Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association - Orillia Club

Great start to the long weekend with a 7.5 km hike to the Hutchison Brown tract of the Simcoe County Forest. A wet late summer has meant the foliage rises luxuriantly along the trail in both forest and open spaces. Fungi are plentiful and again we saw the relatively rare Indigo Milk Cap. Hikers stopped occasionally to pick a few berries. Best of all were the breeze and no bugs!!!Thanks Sue for leading!

On Thursday the joint Barrie/Orillia hike took us to the Copeland forest where we hiked about 10km on both the Ganaraska and mountain bike trails. Once again we saw many different varieties of mushrooms. It was so interesting that those who had wanted to do a shorter version of the hike did the whole 10km! 😁

Sunday’s hike should have been called the Mushroom hike. We saw a variety of colours on our walk through the Walsh tract and other mountains bike trails. It rained a bit but it did not deter us. We even found “Walter’s cabin”

Another gorgeous Saturday for the conclusion of John’s August Beat the Heat series of hikes. We hiked along Ganaraska and Simcoe County Mountain Bike trails. Oddly, hardly any mushrooms did we see today, but the bristley IO Moth caterpillar was much in evidence. Thanks John for leading this, and the whole series.

Getting back into the longer hikes as fall approaches. This time 5 of us surveyed the area assigned to our club to control garlic mustard in the Copeland Forest. There were 2 bags full of GM plants that we pulled, but it was a fabulous 9.5 km hike which brought us to amazing fungi and an adorable Eastern Newt. We hauled out Seek to identify Bleeding Ferry Helmet, American Spikenard, Acorn Plum Gall Wasp, and others. Thanks Carol for leading, and thanks hikers for pulling garlic mustard! Probably we will get back to pull GM in April.

Tuesday’s hike explored the Breedon Tract along Simcoe County Mountainbike Club trails. Gorgeous fungi due to recent rains. The star was the new-to-us Indigo Milk Cap. The fungi were so fascinating that we completely derailed the Peter’s timing plan, but he was good-natured about it! Thanks Peter for leading us on this great romp through nature!

Another super Saturday morning hike, this time strictly on the Ganaraska trail in the Strachan Tract. 18 hikers showed up, the biggest group our leader has led since Covid. We passed by a dense patch of Jewelweed (aka spotted Touch-me-nots). Thanks John for leading.

Again an enjoyable hike on Tuesday morning, this time to several of the Simcoe County Forest in and around the Line 7 of Oro-Medonte and Bass Lake Side Road area. We saw interesting fungi. Thanks Nynka for leading.

The Orillia club hiked from the 8th line of Oro Medonte for approximately 6 km. Fortunately the stormy weather held off until after the hike. Thanks to John for leading the group. Look for similar Saturday hikes in August only, starting at 9 am, register online or with the leader.

We managed to hike despite the deluge through the night before. Not even any significant bugs. All in all a fine Tuesday hike in the Strachan Tract, Simcoe County Forest. Thanks Nynka for leading.