My motivation to go hiking every weekend’s been a little diminished by bad weather and scheduling difficulties. Finally getting a break and looking for a good hiking spot the other day, John and Jen suggested we take a walk up King Mountain, one of the trails up around Champlain Lookout that doesn’t get as much attention as some of the easier routes. The views are spectacular – whereas the Champlain lookout looks out over some boring farmland out west of Aylmer, King Mountain has a view of downtown Ottawa & Parliament Hill – spectacular, but pretty misty the day we went. (Parliament is right smack dab in the center of the image – you’ll see it better if you click it)

I vaguely remembered the route from the hiking class I took in college. (Lacking a gym, we’d spend weekends walking around the mountains for exercise credit. ) There’s lots to see! There’s a family of vultures roosted at the top of the cliffs that you can watch gliding around the updrafts, we saw some turtles in the pond at the bottom of the hill, and there was lots of interesting exposed rock faces, a deep ravine, and wild strawberry patches everywhere.