Again, a very beautiful day. We drove to the Spirit Tree Cidery on Boston Mills Road at the 48km mark on the Toronto section of the trail and headed out east along Boston Mills Road. The trail then followed Creditview Road north to the 49.5km mark which ended the Toronto section of the trail.
At the 0km mark of the Caledon section, the trail headed east into the woods near the Cheltenham Badlands. We hiked through some nice rolling hills, in fields and woods but passed south of the Badlands, so didn't get to see them, which was disappointing. At the time, we should have taken a side trail to go see them. In the end, after our hike was done and we came back to pick up the car, we drove over by the Badlands to se them. Here is a picture - not a huge area but very interesting geography!
We walked east along Olde Baseline Road until the trail headed north along Chinguacousy Road, which started as a road up the escarpment but ended at the 2.5km mark where it became a trail into the woods.
At one point thee was a memorial wreath for someone who I presume had an accident or died in the area?
We continued north for about 3.5km and at the 5.2km mark the trail met The Grange Sideroad. As we walked along the sideroad, there were some spectacular properties and houses (or mansions!) along with some very picturesque horse farms.
At the 6.5km mark, the trail headed northwest into the woods towards the escarpment edge and the Forks of the Credit area. The trail came out on the edge of the escarpment around an area known as the Devil's Pulpit, named as such as the rocky, sheer 100 meter cliff edge juts out over the surrounding Credit River valley area. Here are some pictures from this area including the descent down (a pretty technical descent) the escarpment to the Credit River and the Forks of the Credit area.
The Credit River, which is formed at the Forks of he Credit area by the East and West branches of the Credit River, is 1500km in length including tributaries. The river was named "Missinnihe" or "Trusting Creek" by the First Nations of the area as it was a meeting point with traders.
Following is a picture looking back up from the valley to the Devil's Pulpit area of the escarpment and the spectacular railway bridge across the valley at the Forks of the Credit.
From here we hiked northwest again along Dominion Street, which had many beautiful homes along the Credit River, to the 10km mark where we entered the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. The Provincial Park is a day use park only but has an incredible trail system that traverses the valley floor along the beautiful Credit River and the surrounding escarpment cliffs.
As we followed the trail north along the Credit River valley, we started to ascend the valley up the escarpment to an area around the 14km mark called Cataract. The town of Cataract in the 19th century was a very bustling town that grew based on 3 large limestone quarries in the area. Over 400 workers worked in the quarries at their peak and the stone from the quarry is found today in the buildings at Queens Park, Toronto's Old City Hall and University of Toronto. At Cataract, the Credit River flows over the edge of the escarpment with a large waterfall where you can also see an old hydro electricity station. The following pictures are from this section of the trail.
We finished at the 12.6km mark where we met my wife who picked us up. We travelled to the local town of Erin and had a Father's Day lunch, after which we headed back to the car at the start of this day's hike.
Another beautiful day and hike!
Completed: 263.8km
No comments:
Post a Comment