Iain Leitch Photography

Near the start of July I had a free day on the weekend and the weather was quite nice so I took the opportunity to get out to some local hiking areas that I had been meaning to check out, nearish to Ottawa. I went first to Marble Woodlands, then down to Baird Community Forest, then over to Purdon Conservation Area.  Marble Woodlands My first hike of the day was to Marble Woodlands, which is a Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust property that is open to the public. There is a small parking lot at the entrance, which isn't signed from the road. You start off the hike going through a long grass meadow that had amazing wildflowers, dragonflies, and butterflies. The trail then transitions to a mixed forest. At the complete opposite end of the property there is a little patch of Hemlock trees, which was an interesting find. Near the end of the trail you transition back into a tall grass meadow and the trail leads you back to the parking lot. It was 3.3km long and took me 51 minutes to compl...

Our latest camping trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park on June 19–20. We stayed at site 197, which we'd stayed at before back in 2021. Murphy's Point is great as it's about a 1.5-hour drive from my home in Ottawa, and it's a well-managed and well-kept park. I find there are always people around, but it never books up fully, and the sites are spread far enough apart to make it feel private. We like site 197 as it's a bit on its own, and is right beside a water tap and a short walk to the vault toilets, or a bit longer walk to the comfort station if that's more your style. Once we had camp all set up, we wanted to go for a hike before it rained, as it was calling for scattered storms later that evening. Since my wife and I had been to this park before, we had done most of the trails except for Loon Lake (which is a loop) and McParlan House Trail (which is a there-and-back trail that branches off the Loon Lake Loop). My wife is pregnant, so we wanted som...