My Collingwood Shangri-La

I have for the last year pretty much been a city girl. I do have a getaway place, which in previous years I would trek up to every weekend all summer. This year, and much of last year, that has not been possible, since I have my place "on loan" to my parents, who needed a place to bridge the time between when they had sold their country home last year while they were waiting for their Toronto condo to be built. They are getting on in age, and it was just time to be closer to family and to remove the burden of exterior home and garden maintenance.

Next Monday they move into the condo they have been waiting for all this time - and, for a brief few weeks I get my Collingwood Shangri-La back. I say a few brief weeks because I just may have lucked out with an extra 3 week fall rental from Thanksgiving through early November. I rent it out for ski season every year and that rental starts early December and runs through April. I really cannot justify having 2 places when there is just one of me, so it helps that I call it an investment and rent it out part year. So not much time for me to enjoy it this year, however next year I will be up their without fail every weekend starting in April. I am also going to get myself a kayak, so I will be out on the lake a lot as soon as it is warm enough.

I was browsing through some photos today and reminding myself what a paradise it is up there. As I drive up on a Friday evening, I can just feel the stress seep out of my bones. It is heaven. Bella and I walk out to the end of the sea wall and sit for a few minutes upon arrival as our arrival ritual every time. She and I could be very happy in retirement some day up there.

One of the many things I appreciate about the Collingwood Area, is the diverse geography. The Niagara Escarpment is within sight - the Blue Mountain Ski Hills are in view from my doorstep - an enchanting sight at night in the winter when they are lit, let me tell you. The wonderful huge expanse of the blue waters of Georgian Bay are also just steps away. Collingwood has lots of great places to shop, eat and entertainment of all sort as it is a 4 (ok - 2) season resort town.

I have condo in a resort style gated community of stacked condos, well serviced with a Community Centre with all the amenities, including tennis courts and a marina on the Bay. That aside, there is one other thing which my location affords me - I am just across the road from the Georgian Trail which interconnects with all sorts of other area trails of varying terrain and difficulty for hiking. You can see by the map below, how many trails there are in the area.
Whilst going through some pictures I came across a bunch which I took while on a hike along the trails from my Shangri-La at Rupert's Landing to Sunset point. To illustrate the route better, I cropped and enlarged the above map to show the area I travelled. I trekked pretty much from the left top shoreline to the right most shoreline in the map below. It was a great day, windy but warm. Half way along it got cloudy and a storm threatened, but the bad weather held off until we got home. I shall have to get in a few fall hikes whilst I have the place in the coming weeks!



The slide show audio is from Ingrid Michaelson's tune "Far Away"... it has been a while since I have been able to spend some "quality time" at my Shangri-La, so it seems right now "Far Away"... He song makes me smile as I listen and does provide a little extra ambiance to the photo gallery.