Fisher's Pond - Hike 13

Hike 13 started from the street parking at Fisher Access Trail just east of Cedar Springs Road at the 78.8km mark on the trail. The day was cool but fairly clear and sunny with a skiff of snow on the ground.

The trail continued for a km or so through the woods and then came out onto open fields and woods that surround a large pond on top of the escarpment called Fisher's Pond. The pond was frozen over. Following are some pictures leading up to and around Fisher's Pond including a few "apple" pictures.

About 2km on through the woods, the trail descended off the escarpment and through open fields and met Highway 6, crossing a stile and the road. Here are pictures of the woods leading up to the Highway 6 crossing.

After crossing Highway 6, the trail continued east through open fields with nice views down over Burlington and the Lake Ontario.

A km east of Highway 6 the trail turned north and back into the woods climbing slightly towards Side Road 1. At the 83.3km mark the trail met Side Road 1 and turned east again following the paved road. That day I got a call from my son living in London that they had a huge snow fall over night and that he was digging out from almost 3 feet of snow.

The trail continued along Side Road 1 for 2km or more with beautiful views looking up towards the escarpment.

My wife met me at the 84.9km mark at the corner of Side Road 1 and Walker`s Line.

Completed: 164.9km

Falling with Stile - Hike 12

Hike 12 was on a beautiful, sunny but coolish day. My wife hiked with me for this section of the trail.

This section had, if I remember correctly, at least 4 or 5 stiles that had to be crossed including this first one.

We started at the 71.8km mark on the trail just east of Waterdown at Mountain Brow Road. The first couple of kilometers were through a nice section of Waterdown Woods, although with recent rain it was a bit muddy. There were nice views of Burlington out off the escarpment.

At the 73.5km mark we crossed King Road on top of the escarpment. King Road, in north Burlington, is in the news every year as this area is one of only 27 sites in Ontario where the Jefferson Salamander lives and breeds. The Jefferson Salamander is protected by the Endangered Species Act. Ontario is the only province outside the US where this salamander is found. It lives in the deciduous forests and each spring migrates to local ponds for breeding. For a week each spring King Road is closed to accommodate the salamander crossing from the forest to the ponds.

The trail continues until we reached Kerns Road. The trail crosses the road and enters Kerncliffe Park, site of the former Nelson Quarry. The quarry is being restored and developed as a park with many boardwalk traversing the old quarry through environmentally sensitive areas. The trail is located above the quarry.

More views down over Burlington and Lake Ontario.

 

The trail continues to the 76.9km mark where you have to cross 4 lanes of very busy traffic on Dundas Street/Highway 5. Not an easy place to cross - it took us 10 minutes to get a spot where we could cross and even then we had to run to beat the cars.

The next km of trail was through low lying area that was very muddy and wet. The trail brought us out to Cedar Springs Road at which point there was another stile. This stile proved to be my downfall for the day. With my boots muddy I climbed up the stile and as I came down the other side I slipped and fell backwards down to the ground and in the process trapping my right leg and calf in the stile steps. I badly bruised my calf and need several weeks to get better. Lesson learned -  clean mud of your boots before climbing and carefully climb up and down.

Crossing the road we continued for a few km's around and through private land including a backyard that looked out over the escarpment. The yard had this old, dead tree that I thought was very interesting.

We finished at the 78.8km mark on the trail.

Another nice but painful hike.

Completed: 158.8km

Grinding the Grindstone - Hike 11

Hike 11 started at the 62.6km mark of the Iroquois Section of the Bruce Trail. I parked at the edge of Valley Road at the trail entrance.

The trail climbs through the Royal Botanical Gardens property up and along the escarpment until it descends to Old Guelph Road at Highway 6.

Check the interesting cloud formation over Hamilton!

A concrete tunnel takes you under Highway 6. As the trail continues on the east side of the highway there are ruins of an old homestead that are very interesting!

The trail continues along the escarpment through Clappison Woods.

The trail then descends and meets a railway track. The railway was originally built by the Southern Ontario Pacific Railway in 1910 connecting Hamilton to Guelph via Waterdown. It took 2 years to build at a cost of $1 million. It stopped carrying passengers in 1950 and is still used today for freight.

The trail continues to descend down the escarpment, crossing Snake Road at the 67.6km mark.

It continues to descend steeply down and around a large swamp and eventually meets up with Grindstone Creek. A large wooden bridge allows the trail to cross a rushing Grindstone Creek.

After crossing the creek, the trail turns north and follows Grindstone Creek upstream, climbing up the creek valley. The following are some nice shots of Grindstone Creek.

Further up the creek valley, the valley becomes steep sided and the trail climbs steeply up beside the creek. There are huge boulders and rushing rapids at this point.

The following pictures are near the top of the creek valley as it nears the Great Falls.

Great Falls, or sometimes called Grindstone Falls or Smokey Hollow Falls, is 10 meters high. The first mill was built at the lip of the falls in 1805, followed over the years by many other mills. There were so many mills at one point, with so much smoke, the area was named Smokey Hollows. The mills continued to operate for nearly 100 years.

In total, Grindstone Creek drops about 135m in elevation down the escarpment through a valley about 4km long.

The trail continues through Waterdown crossing Mill Street. On the east side of Mill Street there is an area where there are Bitternut Hickory trees. Check the amount of nuts in the tree!

I finished up at the 71.8km mark of the trail. My wife met me and drove me back to my car.

Another wonderful day of hiking!

Completed: 151.8km