Where we roam

Hello, When I started this blog, I had an idea of how I wanted to present my content and how often I wanted to post. I started this blog at a time in my life when a lot of things were occuring. Good things, but many things. Then, things started to slow down. So did my posting. I have big gaps of time where I didn't post anything at all. And I felt guilty. Instead of getting back to it, I ended up not posting.  I wanted this blog to be more about the adventures we go on, details about camping trips, conservation areas, hikes, etc. I didn't want it to be too personal, even if it was a way to keep track of our outings. I am at a point where I've noticed, though, that I keep encouraging others to follow their dreams and thoughts. It could be for simple everyday things, or big and challenging tasks. I don't even follow that in my own life. I should listen to my own advice. There are things I want to accomplish. I need to figure out exactly what those things are and sit d...

Hello, I've been getting back into looking up trails and such since spring will eventually show even more signs of arriving in our area and I want to be ready for outdoor adventures! The birds are chirping in the morning, some greenery is started to pop out of the ground, there is light up till the children's bedtime... all exciting things.  In doing so, I figured I could write a short post regarding our extended family camping trip we took last August at Silent Lake Provincial Park . Same gang as the previous year at Bon Echo, minus my father who was ill and unable to join us. He's fine, by the way.  We did our usual Wednesday to Saturday schedule, which helps avoid crowds. We stuck to the month of August and it was thankfully warmer than the previous year.  I seem to have misplaced our map, but I do believe our sites and yurt were in the Pincer Bay campground. We had two tent sites next to each other, but with a good distance between the two (had to go on the r...

Hello, It has been almost a full year since I last posted. I sadly ended up doing what I was hoping not to do with this blog. Which was to not consistently post. There are no excuses. I've always been this way when it comes to blogs I have created in the past.  Since I don't really have a following, I do not feel like I am letting anyone down. Except myself. I was hoping this would also be a good way to keep track of the outings we do, the wonderful sights we see and just overall memories of outdoor adventures for myself and my family.  Now, don't go thinking that we have been sitting around not getting out there. We've still been busy! I must admit we did not get out as much in 2018 as I would have liked, but such is life. We will turn that around this year. I just bought new trail runners and I'm pretty excited to break them in.  We already have our big extended family camping trip booked for Charleston Provincial Park. If you have been there, please let u...

Hello fellow outdoorists! I hope you are all doing well and are able to get outside. We were up in Sudbury a few months ago. We did not end up on a trail but we did use our snowshoes on an unbeaten path that goes behind the house where we stay and other yards. We did not go for long as the children tired quickly in the deep snow, but it was still nice to get out. The weather was fantastic.  As you can see from the post name, today I will be doing a second instalment of Off the trail and introduce you (or remind you of) T he First 40 Miles . Today, I will be writing about a podcast I discovered a few months back. The hosts are Heather Legler and Josh Legler. They designed their logo themselves using one of Josh's photos and Heather overlaying her own graphics.  Right now, they have 182 episodes... I am not halfway done... haha I started from their first episode and I'm working my way to newer ones. I also only recently discovered that they have bloopers at the end of...

Hello, It has been a rather long time since I've posted. I have another post in the draft folder that I meant to tidy and publish a few months back, and sadly it has sat there forgotten.  I personally find it tough to post about hiking, camping, etc., when the weather outside is frightful, but I need to get over it. Life doesn't stop just because it's not the more pristine weather outside! I need to come up with posts that are related to these topics and that can be shared with my readers in those downtimes. I still have a love and passion for all these things even in less than desirable conditions, so my blog should continue to be updated! All that to say, the weather is getting nicer. I'm very excited about this. It feels like it took a really long time for us to get there this year, with a late snow storm in April and then ridiculous winds and such in this early May. We had a huge pine tree blocking one entrance of our townhouse complex driveway! We took adva...

Hello dear outdoor enthusiasts! I hope you are doing well. We have been dealing with colds and flus. And bad weather. We live in Southern Ontario and the weather has been rather up and down. We've had bouts of minus 30 degrees Celsius and then of almost plus 10! Weather, make up your mind. This makes it harder for us to go out and enjoy the outdoors. We do go for walks around the neighbourhood if the weather is stable enough and we are nicely bundled up. We even managed to go walk by the water at LaSalle Marina Park in Burlington and see all the swans that overwinter  there.  Other than walking/hiking, we have been able to break in our new snowshoes! My parents were beyond generous and gave us all snowshoes for Christmas. They live by a lake so we were able to try them out around their place, walking on the frozen lake and then through a park. It was great!  We don't get too many opportunities to go snowshoeing around our place though, mostly with this season's s...

Hello dear friends, Time gets away from you. The weather gets colder. It's dark by the time you get home from work. Your weekends are filled with visits and errands.  So many excuses! I do feel bad that we haven't been able to get out much over the last couple of months. This is, I think, typical for this time of year, here.  I figured it would be a good time to start a new series on my blog. I would like to share with you all some outdoor related blogs, vlogs, magazines, books, etc. that I enjoy and figured you might be interested in as well.  For the first instalment, I wanted to talk about a young lady by the name of  Jessica "Dixie" Mills . It was actually my husband that found her online, actually on  YouTube , while looking up information about hiking shoes! He then shared his discovery with me and I have to admit, I'm hooked. I even went back to her older videos in order to absorb as much of her positivity and experience as I could.  In 2015 ...

