This week's installment of my weekly hike series takes us to Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area. We opted to start at the Islet Lake staging area. Note that this PRA has 4 different staging areas or entrances: Central, Islet, Waskehegan, and Blackfoot. All the trails however are interconnected and you can travel all over thru a plethora of combinations.
As with most of the trails we've visited this summer, the trails are wide and very well maintained. Mosquitos were at a minimum although we did get a few bites each by the time we finished up.
We strted on the High Line trail, crossed over towards the lake on the Middle trail and then back to the staging area via the Lost Lakes trail. All total we hiked about 5KM. A bit longer than we originally had planned but a lovely walk nonetheless.
Very little wildlife (other than a few loud kayakers. There were plenty of times where we stopped and realized we hadn't heard any birds or chipmunks for quite a while.
Not much in the way of berries along the path we took either - no raspberries to be found, nor any bear berries. However, I did come across these luscious looking gems which made me think of the choke cherries we used to eat when we'd roam the woods as kids. Mmmm, choke cherries....
I'm guessing the reason we didn't see many berries was because, as the signs warned us when we entered, we were in bear country.
A bit of wetlands along the way but mainly forest (at least along the trails we took).
Mind you, the view at the end is certainly worth the wait (despite the blue green algae).
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