31st Hike - Forks of the Credit Road, Devil's Pulpit to Grange Sideroad and Creditview Road

September 25, 2016
This was our first hike after we had to put our beloved dog, Meeko, down. This was quite difficult as she was the one who always got so excited about hiking. Thankfully Scruffy still loves it.

We were very grateful to have our guest from Germany, Maike, along with us for this hike as well. It is always interesting to see if other people see the beauty on this trail as much as we do.

We started our route by parking on Forks of the Credit Road. We've done the Devil's Pulpit before with other friends, but forgot what a steep piece it was.

After climbing a set of stairs (a LOT of them), we came across the railway. As far as I know, this railway is still in use by the Orangeville Brampton Railway (it is run under a different name). From there you will ascend a steep trail with lots of boulders to climb over and even a small stream that goes underground once in a while. Once you have ascended the cliff face (there are rocks and a handy railing there) you are treated to one of the amazing views that the Bruce Trail is known for.

I never cease to be amazed at how trees adapt to their surroundings and grow. This one here, on the edge of the cliff, has managed to grow its roots around the rocks.

It's hard to imagine how much work the original architects of the Bruce Trail would have had to do to get this project off the ground. It is also hard to imagine how much work people still do to keep it going! We are so very thankful to all the people who donate time, land and money for this!!!

Once you have reached the top of the cliff and walked a piece down the trail, you meet up with Caledon Mountain Drive and its beautiful homes.

After this, the trail meanders in a rather straight line until it meets up with the Grange Sideroad. Along the way we wee treated to grapevines, a beautiful pond that isn't on any map and finally a gorgeous maple tree putting on its colours for us. 

Of course, the way back was a wee bit easier, but it still required quite a bit of maneuvering and being very careful while walking down the steep slope with all those rocks.

After descending part way down, we decided to take the Ring Kiln Side Trail. This trail takes you to a former ring kiln with many interpretive signs about how they worked and how they quarried the limestone.

We thoroughly enjoyed a look at this part of Ontario's rich history. It was quite remarkable to walk through the broken down parts of these stone walls and see where they used to burn the limestone in the various chambers.

After getting back to the trail and back down to the car, we could not resist a walk down another small slope to get another glimpse of the beautiful clear waters of the Credit River.

30th Hike - Escarpment SR @ Kennedy Rd. & Willoughby Rd. to Puckering Lane - September 11, 2016

30th Hike - September 11, 2016

This hike was one of those "fill in" pieces. When I had walked Escarpment Road, I had my grandson with me. This meant a stroller and it was impossible to do this little piece by Kennedy Road where it veered off the road and over stiles.

This little piece was not even a kilometre long, but we were treated to some beautiful views.

Being that it was September, it was starting to become noticeable that we were heading into fall and another season of hiking was coming to a close.

Very quickly we were over another stile and back onto Escarpment Sideroad and looping back to the car.

From here we drove down Escarpment Sideroad, crossed Highway 10 and continued until we were at the corner with Willoughby Road. We had already hiked the piece from here to Highway 10, so this time we went the other way in to fill in the piece to Puckering Lane where I had been with my sister Margaret. This little short piece was 1.5 kilometres each way, but it was a tad more challenging because of the inclines and declines.

On the fences that we passed, it said that this land was part of a "Watershed Stewardship Program". From the Conservation Authority's website, "A watershed is an area of land that catches rain and snow and drains or seeps into a marsh, stream, river, lake or groundwater. Homes, farms, cottages, forests, small towns, big cities and more can make up watersheds. Some cross municipal, provincial and even international borders. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes and can vary from millions of acres, like the land that drains into the Great lakes, to a few acres that drain into a pond."

As people who enjoy the outdoors so much, we are so very grateful to the people who work hard on preserving these areas. I read on one website that the Credit River flows through one of the fastest growing areas in Canada, and if not preserved, we could lose these areas very quickly.

Once we made it to Puckering Lane, we again saw the signs warning of the missing trail blazes. Whilst looking up information about why, I found a different blogger's site who had met up with a person who lived on Puckering Lane. The houses here are worth millions of dollars (one was valued at over $6 million). Apparently there was problems with vandalism and partying and the residents of this beautiful quiet street had been in conflict with the Bruce Trail Association for years. It is really quite sad to hear this as I like to hope that all the people who bother to hike the trail are there because they appreciate it so much. I guess that is not so. For the life of me, it is something I don't think that I will ever understand.

