I’ve always found it worthwhile to head to remote locations, whether in Canada or beyond our borders. When it comes to Ontario Parks, some of my best hiking and wildlife experiences have been in the most northern parks I’ve visited.
Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park
A little off the radar for many campers, Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park is up near Foleyet, Ontario. That’s over an hour east of Chapleau or an hour west of Timmins. Still not sure? How about 8-9 hours of riving north from Toronto!
It’s a beautiful lake, with spacious campsites and plenty of privacy. The nosiest neighbour we had was a mamma duck who kept waddling around our campsite with her babies in tow.
There are actually quite a few decent hiking trails at Ivanhoe Lake. The first one we did was the Teck Lake trail.
Hiking the Teck Lake Trail
At only about 1km long, this is a short trail. Even so, this trail offers a nice range of scenery, as it meanders through mature forests and takes you to a pretty kettle lake (Teck Lake).
While the trailhead for Teck Lake isn’t very far from the campgrounds, we didn’t see, or hear, any other hikers our entire time on this trail!
The only sounds were our own steps, and the birds and squirrels chirping and chattering away at us.
It was a pretty hot mid-summer day when we hiked this trail, so upon reaching the little lake, it definitely looked refreshing to swim in! No beaches or anything here though, so we headed back to our waterfront campsite, where we had lots of space on Ivanhoe Lake to enjoy the water.
The trail itself is quite easy overall. It does have some decent inclines and declines to get your heart pumping a bit, but there are no real challenging areas.
Most people should be able to do this trail in decent running/hiking shoes. I still tend to hike in my hiking boots on such trails to avoid possible ankle injuries, but they weren’t really needed on this hike.
Expect to see some forest dwelling creatures along the way too, mostly red squirrels. Maybe chipmunks too.
In terms of vegetation, it was a lot of big pine trees, as well as some smaller berry bushes, and mixed forest in areas. A good variety! Some decent sized, colourful mushrooms were spotted too.
The pathway was narrow in many places, and slightly overgrown at times, as can be expected at the lesser-visited parks further north.
Overall a fun trek in the woods that only takes about half an hour of hiking.
