Kevin’s Trans Canada Trail: What the Forest Keeps in Winter
Written by Kevin Wagar
My birthday is in February. I generally abhor celebrations, so that’s just another reason that the loneliest month of the year hits me hard. February is the kind of month where everything feels slightly heavier than it should. It always seems like the coffee isn’t quite doing its job. The idea of sitting through another day of emails during February just feels like one more way to bring on the winter blues.
On one of those mornings, I made the only sensible decision available to me. I drove to Uxbridge.
Nobody is coming to save you from February
Durham Forest doesn’t care about your problems. This is, in fact, precisely the point.
The Trans Canada Trail threads its ribbon of peace through the Durham Forest trail system northeast of Toronto. It’s just an hour from the city if you’re moving with purpose, or longer if you stop for coffee, which you should at a local spot like The Bridge Social in Uxbridge.
In warmer months, this place is mountain bike territory, a rolling network of pine-lined corridors that fills up fast on weekends with people who tear down the trails at breakneck speeds dodging roots, trees and rocks for fun.
In February, however, most of them are indoors. The fat-tire bikers remain, though. Those wonderfully stubborn lunatics who refuse to acknowledge that bicycles and snow are a contradiction in terms. Those nuts mix with a handful of hikers and cross-country skiers, but otherwise, the forest is yours.
I was the only person at the trailhead, with my snowshoes in hand. I felt immediately smarter than everyone in the world who was still stuck at their desks.
The moment I strapped on my snowshoes and ventured into the tree line, the highway noise stopped. Not faded, stopped. The forest absorbed it like it had never existed. Two days of settled snow meant the side trails were still soft underfoot, uncompressed by anyone else’s boots. The air smelled the way Ontario forest air is supposed to smell in winter: cold, clean, faintly of pine and entirely free of conference calls.
The Forest Has Better Things to Do Than Wait for You
The world may seem quiet and serene in winter on the Trans Canada Trail but, if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the woods are not empty at all. In fact, they’re filled with natural wonder.
Within the first kilometre, I stopped three times. Not from fatigue, but from the simple, slightly embarrassing realization that the snow around me was covered in evidence of a very busy night — Chickadee tracks sketched tiny constellations on the snow-covered tree stumps. Blue Jays announced themselves from somewhere above with the subtlety of a car alarm, outraged by my presence in their domain. Dark-eyed Juncos materialized from the underbrush, hovered for a moment, then vanished again. Small, dark-hooded birds that appear every Ontario winter like they own the place.
Because they do.
And then, in the distance, the Pileated Woodpecker started up.
If you’ve never heard one, it sounds like someone knocking on a door the size of a barn. Deep, deliberate and persistent. A sound that carries through cold air with confidence. I stood, anchored in place for a full minute, scanning the forest for the source. I never saw it. Just heard it working, steady and unhurried, somewhere in the pines.
It did not care that I was there. I respected that enormously.
I had come hoping for a Snowy Owl. Durham Forest sits within range during irruption years — when these Arctic ghosts push south and occasionally allow themselves to be spotted by people like me. I had heard whispers of sightings. I scanned every open stand of trees with the focused intensity of a man who has spent too many hours watching David Attenborough documentaries.
Nothing. The owl, if it existed at all, was keeping better hours than I was.
Photo credit: Kevin Wagar
The moment
Past the midpoint of my loop, the trail crested a small ridge, and the canopy opened up. I stopped and looked up.
The February winter sky had been typically grey for weeks. But there, through bare oak branches was the kind of bright blue that lights up a snowy landscape. Above me, the branches crossed over it in perfect stillness. No wind, no sound except the distant knocking of the woodpecker, still at it, still completely indifferent.
I stood there for a long time.
The noise that had come with me from home — and there’s always noise, regardless of how quiet your morning starts — had faded away to a distant hum. Being out on the Trans Canada Trail didn’t take away and of the emails would still be there when I got back to my desk. February would still be February. But the forest had shaken all of that off and allowed me to be present in nature. There’s no room for that kind of stress out here on the Trail.
This destressing and moment of quiet is why the Trans Canada Trail matters in winter. It’s not a wellness experience or a fitness challenge. It’s just a place that is there, with or without you. And if you’re willing to step outside, you can be a part of it.
Go to Durham Forest, or any of the many stretches of the Trans Canada Trail near Toronto.
An hour northeast of Toronto and you’ll find rolling terrain with real elevation. Quiet trails that reward those who try something new. Winter birding that punches well above its weight. And enough distance from the city that the parking lot doesn’t look like a shopping mall on a Saturday morning.
Bring decent boots, skis, snowshoes or even a fat-tire bike if you have one. Pack a thermos. Give yourself more time than you think you need.
And if you see the Snowy Owl before I do, keep it to yourself.
Photo credit: Kevin Wagar
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Kevin Wagar is a Canadian travel writer, photographer, and expert in real-world family travel in Ontario and around the globe through his website wanderingwagars.com. He’s the co-founder of Ultimate Ontario and We Explore Canada, along with the family travel website Wandering Wagars – Adventure Family Travel. Kevin shares stories from backroads, deserts, and everywhere in between, helping families travel with curiosity, confidence, and kids in tow.
Follow him at @Wandering Wagars and @Ultimate Ontario.
About Trans Canada Trail
Stretching nearly 30,000 kilometres across every province and territory, the Trans Canada Trail is cared for locally by trail and community groups. As a charity, Trans Canada Trail advocates for and stewards this nationwide system. We support community-led trail projects through the Trail Catalyst Fund and we share reliable trail knowledge through the Centre for Trail Excellence.
