Komoka Provincial Park: Part Two

   The weekend before last, I made my first real running foray into nearby Komoka Provincial Park. Today I decided I would head there again, to continue my exploration.

Headed east (south?)

   In the parking lot, there was a woman and a couple of kids and two horses, just sort of mulling about. I stopped and talked to them briefly and made mention that their presence there sort of explained the piles (well, one pile anyway) of horse poop I'd encountered on my previous expedition. They smiled a little sheepishly and said they generally try and kick it off to the side. I assured them a little horse poop was the least of my worries and then headed off.

A little beaver action, just off the trail

   The parking lot on Gideon Drive is centered approximately in the middle of the park and you can either head east or west from there (it might even be north or south for all I know) and today I headed west (maybe south!)
   The trail initially takes you through some tall grasslands but then down into forest. It peters out fairly quickly and then you find yourself heading back.

The Stairs! Which take you down to.....

   The other week when I was there a couple of different people I met on the trail referred to "the stairs". I had not seen "the stairs" that day and really had no idea what they were talking about. Well, today I found "the stairs". I knew they were "the stairs" as soon as I laid eyes on the them. Happily, they took me right down to the edge of the Thames River and from there I was able to skirt the riverbank as I ran. 

...the Thames!

   I ran pretty slowly today and was using it mainly as exploration. The park was once again pretty busy with hikers but I did encounter a couple of young runners who whizzed right past me in both directions and were obviously there for the workout. To be young again!

More of the Thames

Decay=Beauty!

   Eventually, I ended up on trails that I remembered from my last trip there and these then took me back to the parking lot.
   There is a small amount of bitter-sweetness about all of this.For years now, the people of London have been coming to Komoka for free and it has just been announced that starting August 1 there will be a charge for using the park. This has a lot of regular users up in arms, some claiming they will never return. Part of the problem here is that there are so many places in and around London to run or hike for free that it will be a bit of a hard sell to get people to make a short trip out of town to somewhere where they'll actually be forced to cough up hard cash. Another issue is that there really are no amenities in this provincial park---no picnic areas, no garbage cans, no wash rooms---those kinds of things. Likely the only thing that will keep people coming is if the whole place is tremendously enhanced. At which point, it will lose much of its charm!

Proposed new pricing. Boo! (unless, of
course, it makes the park a lot nicer...)