Monday, November 7, 2016

Fort Frances 8th Street Trail System

With the temperatures forecast to climb into the 60s today we just had to get outside to enjoy the warm weather. With Minnesota rifle deer season going on, hiking in Canada seemed like a logical decision. We packed up the car and headed across the Rainy River into Fort Frances to hike on the 8th Street Trail System. There isn't much information about it and we had a difficult time even finding the trailhead.

After a short time driving around, we finally found the start of the trail. It is on 8th Street like one would assume, but 8th Street is in 2 different sections that are not connected and we went to the wrong (eastern) section first before finding the trailhead.
Our hike started in a section of woods that did not look promising for hiking.
To make matters worse, the trail system is not well signed. It's like a maze of grassy trails leading in all different directions. We would find out later, from an older gentleman doing some trail maintenance, that vandalism is a major issue when it comes to trail signage and amenities like benches.

Soon the walk got a little bit more promising with the addition of some conifers to the landscape.
Then the landscape got even more interesting as we walked through a mossy, wet area with shrubs and scattered spruces.
We hiked a trail that was signed as the Apple Cider Trail.
The path was littered with tamarack needles.
My feet got a little bit wet as they squished through the spongy ground. We stopped for a short break in a copse of spruces
and then continued on,
circling back to the uninteresting woods of the beginning of the hike and the car.

After returning to the car, we headed over to Tim Horton's for a true, Canadian lunch!

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