Payne’s Pine Trail meanders through a section of the Little Bonnechere where the nature of the north meets the nature of the south. As you head out, note the jack pine and red pine which have been planted on this abandoned homestead. Jack pine, among the most common trees of the northern boreal forest, quickly establishes itself following fires, insect outbreaks and – with some help – logging activities.

The trail skirts a spruce bog environment. Black spruce, sphagnum moss, pitcher plants, sundew and cottongrass are typical inhabitants of vast bogs such as this that cloak much of northern Ontario. Watch for moose, spruce grouse, gray jays and black-backed woodpeckers, which are also northern species. At this spot you may be lucky enough to encounter white-tailed deer which, in contrast, are more common to the south.

Payne’s Pine Trail eventually leads to a bayou-like silver maple swamp on the banks of the Little Bonnechere River. This lush green habitat is very reminiscent of flooded swamps of Rondeau Provincial Park, in Ontario’s Carolinian Zone on the north shore of Lake Erie, and points further south.

From this steep, sandy riverbank look upriver to find the twin trunks of Payne’s Pine, named after Canadian landscape artist Herschel Payne.