Spending Time in Nature boosts your immunoproteins and virus fighting cells.
Adults who take short day trips to the woods boost their levels of immunoproteins and natural killer cells for at least 7 days.
Increasing outdoor time for your health is so well proven, that nature is being adopted worldwide as a health intervention and in Canada, healthcare providers can even write you a prescription for it, with BC Parks Foundation's PaRx program. Nature is becoming the fourth pillar of health just as important for staying healthy as good nutrition, regular exercise and sleep.
Whether or not you have a PaRx Nature prescription, we can help. Here's how:
Our Walk March 18th, 2025
(You must register online to join this walk).
Meet at the J.A. Pollock Trailway on Shirley Drive, directly across from BMW Grand River in Kitchener by 9:10 AM for a 9:15 AM carpool departure to the trailhead. Google map of carpool location.
Trailhead is the parking lot at the Marguerite Ormston Trailway.
Please contact the hike leader if joining the hike at the trailhead.
To get to the trailhead from Guelph, take the 401 west to Homer Watson Drive. (Google Maps indicates that taking highway 124, then 24 to the 401 is shorter than taking the Hanlon to the 401). Head north on Homer Watson to Doon South. Turn right into the parking lot at Marguerite Ormston Trailway.
From the Marguerite Ormston Trailway we'll walk Grand Valley and Community Trails, hopefully to form a loop. See this hike description in self-guided hikes on this website. If the community trails close to the Grand River are flooded, then this hike will be an out and back.
Hike length: 6-7 Km. Terrain difficulty: 2. Pace moderate. Walking Time: 2 hours.
Hike leader: Ron - ronaldcherry002@gmail.com
On a prehike March 10 the trail was snow packed and icy in places. On March 18 the snow may be gone, but the trail may be wet and muddy with icy patches. There are a couple steep hills.
Bring water, snacks, hiking poles. Icers are required.
Lunch post hike at Edelweiss Tavern on Homer Watson at Manitou Drive.
If trail conditions are poor on the day of the hike, another walk on paved trails may be offered instead.
