Hiking under the canopy of some of the Don Valley’s giants at Toronto’s Crothers Woods is always a treat. Classified as an Environmentally Significant Area (ESA), of which there aren’t many in Toronto, especially in the once-industrialized Don Valley, it becomes obvious how ecologically important this small forest is.
I’ve taken my daughter there a few times, but before today, not since there was snow–a lot of it! We would have taken our dog for a hike anyway, which would have taken us into our nearby ravine, but because we were out in the car and driving by Crothers Woods, it made sense to visit it again. We are so glad we did. In fact, as we were driving away, my daughter said, “That was a wonderful walk.” Wonder*ful* it was! She ran a third of the time and then she took on a hiking pace after stopping to collect some litter and, more interesting, nuts from a butternut tree (Juglans cinerea). The species is edangered in Ontario due to a fungal disease that causes cankering. Was it one of the genetically resistant ones, I’m not yet sure, but it will be fun, nonetheless, planting the nuts and witnessing some of them sprout seedlings, and she enjoyed handling the nuts’ hairy and tacky outer husks.
She then watched with great interest a woolly bear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) for 15 or 20 minutes as it walked *very* slowly a few metres along the trail. Much better than sitting inside and watching a movie on this sunny and cool-warm fall day. We saw four more but two of those were trail kill (like road…). Always an opportunity to talk about the cycle of life. It brings hope out of death. 🙂
We ended the hike with a sweet and sour treat. But I think the birds and other animals–including a few other hikers–got to the majority of the delicious flowering raspberries (Rubus odoratus) before us. In the below photo (the only one, since I unfortunately left the camera in the car, and this was shot as we returned to it), my daughter is having fun donning two of her berries like the more-creatively-named thimble berry (Rubus parviflorus).
We often pray during our walks and hikes. Sometimes for ourselves but usually for the green-space we’re in. Being National Forest Week and that we were exploring Crothers Woods, it was particularly appropriate!
It would be an odd hike if we didn’t finish it with a little litter. Crothers Woods is beautiful but, unfortunately, it has its share. Some of it remainimg from its industrial past. Grab a few friends and some contractor strength garbage bags and go to N43 41.999 W79 21.534 (copy and paste the coordinates into Google Maps or Earth, which may give youenough detail). You might instead use a GPS handheld, which is definitely more accurate. Once there, you’ll find an
open cache of treasure–of sorts! 😉 (See my most recent blog entry, below). Be sure to take some photos and let me know about your effort. If you get there and the trash is cleaned up (unlikely), it’s certainly not a loss. Enjoy the hike and prayer time! If you need help, either in organizing the event (formal or informal) or with collecting the ‘trash cache’ (as I call them), please don’t hesitate to contact me. My email address follows the below blog entry. (A way to encourage you to read it, too. 😀 )
