Today’s post comes from Content Development Specialist Evan Holt. This is Evan’s fourth year completing the Frontenac Challenge!
Frontenac Provincial Park offers a unique challenge to autumn visitors that isn’t found elsewhere in the province. About half-way through my first attempt at hiking the complete 160 km of the challenge I found myself falling in love with the park.
Here’s a quick look at a growing destination for hikers, campers, canoeists and trail runners.
The 25th Annual Frontenac Challenge has wrapped up for another year following Saturday’s celebration that thanked everyone who had helped run the event and take part in it.
If you enjoy hiking and are looking for a challenge while taking in the best of autumn’s sights, smells and colours…I highly recommend tackling the Frontenac Challenge next year.
The yearly event runs from September 1 to October 31, and was created by Park Superintendent Lloyd Chapman in 1993 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ontario’s provincial park system.
The challenge is to hike all 11 loops of the park while logging a clue you find on
each trail, then return the completed “passport” back to the main office.
Each trail is very rugged (so remember good footwear, water, food and clothing layers) and it will awe you in splendor, topography and history.
Frontenac Provincial Park was once home to a mica mining facility and as you venture around the park, you’ll see remnants of the homesteads and mines from the beginning of the 1900s.
An all-time record of 381 people registered this year and 197 successfully completed the full challenge.
Be sure to take your camera to bring back some memories of your time out in nature. One particular day, I spotted over 15 deer over the course of my hike and if you stop to enjoy your surroundings, you can watch them forage away.
Start planning your next trip to Frontenac Provincial Park and if you enjoy camping, why not also try their Camping Challenge that tasks you with camping every month of the year in the park.