The Sheffield Conservation Area Loop- A 5.3 km Hike Near Kaladar

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The Sheffield Conservation Area trail is a fantastic looped trail near Kaladar. It has a classic Canadian Shield feel to it, and just enough elevation gain along its 5.3 kilometre length to make it a fun challenge. There are also some great views. We stumbled across this trail while driving home, and it made for the world’s most perfect detour!

We had spent the weekend “up North,” in Bancroft visiting family. Originally, we had planned on doing a short hike while we were there. The route we had chosen started out uphill and was completely iced over though, so we opted out.

On the way home, we were driving along Highway 7. I was in the passenger seat on my phone- I’m guilty of doing this a lot. I was cruising around the Internet as we approached Kaladar, when I came across a page for the Sheffield Conservation Area. It said that there were 4.5 kilometres of trails, and I thought it might be a nice little hike to do at some point. Punching it into Google Maps, I realized it was only a nine minute detour from the route we were on! Dogs were also allowed (on leash), which was crucial because we had our pup with us. We only had a mile and a half until the turn off onto 41, so I took a look around the car and we decided quickly that we had everything we needed to go for a walk in the woods.

Getting There

The Sheffield Conservation Area was just south of Highway 7, on Highway 41. There was a very small Quinte Conservation sign that let us know we had arrived. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.561058, -77.115591.

We turned into the Conservation Area and drove down a short dirt road. There was still some snow and ice on the road, and I’m not 100% sure that it’s kept plowed in the winter. The road itself was in pretty good condition though, and we bumped along in our little Hyundai with no trouble.

After driving about 300 metres, we reached a little parking lot where there were a few cars already parked. I don’t think that any more than 15 cars could fit successfully into the lot.

There were no facilities there (even though the website said there was an outhouse), but there was a boat launch and a trailhead- good enough for us!

There was also a nice picnic area just past the trailhead. It looked out over the lake and would be a great spot to stop and enjoy the view.

The Route

The trailhead was fairly nondescript, and started right off of the parking lot. There was really no way to missed it- The trail began as a wide path, to the right of the big Sheffield Conservation Area sign.

Almost immediately after the trail began, we noticed the picnic area to our left. We had yet to see any trail markers, but because the snow had all melted, we were able to see a trail worn into the dirt. We began to follow it, staying far right of the picnic area, and beginning to climb upwards.

Soon, we realized that some of the trees (and even some of the rocks) had been spray painted blue. Were these the trail markers we were supposed to follow? Not long into our hike, we realized that we were indeed supposed to be following the paint.

After hiking for only 200 metres, we reached a point in the trail where the path split, in order to form the looped section of the trail. It was well marked, and we knew we had two options- left or right. We chose to head to our right, and complete the loop counter clockwise. We thought we would get better views of the lake on the way back that way.

After hiking for 400 metres in total, we crossed what looked like an ATV track. Fortunately, the spray paint trail markers were well placed in this area, and we knew we had to continue straight instead of following the ATV track.

We had been walking gently uphill this whole time, and we leveled out after another 100 metres. We were good and warmed up! Despite feeling like we were up pretty high compared to the landscape around us, there weren’t too many good views yet.

What We Loved About This Trail

We continued to travel through a landscape that changed from forest to wide open rock faces and back again, making our way away from the trailhead. Everything had the still-dead look of nature in very early spring. The scenery wasn’t completely awe inspiring. But, I could tell that it would be absolutely beautiful in late spring, summer, fall, or even winter! The sheer amount of open, flat rock face there was on this trail was something I haven’t seen yet anywhere else, and it was really cool.

We also got a lovely reminder of how spring and summer hiking can be better than winter hiking, when we snuck up on a beautiful doe and got to watch her bound away when she realized we were there. There’s no way that would have happened in the winter, with our snowshoes making a huge racket.

There were a lot of places where there were no trees to use as trail markers, and so the rock itself had been spray painted to help keep us on track.

A few times, we lost the trail and had to find out way back to it. But, that wasn’t hard to do because the trail markers were pretty close together for the most part. Each time, we were able to walk back a few feet to the last marker we had seen, and pick out where we went wrong pretty quickly!

Heading Back

We hiked out for just over 3 kilometres, and then the trail started to loop back. This was really where we started to get nice views of the lakes in the Conservation Area. I really don’t think my pictures, or the time of year, do these views justice.

There are a few little lakes in this Conservation Area. The first one that we caught sight of on the way back was Haley Lake. When we first saw it we were still up high on a ridge overlooking the lakes, and we thought that was maybe the best view we would get. But, we continued hiking for about 200 metres, moving downhill, and found we got even better views of Haley Lake when we were lower down (and closer to it). I started thinking I might like to kayak there sometime, although when I was looking at it I didn’t realize Haley Lake was not the lake we saw when we first parked (and I’m not sure how accessible it would be).

Heading back towards the trailhead, we stayed on the lower part of the ridge. There wasn’t as much up and down on this section of the trail, although it still had a nice feel of winding gently through the woods, with sections of open rock face.

Round Lake is between Haley Lake and Little Mellon Lake (the lake we had parked next to), but I don’t remember getting a glimpse of it on the way back. We got some nice views of Little Mellon Lake before arriving back at the spot where the trail had split originally.

Were We On The Right Trail?

Despite the information on the website, our GPS tracker recorded this route as being 5.3 kilometres in length. Our pup is old, and slow, and curious, so we were hiking at a fairly slow pace. Despite that, we were able to complete this route in just over two hours. While there was enough elevation gain to help this hike feel like a bit of a challenge, it was still relatively easy with lots of long, flat stretches to make up for the little hills here and there.

I think this spot would be an amazing place to spend the day during the summer! I can totally picture myself hiking in the morning, and paddling along (or swimming in) Little Mellon Lake after lunch in the afternoon.

We might have to come back to explore further, because on Google Maps, there seems to be a trail that loops around Round Lake and Little Mellon Lake, but that isn’t the route we took. It’s also not the route mapped out on the Conservation Area’s website. If there’s more to explore in this area, I’ll be excited to find it.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Maps and Elevation Gain

Insert Conservation Map

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear We Brought

• Hiking boots
• Base layers
• Fleece sweaters
• Winter coat shell
• 40 litre pack
• Crampons
• Nalgene 32 Ounce Bottle
• Leash
• Harness
• Dog coat