Winter Trail Collection - 2019

Continuing from the last post about Defeating the Off Season Blues, here are a couple of small trails we did last winter to try and keep our minds in the right place. All of these are pretty short, but with the snow and the cold they were all pretty satisfying and kept our spirits up.

Cedar Bog Trail - Birds Hill Park

Cedar Bog Trail

Cedar Bog Trail is a nice 2.5 km trail winding through some cedar trees at Birds Hill Provincial Park. It's got a nice wide trail, pretty minimal elevation gain, and is very well marked. It was a nice 45 minute walk just after the sunset for us, and the moon light shining off the snow was a cool sight. For some more detail, we've talked about this trail before on our First Hike of 2019 post.

Bunn's Creek Trail - Winnipeg Manitoba

Bunn's Creek

We've mentioned Bunn's Creek trail before here, and it's a solid trail for a quick get outdoors moment. The route we walked was 7.1 km long on this trip with a nice coffee break halfway through.

Esker Trail - Birds Hill Provincial Park

Esker Trail

Esker Trail is a pleasant 6.6 km trail that we did our first cross country skiing experience on. At a spot called Griffith's Hill about halfway along the trail there is a look out tower and a warming hut with a fireplace, which was a great spot to stop and eat lunch. This excursion has led to us doing a two day cross country ski trip this year, and we will be buying our own skis now in time for next season.

Seine River Greenway - Winnipeg Manitoba

Seine River Greenway

The last trail I'll highlight as a good example of trying to get outside during the winter is the Seine River Greenway. It was a 6 km round trip for us with a stop for coffee at the halfway point and lost of small deer to see during the walk. In the winter its a bit barren and you can see some of the houses outside the green way, but it was still pretty satisfying.

As you can see from the above, getting out to do some small local hikes or short cross country ski trips can really help take the edge off of winter. We will definitely be trying to get out more with our new skis next season.

Cedar Bog - First Hike of 2019!

Date: Febraury 11, 2019

Length: 2.6 km

Elevation: 37 m

Time : 42 minutes

Yay! First hike of 2019 complete! Roslyn and I went out for a night hike yesterday when it warmed up to -12C, we needed to get out side pretty badly after all the cold weather. Cedar Bog trail was a nice little loop, about three people wide and pretty level. About 300 m in there was a tree decked out in Christmas decorations, which was pretty interesting to stumble across in the dark.

The hike was short, but a good outlet for some energy we had built up. It was snowing the entire time, which turned my beard into block of ice. Other than that, there's not much to say about this short but sweet trail.

This is Manitoba - The Autumn Experience

I am going to throw in a few posts about how autumn has been going in Manitoba so far, because its been all over the place with the weather we've been experiencing. Earlier in the month we went on a hike on the Tamarack trail, which we're pretty sure is now officially closed as its not maintained at all. While I won't go over the trail in detail, here's some of the pictures we took on the Tamarack and around Winnipeg in the last week of September and first week of October.

Tree outside out apartment building, it decided

it was done with its leaves

 Frost covered leaves on the Tamarack Trail

 Flower covered in frost

 Poplar trees lining our trail

 Snow on some leaves

 Gorgeous sunlight through the trees

 A field of fall colours

 A surprisingly purple plant 

 Berries in the snow

The following weekend we headed out to Russell, Manitoba to spend thanksgiving with my mom. Roslyn and I went on a walk around Russell with her and her dog to soak in the fall colours.

 Leave on the pathway

 The path is the only snow free area!

 Weeds are much prettier covered in frost

There's two more post about Autumn in Manitoba coming up! One is about our hike at McGillvary Fall in Whiteshell Provincial Park. The other is about our trip to the 'Lights of the North' lantern festival. 

Nimowin Trail, Birds Hill Park

Date: August 19, 2018
Length: 2 km
Elevation: 25 m
Time: 25 minutes

Map of Nimowin Trail

Nimowin trail is a nice short loop in Birds Hill Park that we did on our way back after a road trip. We had been expecting a 6 km loop, but we apparently read the map wring and it only ended up being 2 km. The trail is level and wide enough for 3 people to walk side by side. You end up walking either on dirt or grass depending on where you are in the trail, but there was no gravel or paving.

