Our Adventure to Gardenhill (Ontario)

Our Day in Gardenhill Ontario

Gardenhill Ontario is an-almost-too-small-to-be-called-a-town sort of place.  On a Spring day, when the temperate everywhere else around Cobourg was in the double-digits, except Cobourg itself, it was time to venture out to a space with better heating, so we were Gardenhill-bound.

We loaded ourselves into the car, tunes at the ready and headed towards that lovely little place called Gardenhill. I lived in Gardenhill during my high school years, and my parents often referred to it as heaven on earth. 

Gardenhill doesn’t boast much.  It has a general store, and a fruit stand for commerce.  I remember getting the tastiest strawberries in the world from that stand, freshly picked and still tasting of sunshine. 

Attached to the firehall is a small library that I volunteered at in my youth.  Behind that dual building is one of the more popular baseball diamonds in Northumberland Region.  But that’s not why we go to Gardenhill.  We go to Gardenhill for the clean air, open spaces, the ponds and the lookout.

The weekend of March 12^th was no different.  Tunes and car-singing and car-dancing abounded on our drive to the Gardenhill pond.  The gates were closed for vehicular entrance, so

Spring springing

we parked at the gates and walked to the back area lugging our gear.  On the way to our destined clearing we stopped to take pictures of the changing season, the ice almost melted, the greenery almost budding… we were engulfed in the perfect in-between; a bridge linking winter to spring.

Little did we know that this was just a temporary reprise from the

harshness of winter’s bite.  Within a week it was back to snow and ice and sub-zero temperatures.  But our ignorance was bliss on this day, we soaked in that spring air and sunshine believing wholeheartedly that this was the beginning of the adventures part of our year.

 

Back in our clearing we played with Dave’s drone til the battery died.  Trixie hated it. She barked at that poor little thing like it was a hell-sent demon come to slaughter us all. 

 

When the battery died, we brought out the Frisbee and the boys tossed it back and forth like champs.

On our way back out of the park area, the boys noticed a downed tree over “a lake”.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was just a puddle that was frozen.  Regardless, they saw it as an adventure and decided it was set there to re-enact their own Goonies adventure.  They climbed onto the limb and shimmied across convinced that certain death awaited them should they fall. 

Strike a pose

That’s the thing about road-trip adventures, you don’t actually need amusement parks or grand locations, just nature, a great imagination and an adventurous heart can make memories that will last a lifetime.

We couldn’t leave the pond without heading to Richie’s lookout.  We climbed up to the platform and took in the view as the sun set over the trees.

As I look out my window today, I see the sun shining and the road calling for new discoveries or to recapture old haunts in new ways.

Thanks Dave, Darien, Cameron, Miles and Trixie for making this day all it could be.