Fall hiking is here! Fall is the best time of year for hiking; perfect temps, great colours, and NO bugs!
The Humber Valley Trail is a beautiful trail to hike this time of year with trees on their way into full fall colour. I recently hiked up from Humber Valley Resort to the summit on a day hike with Keri and Bubbles and we enjoyed some amazing views and lots of ripe berries.
From the main gate at Humber Valley Resort, stay straight on the main road all the way up until you pass the Eagles Perch golf club and take the next road on your left. This next road is very rough, since this is just the water supply road. Stay on this road all the way until you see IAT painted on the rocks on the left, but keep going and park off to the right, please don’t block the road:)
Walk back and walk through the area shown above, heading towards the water supply lake, watching for the trail on your left. Keep left at the beginning and keep an eye for the faded/white IATNL blazes and/or pink flagging tape. The trail climbs steadily and is pretty easy to follow until you reach the barrens. Be sure to stop and take in the views!
Once you break out above the tree line, your now following the white paint on the rocks, it’s kind of like connect the dots. This section of the trail isn’t as popular as the Old Man section, so there is not always a well worn path to follow. You must pay attention to where you came from and where you’re going.
The trail takes you up to the highest point in the area, from here ( on a clear day) you can see Marble Ski Hill and the doppler to the south, the North Arm Hills to the west, Deer Lake to the north and the valley where Grand Lake lies due east. Of the three times I have climbed up here, twice I have seen caribou around the top lake. Please be respectful and keep your distance but be sure to enjoy the presence of these majestic animals.
On our hike, we decided to picnic at the top to relax and enjoy the views. We wandered around this summit area, picking blueberries and the odd bakeapple. On the way back down, we had to do a bit more route finding until we hit the tree line. Our hike (up and down) took us about 3 hours.
It won’t be long until the whole valley is glowing yellow and the barrens turn bright red – so what are you waiting for? Get out and go hiking!