Downtown Oakville Trails, Thurs Feb 12 @ 8:45

Ten hikers joined Ann on the downtown trails. Sadly, she only came back with four!! You'll soon see why. It was a beautiful day...-5 and no wind.

In St Jude's Cemetary
photo credit - Karen Nourse

Climbing up to the Tannery Hill Beacon.
photo credit - Tom Stephens

Homecoming Trail in Lakeside Park.
Trails were hard-packed snow, no ice.
 Shortly after this pic was taken, 4 hikers had to leave early for an important appointment. 

 

Back at the cars, we discovered that the important appointment was with some hot cross buns at Cobs

Great Esker Side Trail, Thu Feb 12 @ 8:15

Leader Christine Golfetto

8 Hikers enjoyed the outing, helping others with slippery slopes and unexpected drops into deep snow. The track was was well trodden and generally firm as seen in the next photo.

In Winter most on trail photographs appear like those of school children lining up to get back in doors ...

A view of the Great Esker in Winter looking to the East. It's incredible that such a large geological structure could be formed during the retreating glacial ice sheets.

The participants huddled around the trail marker post, should Christine have any thought to extend the hike.

And a fantastic hike always has a photograph with the hike leader. Thanks for leading a wonderful outing Christine.

Speyside, Mon 9 Feb 2026 8:45am

Leader Hattie Cui

7 hikers joined this hike. MoonHo on his first Pathfinders hike whom we are confident will join again on future hikes.

-19 Celsius shortly after dawn was no match for this crew of well prepared hikers. There was a promise of partly cloudy condtions which came true. Here the crew is happy to take a break, by then the ambient had risen to -11 Celsius however by then walking on loose snow footing had warmed us. As you can see everyone was in good spirits. The woods at Speyside present a pretty backdrop.

The picture below shows the work of an ambitious bird or animal to remove wood strips from a crack in the bark of this very tall evergreen tree. What a remarkable effort to uncover some insects.

This photo shows a hiker meandering a side trail off the main Bruce Trail. You can just imagine the effort to avoid that one leg slips and disappears into the adjacent loose snow. There is some hint of warmer weather ahead so stay tuned on how the trail conditions change through Spring.

Rattray Marsh, Thu 5 Feb 2026, 8:45

 The relatively benign weather brought out 18 hikers, led by Liz. Displaying their wild side, most hikers did not wear icers, but managed very nicely on the well-packed snow. 

                                 Liz leads the crew for the return

Lake Ontario has a different look after several days of below-zero temperatures.