This weekend we completed the Epinette Trail System, which is a three loop system in Spruce Woods Provincial Park. We took our friend Joel with us this time since he was free for the weekend and he got to experience his first backpacking trip.
#1 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Trail Maintenance
The Epinette trail system was wonderfully maintained. Much of the trail was 3 to 4 people wide, grass covered, and completely free of fallen trees. In fact, we only encountered one fallen tree in the entire ~44 km trip. The wide open trails made it easier to talk to each other while hiking, which was a nice change from the single person wide trails we have been doing.
#2 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Campsite Quality
The three campsites on the trail system all have a cabin, an outhouse, a couple fire pits, a water pump, and a couple picnic tables. The cabin's can only be slept in during the winter and only with a reservation, but they were nice to have to store food in over night. The other people at the campsite we stayed at put their bikes indoors to keep them out of the rain.
The fire pits had a really nice grill on them and were very large, and the fire wood was provided at the sites as well. Each cabin also had an ax for splitting fire wood as needed to you don't have to pack in your own.
#3 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Pristine Parkland
The scenery was quite different from the forest Roslyn and I were used to walking through in the Canadian Shield. The entire hike was a walk through gorgeous parkland in fall colours, with wonderful transitions from primarily deciduous forest to open plains spotted with stands of pine trees.
All in all the hike went quite well and we got to try out some of our gear in the drizzle.
#1 Worst Part of the Epinette Trail System - Sandy Climbs
While there were only 3 or 4 of them, the worst part about the trail was the sandy climbs. We were luck that it was wet out because the sand held together quite well, but sand is still much harder to walk up that normal dirt. In a dry period it would have been much more slippery and annoying.
#2 Worst Part of the Epinette Trail System - Few Sheltered Tent Sites
Most of the camping areas are wide open areas surrounded by a ring of trees. This isn't too bad, but there is really no where to put your tent that Roslyn and I really felt qualified as being 'sheltered' so the wind picked at the tent and there wan't much cover from the rain. Maybe this is just an issue because were used to setting up in dense forests where its fairly easy to find a tent spot in a protective ring of trees.
Either way, don't let these two "worsts" stop you from seeing the trail, there only here to let you know what to expect.
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