Hiking in Short Hills Provincial Park (Ontario, Canada)

I live in Ontario, Canada. Being an introvert who prefers to spend their spare time online & working in an office where the only natural light is filtered through dusty bubble shaped skylights, I always had a pasty complexion & lack of physical endurance. That was until a couple of years ago, when my partner took me on a surprise day hike for my birthday. We went to a place just an hour outside of the city, and both fell in love with the beauty of nature. Since then, we've become avid hikers & have explored most of the hikable places around our city.

Our most recent adventure took us to Short Hills Provincial Park, where there were many different tails of varying lengths and difficulties. Having "short hills" in its name, we were prepared for an abundance of sloping ascents. So we packed light but took plenty of water. It was a cool late summer day & had just rained earlier in the morning. The trails were muddy with big puddles in a lot of places. Fresh moisture made the stones & roots that were lining some parts of the trails slippery. Some of the steep slopes were lined with loose gravel which rolled around when we tried to jog up/down hill. While physically challenging, it was also fun hopping around puddles & competing with each other running uphill while trying to find secure footing amongst slippery tree roots & loose stones. The best part for me was the scenery, the beauty of nature. On our 12km hike, we saw waterfalls, a beautiful valley, a huge filed of blooming wild flowers, lush woodland, and countless little critters and birds. While I'd like to document them all with pictures, I've also learned over time that it's important to allow myself to get lost in the moment. After all, the point of hiking for me is to connect with nature again, and to experience the feeling that I'm a small part of this big, interesting natural world.

I tried smelling the flowers. Before I could get close enough, the buzzing of bees warned me away from their bounty.

This trickle of water was once a river.

What looks like a lush tropical jungle is actually central Ontario woodland.