Park #4: Komoka Provincial Park

 Park #4: Komoka Provincial Park Date: November 26, 2024 Use: Hike Group: 3 Cats

What do you do when you are celebrating a birthday but yet trying to visit all 115 Provincial Parks?  Why, you plan a birthday hike obviously.   Our sweet Country Cat recently celebrated her Bonne Fete the only way she could, by hiking park 4.  Komoka Provincial Park.

Ok when I say this park has everything, I am not exaggerating.  I had no idea this gem was hidden in our backyard.  Less than an hour from our location, this day use only park has 4 different trails, varied terrain and elevation, multiple landscapes.  Nestled in a gorgeous example of Carolina Forest, this park takes you through organized forest, along the banks of the Thames, up root covered hills, into grassy fields and beyond.  You can hike, bike, and even horseback ride select trails.   Perhaps the most unexpected feature (for me) was the Eagles - yes PLURAL!  We saw them when we pulled into the parking lot and then continued to chase or be chased by them, playing tag while our trail ran parallel to the riverbank. I just knew this hike was going to be amazing when we were greeted with 2 bald eagles as we pulled into our parking spot.  The amount of times we spotted the eagles during the hike was incredible and I cannot wait to go back (with a better camera) and see them again! I had to laugh when we encountered other people on the trail and told them about the eagles, and they weren’t super excited, because bald eagles are SO common on this trail!

Multiple times during our 5 km hike we each paused to exclaim that we need to hike this again.  We only examined about ¼ of the actual park.  The park itself is easily accessible, once into the parking lot, we were greeted by a comfort station with the now notorious plastic poop chute (which was very very cold on the bum by the way) and a sign with a qvc code to pay online for parking.  Once payment was remitted, we scrubbed our shoes and hiked away.  We met many folks on the trails.  In fact this park was extremely popular for a weekday visit.  We started on the white trail, met up with the orange trail, and then merged to the blue.   The trails were well maintained, wide and clearly marked.  Some of the flatter areas even had benches that overlooked the river.  Some of the trails had boardwalks, wooden stairs or carved earth stairs.  The blue trail even had sections we all felt could be used with a stroller. 

We had experienced quite a lot of rain in the days leading up to our planned hike, as a result the trails were quite muddy and slippery.  We chatted with a lovely couple while catching our breath after a large steep hill, who informed us that the spring floods can have quite an impact on sections of the trails. We are looking forward to hiking this park again in the winter with the snow, and the spring with the fresh grass poking through the ground and in the summer under the canopy of the trees!  While generally we don’t want to make a habit of repeating parks with 111 parks still to go, this beauty is so lovely she's worth the exception.

You forgot to mention the beavers! While we didn’t see any, we saw trees that had been cut down, and we spent half our hike debating what animals could have caused that damage, as I was pretty adamant that beavers are not in the area. One couple we encountered confirmed, that yes Country Cat, there are in fact beavers in Southern Ontario! Google tells me they are nocturnal, and we won’t see them on our hikes, but I look forward to returning to see if they ever came back for all the trees they cut down and left scattered along the river bank.