Beware The Milk Swamp In Muskoka

Hardy Lake is a provincial park with no facilities. Mountain bikes are not allowed, and there's no camping permitted on the 81 hectare park. Canoing is tolerated, but we didn't have enough watercraft at our cottage to accommodate all of the participants, so we decided on a short hike with our dogs instead.

The Hardy Lake trails begin at the parking lot on Highway 169 about 12 kilometers west of Gravenhurst. Each relaxing route is well shaded and full of beautiful scenery. Most footpaths circumnavigate the lake, although two trails lead almost directly toward Lake Muskoka. There are three trail heads in the parking lot, but only one, at the west end, is obvious. This is the main loop, which has an awful start down an old stretch of blacktop that I understand to be the 'old road to Torrance'. Our crew happily paraded down this broken asphalt concourse which eventually fed into a dirt path and then gave us a beautiful view of the lake through many different varieties of trees and vegetation. Early in the hike we had a taste of the misadventure when our dogs leaped into a muddy drainage ditch for a quick drink of water. They emerged black with an unhealthy, oil grim dripping from their faces, legs and bellies...

Fortunately Hardy Lake is excellent for swimming and there's a fine peninsula further down the trail with flat rocks under a brown carpet of pine needles. The scene is compelling it often persuades hikers to become swimmers and then sun bathers for a spell... Some of the more prominent slabs of black granite are splashed with pink and yellow quartz veins and ribbons of bright red potash that would delight any geologist.