Hike #4 Bruce Trail End2End
Here is a little catch up. We have done several hikes since last post. A couple of reasons for doing these. One is that I just like sharing our adventures and the other is that at some point or other, likely two or three years down the road… or much more, I’m going to want some sort of evidence that we hiked the whole damn thing. So this is a bit of record keeping. This kills two birds with one stone.
My last post on this project was 11 Jan this year.
So hike #4 goes along Glendale from near The Keg, across Highway 406 then up the hill - Tremont Dr. I really hate is when hiking takes me on a road. I’m more used to hiking in the mountains in Alberta and BC. I like most of the Bruce Trail but having to walk streets kind of sucks.
Once past that, though, it is a pretty nice walk. Still cold enough when we did it that it wasn’t too muddy. You come past Brock University and they along Lake Moodie and then end up in the parking lot at Decew House Heritage Park. A little ways down from Decew Falls. This is all just across from Lake Gibson. I’m really hoping it warms up in the next few weeks enough for us to get out in the kayaks on this water.
We used two cars with this one as we didn’t want to walk both ways.
Hike #5 Bruce Trail End2End
The next section that we did goes from that parking lot at Decew Heritage park to Decew Falls. Fairly short walk but was a warm enough day. We took one car and came back part way along the road then back up the embankment along Decew Road. Then we were back on the trail to Heritage Park. We used just the one car as it was short and easy enough to do the loop. We actually did this loop before we started to officially, in our heads, do the Bruce Trail End2End. There is an old mill at Decew Falls that we have visited a few times. Quite historic. If you are lucky enough to get there when it is open or someone can open it for you, it is worth looking around. I’m including some photos of that here as well.
Hike #6 Bruce Trail End2End
Next is Short Hills. We had hiked Short Hills previously but the section from Decew Falls to the parking lot at the north end of the park we had not done completely. It was a snowy day and we hadn’t had much of chance to do any snowshoeing so we parked at that parking lot - north end off Pelham Rd. I think we did part of it on a little side trail that paralleled the actual, official trail but we went to Decew and back. One car again.
Hike #7 Bruce Trail End2End
The rest of Short Hills Bruce Trail hike we did much earlier. We moved here in September 2017. In October/November that year it was one of our first hikes. We started a bit late in the day. There is a little parking lot west of Silver Springs Dr on Holland Rd. We parked there and did the first loop going clockwise. We didn’t know how long this hike would be and it was dusk when we were finishing up the last bit. It was muddy and slippery. We could barely see the last couple of hundred metres. But we made it. We carry flashlights now when we go later in the day.
Hike #8 Bruce Trail End2End
We did another big loop a few weeks later. Started at the north parking lot at Pelham Rd and south counter clockwise. So about 2/3s of the hike was the ‘official’ Bruce Trail. It is a pretty straight run going south for a bit. A little more than half way down that stretch, we saw a deer carcass. Partially eaten and coyote tracks all round. Looked like a recent kill. Likely the morning hikers scared them off. Probably a good idea to keep your puppies on a leash if you are out there, particularly in the early morning or evenings. That is also a very nice loop - brings you around and back up by the parking lot at the end of Wiley Rd. We have snowshoed in from that parking lot a few times in winter and done a side trail in the centre of the park. It is a well travelled but very pretty park.
Hike #9 Bruce Trail End2End - Rockaway Falls
Our most recent hike/walk was a ‘there and back’ from Rockaway Falls to the edge of Short Hills. This one is actually a pretty nice hike. We did it last week, I think it was Tuesday the 26th March. It takes you past some nice horse farms. You may see some riders out there and possibly one big ass dog (the size of a small horse) may bark at you from a distance. There were a couple of spots that were a bit mushy and wet but lots of leaves on the ground made it OK. Took us a couple of hours but we tend to dilly-dally a bit taking photos and such. If you were on a mission you could do it much faster.