Hello, It's been a while since I posted. We've had a pretty busy time lately and that's not me trying to make excuses, but some things have gotten away from me. So, on that note, I'm taking the time to write a short entry on an outing Ron, Zoé and I did almost a month ago. Ron had an appointment in Keswick on a Saturday and instead of missing out on family time, we decided to all drive up and hike somewhere nearby.  We came across the Holland Landing Conservation Area online and decided to give it a try.  We parked at Anchor Park and tried to find entry to one of the trails that apparently leads into the conservation area itself. We took a wrong turn and ended up near a road (Walnut Avenue) and since we had pulled the map up on Ron's phone, we figure it should be easy enough to go up a certain part and we would end up back on a trail. Well, we kind of did. For a while. It was nice and full of hills, so we put Zoé on my back and trekked on, hoping the trai...

Hello, I hope I am finding you well and the trails have been kind. September 4 was labour day and we wanted to get out for a nice hike before the back to school (SK for our boy) and new daycare (for our daughter) day.  This decision was made pretty late in the day as Brock wasn't home until a bit past noon and Zoé needed to get her ever shorter nap in. We wanted to head over to the Smokey Hollow Waterfall, but there is only a tiny parking lot (which is a pain to get in and out of) and it was full with a ton of people trying to get in. So we kept driving on Mountain Brow Road and arrived at a Bruce Trail access point off of King Road. We parked on the side of the road, grabbed our water and off we went, heading West but not sure how far we would go. Now Ron and I have downloaded a free app (in-app purchases) called ViewRanger . It is a GPS guide and here is what they say on their site:  ViewRanger is your digital guide to the outdoors, with hundreds of thousands of down...

Hello, I hope you are doing well. I've waiting too long to write out these posts so I feel like I'm missing a few pieces, but oh well. It is what it is. The last post ended with a very cold night and morning. But we survived and had plenty of food and layers to keep us warm.  We then got ready to go for another hike! We headed out for the High Pines Trail, a 1.7 km trail going through forest and wetlands. They classify it as moderate on their site. Again, we let Zoé walk for the first part, but after a while she kept falling and then we fell far behind the rest of the group. So, up on my back she went and we were able to observe all the lovely trees and rocks that were around us. We saw lots of acorns and plants. The trail itself wasn't too bad with some semi-hard climbs here and there.  After that, we had lunch and then even though it was chilly in the shade, we decided to go see the beach area, bringing our swim gear just in case it was warmer in the bright s...

Hello, This next trip will be broken down into two posts so that I can include more details and not make each post too long.  We went on a three night camping trip with my family at Bon Echo Provincial Park . In total we were 15 people (6 kids ranging from 2 to 7 years old and 9 adults) and we shared three sites (two for tents and one was a yurt ). We ended up putting up two tents on one site and moving the picnic table over to the middle site where we had one tent and two big shelters to cover the picnic tables.  We only built a fire at the middle camp ground and we kept the double burner stove there for cooking and cleaning dishes. We did have a BBQ at the yurt, so we made good use of it for bacon, sausages, burgers and grilled veggies.  We all arrived around 4:45 pm on the Wednesday and even though they weren't calling for it, it was lightly raining! So we all quickly set up our tents and shelters before the ground was too wet, and luckily the light rain did not...

Hello, My name is Rachel and I welcome you to my blog. It's 2017 and I'm a busy (who isn't) mother of two wonderful, crazy, active, etc. children. There's my (step)son, Brock, who loves to ask "why" and talk non-stop, typical 4-year old stuff. And there's my daughter, Zoé, who is super curious and daring, also typical 2-year old stuff. I also work full-time and once we pass September I will finally be married to my wonderful fiancé, Ron.  Although this blog will be about myself and my family, it will be mainly centered around our outings and our explorations of our wonderful Earth. By this I mean that we are a family that likes to go out and see what the wonderful conservation areas (and other natural areas) have to offer us (water, sun, plants, wildlife, etc.). Ron and I both strongly feel the need to show to our children how wonderful this planet can be and that we must do our best to conserve it and to get along with it. We want them to learn abou...

Hello, For my first official post, I wanted to share our first camping trip together.  Before I get into that though, I would like to say that when I was growing up, my parents took my sisters (I have three older sisters) and I on many, many camping trips and other outings. I do not have a good memory, but I do remember having a blast on these trips. They are a big part of my childhood. I know that Ron also went to cottages and camping when he was growing up. Another reason why we both wanted to get back into it.  We actually have never gone camping together! Shocking, I know. We've done many nature walks, but never overnight stays anywhere. So, we bought a tent and a few other key missing things and booked a very last minute, one night camping site at a conservation area not too far away from us, near Alliston, Ontario .  Now, our kids are normal kids. They love each other and tend to get along or know to stay away from each other. Of course that Saturday morning...

Hello, For this post, I will take you along our hour and a half long hike at Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area , in Milton, Ontario . A couple weekends ago, Ron, Zoé and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a good hike. We usually use a stroller with Zoé, but since we (sadly) didn't have Brock, which let's be honest, we probably wouldn't have been able to do the trail we did with him, we decided that we should wear Zoé. Unfortunately we didn't have a carrier that works for her weight but happily my sister who lives nearby still had the ergo baby carrier she used for both her kids! It's great to have family and hand-me downs. Seriously! So, fill up a few water bottles, grab a few cliff bars and granola bars to have as snacks on the trail, throw on our hiking shoes and off we go! To get into Rattlesnake Point, it costs $6.75 per adult. Zoé being 2, was free.  Now we ended up being on the trail for about an hour and a half, and...