A hot afternoon in June, lots of water, Abby on my back in the carrier, and friends made for a great day! Some of the older youth from our church came down to Temagami to visit and go hiking. They have been finding new places to hike most Sunday afternoons this spring and had never been in the old growth pine forest in Temagami. Honestly, I haven't hiked that much in the White Bear Forest myself but have wanted to for a long time.
The White Bear Forest is 1242 hectares of land, most of which has never been logged. Gilles Bros. won the right to log it in 1928 but chose to preserve it for the enjoyment of their employees. I'm told that it is the most accessible stand of old growth pine in Canada if not North America. I still can't believe it's taken me eight years to actually hike more than twenty minutes down one of the many trails.
Apparently the trail maps are not entirely accurate so we planned to hike one hour into the bush and then turn around and hike back again. There are 28 km of trails in there so we wanted to be sure we knew where we were going. We took the White Bear trail. It is well maintained and marked and had I known where it would come out or just how long it really was we probably would have hiked the whole thing.
It was beautiful. Several types of orchids put on a real show along the trail. The pink lady slippers I had seen before but they were everywhere! We also saw some yellow star orchids which were new to me. I have done a bit of searching and have yet to confirm that they are actually orchids but the leaves and stem are similar to those of the orchids I have at home so I think they must be.
We were surprised by two grouse close by the trail who seemed to be protecting nests. The one actually hissed and came running at us. We soon discovered why: her nest of five eggs was right beside us on the trail. Had we been fooling around we could have stepped on it easily. I had never seen a grouse's nest or eggs before and certainly never heard one hiss!Abby had a great time. We let her out of the carrier to walk for a while. She loved jumping over the big rocks with Daddy's help. She loved the moss and the 'big ones' - big pines that take two people to wrap their arms around them. I had thought she might fall asleep but she only dozed for about five minutes in the carrier as she didn't want to miss a thing. After all we were outside and spending time with 'the big kids' who are some of her favourite people in the world.
The trail had a lot of ups and downs and I could tell that I hadn't been hiking in ages. I was feeling the effects of having an 18 month old on my back and could tell that the number of candles on my cake this year are way too close to 40. That being said I enjoyed every minute of it. Spending time exploring as a family and with friends made for a great afternoon with lots of special memories.
When we came back from the hike almost everyone climbed the fire tower and enjoyed the view. I took Abby up as far as the first landing but she would have loved to follow everyone else to the top. We ended our fun afternoon with supper together and a bit of relaxation.
Interested in exploring the old growth forest with a guide? Check out this link for Orchid and photography tours by Northland Paradise Lodge, Temagami. Doug Adams is very interesting and knowledgeable about the area. It will be an unforgettable experience.
