I parked my car at Morningstar Mill at the 33.5km mark of the trail.
After a short walk along DeCew Road, the trail headed into the bush and into Short Hills Provincial Park.
What a wonderful and beautiful park! The park is a day-use only park with many, many trails for hiking, horse back riding and mountain biking. The park gets it's namesake from all the small rolling hills left by the retreating glaciers.
At the 36km mark the trail takes a sharp right turn and heads along Terrace Creek which gradually runs through a deeper and deeper ravine and gorge ending at the Terrace Creek Falls.
Throughout the walk spring was evident with all the native flowers ready to bloom or blooming.
The trail continued through the park through beautiful forests and meadows.
At the 40.5km mark the trail rises to an observation deck looking over Swayze Falls.
The trail finally leaves Short Hills and continues along the escarpment to Rockway where there is a 15 meter high falls cascading into another deep gorge.
Continuing past Rockway, the trail follows along the top of the escarpment and then down through some lowlands where, given the recent rain, it was very muddy and wet. I came across this tree with an interesting flower - still researching to find out what kind of tree this is.
Near the 49km marker I climbed back up the escarpment, past Sixteen Mile Creek and this waterfalls.
My hike finished at the parking lot accessed by a side trail at the 49.8km mark of the trail. My wife met me and drove me back to my car.
The standout for my hike that day was Short Hills Provincial Park. Even though it's not far outside of St Catharines the day-park nature of the park and it's size made it feel like you were somewhere in the wilderness. This will be a place I come back to for another hike or for a mountain bike ride.
Next hike - 2 weeks!
Completed: 49.3km
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