While not the most exciting of trails, it would be a nice one to spend 45 minutes to an hour walking with people who are not fit enough to do longer distance to enjoy some time out in nature with them.

In Roslyn's words:

Another walk in Bird’s hill park. We actually thought the trail was 3X longer than it was and so we were in and out in about a half hour when we expected about an hour and a half. Considering that we were coming back from a road trip, a shorter walk may have been a good outcome.

Lime Kiln Trail

Date: June 23, 2018
Length: 6.3 km
Elevation: 68 m
Time: 1 hour 36 minutes

Lime Kiln Trail

Lime Kiln trail is a short, easy hike in Birds Hill Park that we did as a quick morning outing. The trail is nice and wide, smooth and easy to walk on. There is an out house partway through and a warming shack with a wood stove for going out in the winter on snow shoes or skis.

There were also many nice sights.

Flowers on the trail

One of a large group of butterflies

More trail flowers

The smallest strawberries Roslyn and I have ever seen

Clear at the 1/4 and 3/4 distance

Like most of the short hikes, we found it to be a pleasant and easy going trip.

In Roslyn's words:

The lime kiln trail is yet another nice little trail in Birds hill where you will find a sweet tree covered path lined with pretty flowers and even the odd wild strawberry. I actually couldn't believe how small these strawberries were, absolutely adorable. This was another trail with an outhouse at the midpoint of the trail (at the lime kiln) which is really appreciated. A perfect trail for a leisurely stroll through the woods.

Hazelnut Trail, Birds Hill Park

Date - June 3, 2018
Length - 10 km
Elevation - 145 m
Time - 2 hours 25 minutes

Just a heads up, but there won't be a post on Monday, July 2, 2018. We are going to be on returning from a hike that day and won't have time to post one. Stay tuned for the next post on Thursday, July 5, 2018.

AllTrails map of Hazelnut Trail, and a few detours

We set out to do Hazelnut as a nice morning walk in Birds Hill Park. Hazelnut shares a trail head with Tamarack Trail so it is pretty easy to find. The first kilometer heads out around the Polo field before reaching the trees and taking a sharp right along the edge of them. We wandered a bit into the trees trying to find an alternate route as there were horse trailers everywhere, but we ended up just going through the crowd of horse trails along the trail proper.

View along the trail

The trail is well kept and nice and wide. It was enjoyable to walk beside Roslyn for most of the hike instead of in front of or behind her. Even though there was some rain the day before, the trail was not too muddy as well.

Forest Fungi that Roslyn took a picture of

The large detour at the bottom right hand side of the map happened because Roslyn and I were confused over a trail sign and ended up walking out to the edge of the park along a secondary trail head before turning around and making it back to finish the loop.

Confusing trail sign

Apparently that sign meant that Hazelnut Trail goes both forward and to the left. It made sense after we realized that but at the time it wasn't very clear, especially because the trail doesn't actually turn for another 50 m.

Frog on the trail

After getting back on route, we saw about 20 frogs on the trail, all about the size of your thumb. Roslyn spent 5-10 minutes trying to get a close up of one while we walked along slowly.

About halfway through the loop there is a warming shack with a corral, picnic tables, and a privy. We stopped here for a quick snack and picked up some garbage that was strewn around by an animal. The warming shack apparently doesn't latch well so something got into it and made a mess.

Panorama of the rest area

After we left the rest area, we saw a sign that said the trail rest of the trail was closed. We continued onward anyway because it looked like it was left over from when the snow trails were closing to snowmobile traffic. About 20 minutes later we came across a marsh that was right on the trail.

Marsh on the trail

We gave our water proof boots a run for their money, and managed to get about halfway before it became about 1-2 feet deep everywhere, which was too deep to continue. Not to be deterred, we to a right and trudge through the forest around the marsh.

Forest we walked through

Looking back from the far side

The underbrush was fairly thin so it was easy to wind a path through it, we just needed to make sure we didn't stumble into any water pockets. There was one close call where we nearly walked into some deep water, but otherwise it was an easy detour.