And so, we turned around and headed back to the car. Another day of hiking done!

29th Hike - Bruce Peninsula - September 5, 2016

29^th Hike – Bruce Peninsula – September 5, 2016

Because I had hurt the knee on the last hike in July, it took quite a while to be able to be out and about on the trails again. So when we thought we were ready to go, we looked up on the internet to find the most beautiful part of the Bruce Trail. I believe we found it.

We left the house at 4:00 am in order to try to get to the Bruce Peninsula National Park by 7:30 am. We were told that the parking lot filled up very quickly so you had to be there early to get a spot, especially on a long weekend with beautiful weather. We were among the first 10 – 20 cars in the parking lot. However, it did fill up very quickly after that.

   

As I was researching some of the dangers of hiking here, I found quite a few warnings about what a difficult hike it was and what to beware of. We came across these signs, which warn of snakes, cliff jumping, poison ivy and the importance of proper footwear.

   

We started off in a northeast direction, heading around Horse Lake. It was a photographer’s paradise this early in the morning. (In all honesty, the whole hike was a photographer’s paradise!)

As we got further north, we were able to catch our first glance of Georgian Bay.

    

As we walked along the beach, we were amazed to see how the trail was easy to follow even with all these rocks.

The beauty of this coastline is one that would rival some of the world’s greatest! It is rugged and clear and stunning!

   

On one of the information signs it said that some of the trees here are over 1000 years old, making this the oldest forest on this side of the Rockies.

As we walked the coastline, we were walking on trails where we could see the gorgeous clear water below us and the awe-inspiring cliffs above us.

     And everywhere you looked there was absolute beauty.

     

As we hiked a bit further along, we came to “The Grotto”. In all honesty, until I looked all of this up to come here, I had no idea what “The Grotto” was. However, since coming here, we have spoken to so many people who have come here to swim and hike.

“The Grotto” is, according to the Parks Canada website, “a scenic cave containing a pool of blue water, located on the Georgian Bay shoreline in Bruce Peninsula National Park, near Tobermory, Ontario.” According to www.atlasobscura.com, “The interior of the grotto itself is an open cave filled with amazingly blue turquoise waters. The waters are made even more stunning and vibrant thanks to the light that emanates from an underwater tunnel in the grotto.” (I also found, while looking at this website, that the parking is really a thing and they have now come out with parking passes you can buy in advance…)

From the Grotto, we travelled to Overhanging Point. In all honesty, we thought we had found Overhanging Point several times before we actually got to it 😊.

To get to Overhanging Point, we had to go over Boulder Beach. Again, this was something brand new for us. We had never seen a beach made of boulders. According to www.geocaching.com, they are formed by “the shape of the shore line and the seasonal lake ice activity. Shoreline has bottle neck shape with two strong limestone sides. When the ice starts breaking in Georgian bay, strong wind pushes all the ice into the bottleneck. It's called ice shove or ice push. It's the movement, offshore or shoreward, of rock fragments over the bedrock surface by ice. Rock fragments are either scattered on the platform or concentrated in shallow depressions and along small scarps. They may also form large block ridges in the high storm events.”

And finally, Overhanging Point….

As we followed the coastline, we found this beautiful cove with what looked like a very relaxing time for whoever owned the boat.

And another boulder filled beach:

 

From here we turned back inland towards Loon Lake. It was very swampish and not nearly as picturesque as Horse Lake.

   All along the way, especially from Boulder Beach to Coony’s Dump, the trail was made of rock that was pitted and rounded. Our feet became so sore that after we made it to the other side of Coony’s Dump, we had to turn around. We ate our lunch in this beautiful, breathtaking spot.

As we were eating on these rocks, we found this very curious formation:

After our meal, we trekked back to Marr Lake and took that trail back to the car. We were so very sore and so very tired…. (no pictures because the camera really started to hurt from hanging around my neck.)

In retrospect, I must agree with the websites we looked at, so far, this is the most beautiful stretch of the Bruce Trail.