Hike: Elgin Trail in Summer

Robin and I decided to take our major summer vacation back in Ontario this year. With our granddaughter Lily reaching 8 months old, a couple of weeks at our beach place in Port Stanley seemed like a great way to get some relaxing time in while visiting with family and friends.

My son-in-law Konrad and I have been itching to hike a bigger part of the Elgin Trail, ever since we did a little part of it in the winter time a few years ago. Plans were made to do the hike on Friday July 10. Daughter Sara just happened to be in Port Stanley on the 10th and with a borrowed pair of hiking boots, she joined Konrad and I.

We got Robin to drop us off at the trailhead on John Wise Road and proceeded to walk south towards Port Stanley. I really enjoyed the trail sections in the woods; the trail was in good shape and well-routed through the geographical features. In several places, the trail left the woods and followed alongside farmer’s fields and along some backroads before diving back in the woods. During these more open sections, we did some geocaching, with Sara showing she had a good eye for findings caches.

Probably my favourite part of the trail was the section south of Union Road and north of Thomas Road. The trail here was well planned in following the gradients of the hills and gave great views of the forests and hillsides. South of Thomas Road, we were on the section we did in the winter time and the walk back in Port was quick. Konrad and I even stopped in at GT’s for a quick beer, something that is not possible in the wintertime.

All in all, I can highly recommended the Elgin Trail for good hiking in this area. I’d like to try the full walk from St Thomas to Port sometime. We found the gpx files from the Ontario Trails Project to be very helpful in navigating the roads between the various trail sections. The full set of Ontario trails now have a permanent place on my Garmin Oregon 450 GPS. General information about the trail is available at the Elgin Hiking Trail Club website.