Happy Easter Long Weekend everyone! The weather is forecasted to be gracious in this part of the world. Gorgeous sunshine and warmth, melting the lingering ice away into crystal clear trickling water. Good Friday holiday 2021 was a blessing in terms of such a bright warm day in Caledon, Ontario. A perfect tailor-made day for a family hike during lockdown period as COVID variants are wreaking havoc all around. Nature, however, is always open! It has been ever since human consciousness and awareness germinated into the individual minds. The clear, crisp, fresh oxygen has done no one a harm really and certainly uplifts the mood of my young’uns. Online schooling has been a good journey for past one year but lack of social interaction and programmed physical activity has certainly drained them off emotional intelligence at times.

Bennett Heritage Trail, near Ballinafad town, in Caledon, Ontario is heavenly this time of the year. The birds are chirping enthusiastically louder as they find fresh treats from the ground as opposed to stale frozen stash they gather for the winter. The squirrels are particularly wee bit more excited as their pre-hidden nuts are generally easier for them to find, whether by chance or the Spring air makes their ‘amnesia’ little better to manage ha! These cute little creatures ‘scatter-hoard’ their food which keeps them pretty busy most of the day seeking nuts they hid for future use. The closest I come to that behaviour is safe-keeping my keys for next use but totally forgetting the safe spot. An apt mention here as I really struggled to find the keys, which happened to be in the jacket pocket that I had on, while running amok the house looking for keys everywhere, hence, this time around, the score was; Squirrels 1 – Forgetful Dad 0

We reached our destination (after keys were finally located of course!). Scotsdale Farm, located on a beautiful property within the precincts of Niagara Escarpment (check out my previous blog post for a bit of an overview of the escarpment) and Credit River Watershed. Bennett Heritage Trail officially opened on Canada Day in 1992. The trail explores the Scottsdale farm that was donated to the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1982 by Stewart and Violet Bennett. This 1300-hectare property is a haven full of special ecological qualities of the Escarpment. The farm itself has actually been worked for two centuries, having been tilled by native people long before the arrival of the Europeans. Today the farm is still a working farm which is managed by the Credit Valley Conservation Authority.

My two boys (aged 10 and 8) were particularly excited about this hike as I mentally prepped them about sighting cool, colourful fish and pretty birds around this time of the year. Plans and foresight do not necessarily pan out all the time (Murphy’s Law of course!). We started on the wrong foot as we strolled along the path for a good little while and distance and made a bad call thinking the trail (loop) was closed. The elder one is particularly crazy when it comes to trails. He is afraid of being lost and prefers loops only. I suppose it gives him extra sense of security in the belief that the looped trail will get us back to the safety of our van one piece – which it has so far! 😄 – in all seriousness, he suffers from some environmental allergies and scared of bees and wasps – hence, a valid reason for his fright! Anyways, following trail breadcrumbs for our entire excursion but noticeable backtracking initially which was a subject of constant taunts by my son ha! (I was labelled a bad planner and silly hiker – not good enough to be an adventurist that I claim to be). I certainly stand corrected!

Anyways, enough of babbling (or equivalent of writing). A few pictures below from our walk. Unfortunately, couldn’t get clear shots of wildlife. There was a beautiful bird we saw perched up on the trees in the forest. An orange-ish breast with blue-ish wings, the size of a bunting or a fair-sized sparrow but couldn’t locate it for a clear picture. Fingers crossed for next time nevertheless!

Hope everyone reading/viewing this post has a wonderful, safe and love-filled Easter Weekend! Please drop a like or a comment if you felt this blog post.