I parked my car at the parking lot just east of the Welland Canal at the 18.2km mark of the trail.
Leaving the parking lot I crossed the Welland Canal Glendale Avenue lift bridge and hiked south along the western edge of the canal before heading into the woods.
The next 3.5km was through fairly urban parts of St. Catharines. At the 22.6km mark of the trail I climbed steeply up through a residential area on Tremont Drive and at the 23.5km mark I entered back into the woods along the top of the escarpment.
Just past the 25.3km marker, the trail passed though and around Brock University.
At the 26.8km mark I came to on an unexpected site that totally surprised me - something that I hadn't heard of before. There was a channel of fast moving water flowing into a building at the edge of the escarpment - as I found out it was the DeCew Falls Generating Station.
Doing some research I discovered that the DeCew Generating Station was built in 1898 and is the oldest continuously operating hydro electric station in Canada. It draws water from reservoirs called Lake Moodie and Lake Gibson further south from the escarpment. The water is channelled through pen stocks down 260 feet of drop over the escarpment, into the generating station, turning turbines to generate electricity and then exiting into Twelve Mile Creek. This was a very impressive site!
The trail then circles Lake Moodie past the historic DeCew House.
Legend says that American officers were billeted at the Secord house in Queenston during the War of 1812. Laura Secord, wife of a Canadian militia officer, overheard the US plan to attack the British and was reputed to have travelled on foot over 30km to the British headquarters at the DeCew House, to warn them of the attack. As a result of her warning the British were prepared and scored a major victory over the US. Very interesting to see the remains of the DeCew House.
The trail continued around Lake Moodie and back to the edge of the escarpment and continued there for a km or so to the next big surprise of the day, DeCew Falls and Morningstar Mill at the 33.5 mark of the trail. DeCew Falls is stunning at 22 meters in height - the water tumbling into a deep gorge. At the brink of the falls is Morningstar Mill. The mill and surrounding buildings were built in 1872 and are now a museum.
My wife met me at Morningstar Mill and drove me back to my car.
The tally for today was 15.3km with several very interesting sites. I was amazed at the things I saw that day that I didn't even know existed, all within an hour of where I live. As I would find out on subsequent sections I hiked, there were many more unexpected, amazing sites and scenes to come.
Again, very much looking forward to the next hike!
Completed: 33.5km
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