A Journey to Collingwood

Due to an unseasonably warm weekend in mid-October, Nathan and I were able to take one final hiking trip in 2008. We decided to explore Collingwood, a town of 17,000 located along the southern shore of Georgian Bay. After a ninety minute drive on a bright Sunday morning, we park in downtown Collingwood. Uninterested in the generic, tourist-friendly downtown core, we hike west out of the city, towards the vast, scenic landscape of the Niagara Escarpment.


At the edge of town, First Street, Collingwood’s primary east/west arterial roadway, narrows from a wide, four-lane artery to a bumpy, narrow country road. We pass over a ravine and enter Simcoe County’s expansive wilderness. Nathan and I hike for over an hour along the winding road. There is an interesting mix of scenery including vast, green fields dotted with bales of hay, dirt sideroads lined with crooked trees, and even a few small, contemporary housing divisions branching off from the country lane. Blue Mountain, covered with a mix of green, orange and red vegetation, looms in the distance. I enjoy the scenery and fresh air, knowing that this will be my last long walk of the season.

Eventually, Nathan and I reach the base of Blue Mountain. During the winter, the mountain is used as a world-class ski resort; however, during the summer and autumn, it offers some of the most scenic and challenging hiking routes in southern Ontario. We slowly hike along the steep, narrow road that encircles the mountain. Uncharacteristically, we have to stop and rest a few times; we were unprepared for the extreme temperature and the sharpness of the ascent. Fortunately, the thick red leaves protect us from hot sun as we continue along the uneven gravel road.


After nearly an hour of vigorous hiking, Nathan and I reach Blue Mountain’s plateau. We enter a large conservation area, famous for caves carved deep into the mountain. Large, jagged peaks and deep, dark caverns appear sporadically throughout the deciduous forest. We spend a few minutes in the “ice cave”, which, due to its depth and natural ventilation, maintains a temperature of just above zero degrees even in the summer. The most interesting cave is “Fat Man’s Misery”, a dark, narrow tunnel that shortens to just thirty centimeters at a hairpin turn near the end. There’s a long lineup, mostly because few people who enter the cave are able to make it to the end.

Later in the afternoon, we hike through the nature reserve's dense forest. The edge of the reserve, located at the outer periphery of Blue Mountain, features a bridge suspended nearly 300 meters above the ground, overlooking the vast Simcoe County forest, the town of Collingwood, and Georgian Bay. The bridge provides a great vantage point as Nathan and I have a direct view of our entire hike along Mountain Road, which connects the nature park to downtown Collingwood.


We exit the park and head down Blue Mountain. Although we hiked for nearly an hour to reach the peak, it takes us just twenty minutes to walk down the long slope. We re-trace our path from the morning and eventually walk along the waterfront in downtown Collingwood. Although it pales in comparison to the white, sandy beaches of nearby Wasaga Beach, Collingwood still has several quiet, pleasant parks that that lead to directly to the muddy, tree-lined shores of Georgian Bay.

After getting dinner, we head home. We get horribly lost along the way, as I drive aimlessly through the dark backroads of Simcoe County at night. Eventually, after passing through Bond Head, Holland Landing and Bradford (twice), we reach Newmarket and find our way home from there. Overall, the walk was enjoyable, and we didn’t get trapped in any of the caves—a successful way to end the 2008 hiking season.