So I guess I should start this lesson by explaining the difference between going for a walk and going for a hike.

When you go for a walk, it usually means that you are in the city or you are in town.

You go for a walk along the road or on a sidewalk.

You're somewhere where lots of people live.

When you hike.

When you go for a hike, though, it usually means you're somewhere like this.

You're somewhere out in nature where you can enjoy the sunshine, the trees and just getting away from the busyness of city life or town life.

Now, when you go for a hike, you don't just go into the woods and start walking.

You usually look for a trail.

Usually there is a path or trail. We use both words in English.

And you can walk down that trail when you go for your hike.

This is a very well-maintained trail.

It's very, very nice to walk on this trail.

And there's a nice sign here that tells us about this trail.

It's called the Lookout Trail and it's about a kilometer long.

It's just under a kilometer in length and it should take about 25 minutes to walk this trail.

So once again, when you go for a hike, you don't just walk into the woods willy-nilly.

Do you know that word?

You look for trails and you stay on the trails.

It's important to stay on the trails. I'll tell you why in just a moment.

It's important to stay on the trails for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that there are some plants in this part of Ontario, Canada that aren't very good for you.

There's something in particular called poison ivy if you go off the path.

So as we look here at the path, if you were to go off the path, eventually you might walk through some poison ivy and then you will be very itchy for a number of days.

Poison ivy is not a nice thing to have/touch your skin.

So if you're wearing shorts, for sure, don't ever go off the path.

The other thing is that you might encounter dangerous animals.

There aren't many dangerous animals here, but in northern Ontario and in other parts of Canada, if you're out for a hike, it's very important that you stick to the paths and trails.

Because if you don't, you might encounter something like a bear or another dangerous animal.

And then the third reason is it just helps nature to stay beautiful.

If we were to all walk through the woods all the time, we would trample a lot of things that are growing there and it wouldn't stay beautiful.

So, the best way to enjoy nature is to stay on the paths and trails when you go on a hike and just appreciate the stuff that you're seeing.

One of the coolest things about going on a hike is sometimes you're able to see wildlife.

Now, I talked about wildlife that is dangerous, but some wildlife is not dangerous at all.

This is a squirrel.

This is probably the most common animal that you will see if you go on a hike in Ontario, Canada.

You'll also see lots of birds.

You'll see chipmunks, you might see a raccoon, you might even see a skunk.

By the way, if you see a skunk, you should go the other direction.

But one of the cool, fun things about going for a hike is there's a good chance that you'll see some wildlife.

Now, if you're just out for a quick hike like I am, you don't need any special gear.

I'm just wearing normal running shoes.

It's good to have appropriate footwear on when you go for a hike.

But if you were more serious and if you were going for a longer hike, you might buy hiking boots, you might have walking sticks, you might bring a backpack with lots of supplies, like some food that you can eat for your hike.

But I'm just out here for a simple hike.

I'm not going for very long.

I'm going for about as long as it takes to make this English lesson.

So, all I need is a nice pair of shoes and a sweatshirt and I'm good to go.

So, hiking has a lot of benefits.

I am a firm believer that people should get out of the city that they should find somewhere where they can be in nature and that they should go for regular hikes.

I think it's good for the mind.

I think it's good for the soul and it's also good exercise.

So if you feel stuck in your apartment, if you're stuck in your house and you just want to be happier, I highly suggest that you find somewhere beautiful to go for a hike.

You can come to Canada if you want, but that's a little bit extreme.

I'm sure if you go outside of your town or city, there's probably a place where you can go for a nice hike.

You can breathe in the fresh air.

You can get a little bit of exercise and when you're done, you'll feel mentally and physically refreshed.

So I waited until fall or what we also call autumn to make this English lesson about hiking.

I waited because this is the best time of year, in my opinion, to go hiking.

You can see that the leaves have started to change color.

You can see red leaves and brown leaves and orange leaves and yellow leaves and still some green leaves.

And there's even leaves on the ground already.

This time of year, this season, in my opinion, is the best time to go hiking.

The weather is cooler.

The views in nature are amazing and it's just a great time to be out in the forest.

So sometimes you go on a hike to see specific things.

Sometimes it's just nature, maybe an old tree that fell in the forest, maybe along the hiking trail.

There's a beautiful waterfall, sorry, there's no waterfalls on this hiking trail.

But you also might hike to a point where there is a spectacular view behind me.

You can see Lake Ontario.

So one of the rewards of this hiking trail is that you can stand here and you can see Lake Ontario, you can see some of the beautiful fall colors and you can see the town below.

So sometimes you go on a hike for a very specific reason because there's just something awesome to see while you're hiking.

So you do wanna be careful when you're hiking.

There's always the possibility that something could go wrong.

If you look down here, it's a little bit treacherous to walk along here.

You could twist your ankle, you might slip and fall and you ought to just be really, really careful so that you don't hurt yourself.

In addition, if you look over here, we are walking along the edge of a very sharp drop off.

I wouldn't call this a cliff, but you certainly wouldn't want to accidentally slip and fall down here.

That would certainly hurt and would not be a good thing to have happen while you're out for a beautiful hike in nature.

So, one of the coolest things about this hiking trail is that there is an observation deck.

I'm standing on this observation deck because if I show you what's on the other side of the camera, I think you'll really enjoy the view.

So this would be another example of a spectacular view.

I feel like it's so spectacular.

I should just stop talking for a few seconds and let you enjoy it.

Well, thank you so much for watching this English lesson and for coming on a little hike with me.

I hope you were able to learn some new English words and phrases that you can use in your next English conversation.

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And as always, if you have a little bit of extra time, why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?

Bye.