Andrew and Alex

Yesterday was October 8^th 2006. It was a very bright and sunny day and we went to the Cheltenham Badlands. Located just south of Caledon Village, the Cheltenham Badlands is one of the best examples of badland topography in Ontario.

How did these badlands happen? Why they are so colourful? The reason is because land clearing left the soft Queenston Shale (essentially red clay) exposed to rain and has caused erosion to create rounded hills and gullies. Iron oxide presents in the shale accounts for the red colouring; circulating groundwater causing the change of red iron oxide to green iron oxide accounts for the narrow green bands.

I love jumping around them and running on them because it is very exciting when I jump from one rock to another.

We passed a town named Brampton when we were driving to the Cheltenham Badlands. We’ve seen this town on the bridge from highway 401 many times. I always thought it was an old industry town. But this time when we went through the town center, it was actually very nice with many new buildings. I was so surprised.

When we arrived at Cheltenham Badlands at about 5pm, there were already lots of cars lined up beside the road. We parked at the end of a bridge and met our friends, Chen Li and his family.

When I was standing on the bridge, the view was so beautiful! On the left side were lots and lots of trees. My favourite were the sugar maple leaf trees. All the trees had the colour of red, orange, and shades of brown. It was a real sign of autumn! On the right side of the bridge was the astonishing view of the Badlands!

My friend Helen was already halfway down the Badlands and so I ran. I slid down a rock and quickly caught up with them and began climbing around. Helen followed me and I told her to try and catch me. I ran and ran up many rocks and jumped from a rock to a rock far away. I almost fell but I held on to the rock and climbed up.

The Hike

After a while, Helen’s friend came too so we started to walk around the Badlands. Then we found a trail goes deeply into the forest. We started hiking along the trail with Helen’s mom and some other friends.

We walked on the trail. The trail had lots and lots of small trees around it with muddy ground. I thought there were animals in here and stood close to the adults. The trail also had lots of little plants and lots of insects were buzzing round us. I felt like I was in a real forest!

Dinner

It was already six o’clock so we drove back to our street and we decided to eat at CongeeTime. We were so tired we ate super fast and didn’t care about whether the food was hot or not. It was very delicious. When you are hungry, the food tastes the best! Then we went home and we were back in home sweet home.

It was the best hiking trip ever!