28th Hike – Long, Beautiful and Sore
I am so grateful to have an amazing sister! Margaret loves
to hike as much as I do, so when we had a chance to go together, we decided to
do the trail as it winds through the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park.
Unfortunately for me, I have somehow lost all the photos I took (and it’s too
bad because there were some really nice ones!)
We started our journey on the Forks of the Credit Road. The
parking is right beside the Credit River where it is very wide and shallow and
oh so pretty.
We turned right onto Dominion St. and into the small
community of Brimstone.
It was here where I saw the largest cedar hedge I have ever
seen! I’m grateful that I captured some photos on my phone and not just on my
camera.
When Dominion St. ends, the Park starts. There are some deep
woods, but most of the time while you are walking you can at least hear the
river. There were some absolutely lovely stops along the way where the river
rushes and goes over falls. I guess I’ll have to go back sometime and get some
proper photos.
As we went further along the trail, after we passed the
Quarryman’s side trail, we found signs that told us that the trail was under
construction and we would not be able to go completely through. We thought that
in order to really complete the whole trail, we should go as far as we could
and then walk back.
The sign here shows the modified route, if you follow the
proposed Dominion Trail route, that is when you end up at the dead end.
At the dead end you find the old Hydro ruins. It is right by
a waterfall and quite a spectacular sight. Renovations are underway here, and
hopefully it will be opened up soon. On the other side of the blocked part are
the stairs that go up to the Meadow Trail. A little bit further and you will
come to another waterfall with a bridge over it. The trail goes over this
bridge and meets up with the Trans Canada Trail.
And then….I have no more pictures. It’s really too bad,
because after you exit the park, you end up on “Puckering Lane”. This is a beautiful
piece of private road. There are no trail blazes on this piece, I guess because
the owners didn’t want it, but I am very grateful that they let the trail users
borrow their road. It is so pretty.
From Puckering Lane, you turn onto McLaren Side Road. Here
we saw some interesting emerald green pools that had turtles in them. You could
see where the turtles had left paths in the slime.
Another right turn and we were back on the Forks of the
Credit Road and headed back to our car. We took some time to explore more of
the Credit River here. There is a small pathway along the river’s edge. It is
just amazing to sit quietly here and listen to the river as it rushes over the
rocks and to watch it sparkle in the sunlight. To finish the journey, we drove
to Belfountain and enjoyed a wonderful ice cream cone there!
Unfortunately, the knee went out again on this trip and it
was quite a while before we went hiking again.
