mind the wind chills.  It's hard not to worry about frostbite in such conditions, so instead of romping in the snow, we spent an obscene amount of time playing with Legos.  And I started going completely stir crazy.