Hiking

Since discovering that Henry loves hiking on our trip to Algonquin I've been trying to recreate the experience back at home for him. I had to come up with some local trails that were not gravel because I know Henry loves to just sit and play with rocks when they are available.

First we went to Breithaupt Park which was great: dirt paths with some tree roots to step over and lots of up and down. We both had a great time.

And then we tried walking through the little path that goes through the forest in Moses Springer Park, right in our neighbourhood. Henry was having a great time but I turned us around after about 5 minutes because there were just too many mosquitoes, will have to try that one again in another month.

Being away at Algonquin has given me a new appreciation for the natural beauty around home. Henry and I will have to do some more local hiking this month.

Algonquin

We were in Algonquin Provincial Park for 3 nights this past weekend. We camped in a yurt there with my mother. It was great. We had absolutely perfect weather: no rain, not too hot to hike, warm enough for Henry to enjoy some beach time.

The yurt was great, with less stuff to bring we could fit the 4 of us in the matrix. And we didn't have to spend time setting up a tent. And we slept on thick mattresses and turned the heater on at night.

The hiking was great. Algonquin is a huge park with loads of it completely unaccessible by car - it's for the serious backpackers and canoeists. So I was surprised there was so much to do for us car campers. There were loads of hikes along the big road that runs through the park. And the hikes were great.

Luckily Henry liked being carried on Kevin's back so we were able to do lots of hiking. But a couple of the shorter ones he actually did himself. There was a 1.5 km easy boardwalk that he walked the whole length of himself and not too slowly either. And there was a 2.1 km tricky one with lots of ups and downs and loads of tree roots to scramble over that he did too. I held his hand at the tricky parts and he let me carry him up the steepest upward climb parts. But he loved hiking, he freaked out if we wanted to stop for just a minute, he just had t okeep plowing ahead.

And of course Henry LOVED the beach.

We all had a great time.