In Roslyn's words:

Yet another beautiful day spent at Birds Hill park walking the Hazelnut trail. The path is very gentle and well kept in the areas that are not closed. Us, somehow mistaking the closed signs for winter snowmobiling signs, found a slightly less kept trail but still clear of debris and very walkable. Arriving at the flooded marsh was a bit like, “oooh, ya OK. I understand the why this is closed”.  You could brute force your way through the muck and come out with mud up past your knees, but bush whacking around the small area was really quite simple. You could always see the marsh so there was very little chance of getting lost, and the underbrush was very tame. There is a warming hut about half way through the hike which is nicely developed and had plenty of picnic tables for a large group. All in all, another lovely morning spent under a canopy of green.

We would do Hazelnut again for an early morning stroll if there weren't so many other trails to try out, maybe next year!

Chickadee Trail - Birds Hill Park

Date - May 26, 2018
Length - 4 km
Elevation - 49 m
Time - 52 min

Sorry about being a day late. Blogger was down for me last night, so here it is now.

AllTrail Map of Chickadee Trail

Chickadee trail was a nice but short hike in Birds Hill Park. It is largely a green tree tunnel with very little elevation change though there is a look out tower and a warming shack about 1/4 of the way along it.

Outside the warming shack

Inside the warming shack

The look out tower gives a view of the tree canopy, but isn't quite tall enough to give a grand view.

The Look Out Tower

In the Look Out Tower

View from the Look Out Tower

In Roslyn's words:

The Chickadee trail is a lovely little walk in Birds Hill, emphasis on the little. It may have been because I thought it was 6 km instead of 4 km, but I almost found it too short. The trail features a lookout about ¼ of the way through the trail but the view was kinda disappointing. The tower needed to be about 5 feet taller as I could not really see over the treetops. It was a very calm evening and the bugs were not bad considering we were in the woods in the later part of the day. I would definitely do this trail again as part of a multi trail day at Birds Hill and would highly recommend it as a first hike for those wanting to test their physical hiking capabilities on a gentle trail.

There's not much to say about this one except that it was a pleasant evening stroll.

Tamarak Trail

Date - April 14, 2018

Length - 16 km, 12 km of trail, 1 km to/from trailhead, 2 km getting lost

Time - ~4 hours

Unfortunately, we do not have a map of the trail as we hiked it since we didn’t have AllTrails yet. However there is a good map of Birds Hill Provincial park available at this link: https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/parks/pdf/park_maps/birds_hill/birds_hill_park_map.pdf

Roslyn looking back down the trail we just hiked

In Roslyn’s words:

The Tamarack trail in Birds Hill provincial park is very conveniently located for Winnipeg and surrounding residents which makes it easy to get “lost” in the woods on a weeknight or a weekend where you want to get some fresh air without the driving. There is a bit of a walk to get to the actual trail head from the parking lot, but i mean, you came here for a walk anyway right? If there is still a good bit of snow on the ground however, it makes finding the start of the trail across the field difficult. (For those going to try this trail for the first time, follow the sparsely placed pylons on the left side of the field and head straight for the treeline). The path is very flat and easy to walk as well as wide which is nice for walking side by side rather than single file. Hikers share the trail with bikers and equestrian riders, which we did get to see, so be sure to yield for horses. We walked this trail while there was still a half foot of snow on the ground and found it much nicer with over the shoe cleats, although Connor and I both lost one of ours somewhere on the trail. Time to go shopping for better cleats. There are not any spectacular views, it is instead a peaceful walk through the woods, which when you live in a city is a treat in itself. With the snow on the trail, it was quite an aggressive first mid sized hike of the season, but I do look forward to walking it again when there are leaves on the trees.

This was also the first hike where I started testing some equipment. I had my Women's Ozonic OutDry Backpack  on with only about 8 pounds in it (including the pack) just to feel how it sat for a long period of time. It was very comfortable and fit the shape of my back very well. I will make a full review of this pack after a few more uses at full weight. The other piece of equipment I was testing was a Compact Walking Pole from Mountain Warehouse. I was not sure how I would feel about using a walking pole so I had only bought one. It was kind of odd carrying only one stick and I did not see much benefit but felt that with two it may be a different story. I have since bought a matching one and tried it out, it worked quite a bit better.

I found the hike to be a fun trip as well, although the snow made it much more taxing than we were expecting it to be. I had my backpack weighing in at 12 lbs for the test run and found that it went pretty well. At the time of this hike we were both slowly working up to having a 30 lb backpack.