Hiking Shade's Mills Conservation Area

When my alarm went off really early Sunday morning so we could beat the heat and the crowds, I almost shut it off and bailed on our scheduled hike. I was sore from painting the upstairs hall on Friday and Saturday, but I set some personal mileage goals for running and hiking and knew that the fresh air would be good for all of us.

We drove to Cambridge for a hike that promised good shade coverage and easy terrain at Shade's Mills. We decided on the Toyota, yeah that Toyota, 3.9km loop trail which took roughly an hour to complete. The cost was $21.00 for our family of four to enter the park.

The path is a wide, accessible one that you could even take a large wheeled stroller on if you wanted to, just keep an eye out for tree roots and the occasional rock.

Being near the water certainly cooled things off, but what I didn't account for was the bugs. Be sure to pack some bug spray. Our hike was considerably faster than usual because the bugs were leaving us less of a want to stop and smell the wild flowers.

The soft wood chip, pine needle, and sometimes gravel pathways were refreshingly soft to walk on. 

Molly spotted two snails on the path during our hike.

 A highlight of this hike was a small really dense section of forest with old trees that looked like something out of a fairy tale.

The kids discovered that someone had started a make-shift shelter they just had to explore.

We went to check out the beach area after our hike and Molly built a sand cave and a castle with a moat while distancing herself from others. If you went early enough a hike followed by a swim and picnic would be really nice here.

Although there was nothing extraordinary about this hike, I'm glad we checked it out. If you live nearby or love the beach it's worth putting on your list. The woods would be stunning in the fall with all the colours. Chris and I were particularly excited that Shade's Mills has snowshoeing trails, something that we're going to add to our "to do" list for winter 2021.  And yes, to reward myself for getting up early I had a lovely, lazy Sunday afternoon nap when we got home!

A Hiking We Will Go - Sixteen Mile Creek Trail

We don't get out much these days.  We're doing everything we can to properly self-isolate and social distance to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario.

When we heard the weather was going to be warm this weekend, we wanted to explore somewhere new, but also make sure we would go somewhere open given current restrictions and guidelines and without the risk of stepping into an overcrowded outdoor space.

We found a wonderful urban hike in Oakville on the way to drop off groceries to the grandparents called 16 mile creek and were excited to get exploring.  We got up earlier than we do on most weekdays to make sure it was only us around during our journey.  It was worth our early morning!

Sixteen Mile Creek Trail in Oakville runs from either side of Oakville Harbour to Dundas St. at Lions Valley Park.  It features dirt a combination of dirt and paved paths.  The total length of the trail is 8.5KM however portions of the trail are closed this spring to help keep down numbers in the park.

We explored for an hour in the early morning Saturday and had the place mostly to ourselves, seeing only a handful of other people (who were all practicing social distancing and respectfully kept their distance).

On our way into the park we saw a wild rabbit.


One of the best surprises of this hike was that locals have started hiding sweet inspirational rocks throughout the trails.  During our journey Molly found 38 rocks and this trail will forever be known as "the fairy rock trail" to our family.  Since both kids got a rock painting kit for Christmas we plan to head back and leave a few painted rocks of our own to add to the collection the next time make a supplies run to Oakville.

The path headed along the river is much more narrow and rugged than the other path, so you wouldn't want to explore right now unless you knew you were the only ones on it.

For tips on how to get outside responsibly please check out this link.

Stay healthy and safe!