Welcome to the Blog!
Welcome to Park Lark! This blog will take readers along the journey as my family and I complete a bucket list challenge to explore all the trails and conservation areas within a 90-minute drive of Toronto. As we discover each destination, I will be write about our experience, outlining pros and cons and providing tips & tricks for making the most of a visit.
Our Story
We are city dwellers and mostly we love it - but Paul and I both grew up in the country so we often crave an escape from the concrete jungle into nature. We’ve occasionally talked about getting a cottage or moving out to the country (especially as the boys get bigger and rowdier), but we like our city life and owning a second property just isn’t really practical for us.
Once the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit and we were all stuck at home together, our tiny back yard seemed more restrictive and the cityscape felt more constricting than it had before. And with no social life or extra-curricular activities, we all desperately needed something to break up the monotony of the week.
Our family was also hit by tragedy during the pandemic. We lost my father to COVID-19 in April. Dad had just recovered from major heart surgery following a heart attack in December and one of his post-surgery goals was to do the 5K run as part of the Ottawa Race Weekend in May. He was going to do it with my sister. After he died and the event went virtual, my sister decided to run the 5K for him instead of with him. That weekend the four of us headed off to Bronte Creek Provincial Park to walk in solidarity, while my sister ran for dad in Montreal. We wanted to honour Grandad, who never got to reach his goal and who always loved forest walks, especially with the grandkids. Our family in the UK also joined, walking along trails they’d enjoyed with Dad when he would go back for a visit.
I wasn’t sure how it was going to go or how long we would last, but I figured we’d give it a try and see how things went. We managed a solid 4.5K hike and we had such a great time together exploring all the little surprises we found along the way. I don’t think we had realized how much we were craving a little dose of nature, having been cooped up at home for a couple of months already. So we vowed to do it again the following weekend and I set myself the task of finding a new trail to discover. We had just as much fun the next weekend at Elora Gorge and from there Saturday afternoon hikes became our weekly family adventure. It was something to look forward to and a much-needed weekly change of scenery. Not to mention a sanity-sparing outlet for all that pent-up little boy energy during quarantine!
As the weeks went by, I found myself spending Friday evening doing research to find our next destination. And I started to realize how many great places there are to discover just beyond the city limits, virtually in our own back yard.
The Greater Toronto Region has such a rich tapestry of conservation areas and nature reserves, provincial and national parks. The options seemed endless and the list on my phone grew longer and messier. So, being me, I turned my messy list into a database where I could record and track things like the location, trail features, and other bits of information that would help me choose our next hiking destination every week. When I did my Friday night research and came across a new place, I added it to the database.
As the database grew, I became inspired to create a bucket list of all the trail destinations within a 1.5-hour drive from Toronto and I set myself (and my family) the goal of exploring a new one every week. It would give us a goal to work towards and it would motivate us to go out and discover new places rather than going back to familiar trails every time.
And then I remembered another goal that my Dad had talked about: When we saw him for his birthday in February, just a month before he contracted COVID-19, he had been telling me how he wanted to make a list of all the trails in the Ottawa area and tick them off one-by-one. He thought it would be a good way to keep himself motivated so he would keep up with his regular walks to stay fit and healthy. That clinched it.
As the idea of the bucket list challenge took shape, I had the urge to document our journey and to share our discoveries (after all, I spent all that time compiling a database and it isn’t doing much just sitting there on my computer). We’ve been discovering so many cool new places and are in awe of the beauty of the landscape that lies just beyond the city.
In writing about our experience I hope to showcase all the wonderful natural areas that exist right in Toronto’s back yard. These conservation areas and protected parks play such an important role in ecological conservation and research. And they also provide the amenities for regular families like ours to enjoy a little dose of nature easily and safely. I want other families to know about these places, to enjoy them, to respect them, and to support them.
I also hope to inspire regular families like ours to get out into nature. It’s good for the mind, body and soul, and you really don’t need to be particularly "outdoorsy" to get out and enjoy nature. You don’t need to be a mountaineer, or own special hiking boots or shop at MEC regularly. And you don’t need to do much planning or preparation. You can just be a regular family like us and get out there and explore. (Just make sure you do bring water, snacks, hats, sunscreen, bug spray and afterbite, and some bandaids and antiseptic cream. I may not know anything about mountaineering, but I have 7 years of parenting under my belt and that list pretty much covers all the bases to stop most whining or meltdowns in their tracks).
I hope that this blog will help to break down some of the barriers and motivate other
families to get out and explore these places, build an appreciation for nature, and spend some quality time together enjoying the great outdoors.
We have 100+ trail destinations to discover, follow along as we explore and I write about these wonderful places. Then go and explore them yourself and get your little dose of nature!
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