My Bruce Trail Blogs

We parked our car on the side of the road and crossed over to a wire fence with a Bruce Trail sign next to it, indicating permitted uses of the trail through private property. To start hiking, we had to climb over the fence... fortunately, the owners of the property provided us with the means, and built a stile over the fence. We encountered several of these in earlier hikes, when we were walking through properties where the owner kept horses. To prevent the horses from wandering, a fence was put up, and stiles were built to climb over the fences for hikers (and presumably other people) to use. For anyone unfamiliar with stiles, imagine two ladders - one on either side of the fence - that are joined at the top. That's basically it.

This section of the trail was a combination of small woodlots and fields full of very, very tall grass (sometimes taller than me!) and other weeds. I would almost say they were hayfields except for the fact that there were often many trees in these fields as well - I'll call them weedfields. The woodlots were usually a combination of deciduous and needle-bearing trees (I'll call them "pine", although I'm sure they weren't). The first bit that we walked through was a weedfield, followed by a small woods that was mostly "pine" with some deciduous around the outside edges. Then another weedfield, then another similar woods. Parts of this section of the trail were sandy, which was a nice change from earlier in the season when the most common difficulty we encountered was mud.

One of the most common weeds that we noticed in this stretch was thistle, which - up until last fall when I visited Scotland - I didn't know even grew in Canada. There was also a lot of something my friends told me was milkweed - the leaves are very thick and bulbous, and look prickly - apparently the leaves burst open and flowers bloom from them (I'd like to see that). We also came across some wild raspberry bushes, a few wild daisies (the large ones), and quite a few wild carrots ("Queen Anne's lace").

We then walked across a couple of boardwalks as we exited one small woodlot and entered another, after passing through a small clearing full of weeds. Just after this, we crossed a road and entered another woods. In here we came across ferns that were waist-high. (No kidding!) Also, a good-sized patch of sunlight opened into the woods, and here grew some red berries, which I think were currants.

Then another boardwalk, another woods with a small hill, across another road, and then into another "pine" woods. We climbed a bit larger hill, then came into an area where the trail itself is open to the sky, but on either side of the trail grew tall trees - mostly deciduous, but some "pine". It was a very hot day (about 35+ degrees Celsius), and we came across a few small grasshoppers on the trail in this section, and we could hear them humming. We also found a broken robin's egg on the side of the trail. Unfortunately, the shell was very thin, which could mean that because of the hot, dry summer the birds aren't getting enough to eat.

We then came across more red currants before climbing a fairly large hill. It was so large that by the time we finished climbing it, we all decided to take a rest stop. Of course, that might also have had something to do with the fact that the entire climb was in the scorching hot sun, with no tree cover (unlike some later hills we had to climb today). We weren't alone, either - there were 4 other hikers resting here at the same time, probably to get out of the sun. There was a small patch of shade here, partway up the hill.

After about a five minute rest, we continued up the hill, around a bend, and then upwards some more. At the top we were rewarded with several wild raspberry bushes, so we stopped and had a few. We needed to rest again, anyway. Also at the top of the hill were crabapple trees, and one of my friends identified some other trees as sasparilla - they had some red, sort-of-flowery stuff growing in clumps on the ends of the branches. (I just want to mention here that the plants we encountered today are quite different from the plants we saw on the trail two months back.)

After another five minute rest, we entered a very small woods. On the other side was a dirt road, small enough to make me wonder whether cars really used it, especially considering the location.

Across the road was another hill, but thankfully not as big as that last one. This hill was covered with large rocks (about 8" diameter), smaller rocks, gravel and tree roots. Much easier to climb than sand. :)

The trail then turned and went uphill yet again. This part of the trail had obviously been used by horses, from the evidence, and we found an interesting species of mushroom growing here. We had to walk uphill for a little while here, and Suzanne told us about a trick she had been taught on one of her hiking trips (she had recently hiked 100 km in one week!)... walk zigzag up and down steep or long and difficult hills, to make them less steep. So we tried it, and it helped save our tired legs numerous times in the course of the day.

At the top of this hill the trail reached an intersection with one of the side trails, and we had to climb over a stile to continue. Fortunately for us, on the other side of the stile was a park, and the park had outhouses. This is a rare enough thing on the trail, as far as I've encountered, let alone outhouses with toilet paper!!! We were all so pleased. :)

While we were taking our rest stop, the rest of our friends caught up to us. We were hiking in two groups: one group is made up of "serious" hikers, generally very fit and very fast walkers, they don't stop to smell the roses. They were hiking a total of 20 km today. The rest of us (including myself) like to walk at a more leisurely pace, stopping to take pictures (and eat berries) once in a while. Our hike for today is about 14 km, about two-thirds of the distance for the first group. We started about 5 or 6 km further up the trail from the first group's starting point. The plan was for all of us to meet up about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through and finish the trail together. Not a chance. The three fast hikers were very energetic today, despite the heat and the smog (did I mention there was a smog warning in effect for the day?), and overtook us at about their halfway point. Oh well.

So we continued into the woods again. There was a family hiking this stretch of the trail too, and I thought it was just adorable that the youngest member (about 5 or 6) had his very own miniature walking stick. :)

After crossing another boardwalk, we walked through a section of woods that had a very strange type of grass (at least I think it's related to grass) - one of my friends thought they looked like glowsticks. I quite agree.

We then came across a pair of mother-daughter hikers, before coming to a bridge over a dry stream. After crossing the bridge, we walked up a small hill and bumped into another pair of hikers, and another stream. (Deja-vu, all over again!) We stopped and took the opportunity to cool our hands in the water, then when we turned a corner, we smiled. FINALLY, we get to walk DOWN a hill.

At one point we crossed a stream that ran under the dirt path... I just thought that was interesting. Also at one point we came across a makeshift teepee close to the trail.

Then after we walked through another small woodlot we came to another park. I noticed that this park also had picnic tables and outhouses. Hmmm... Anyway, when we crossed to the far side of the park and re-entered the woods (out of the hot sun), we found some more picnic tables, and decided to stop for a bite to eat. There were also some interesting large trees here.

We went up a hill, then down a hill, then came across a deciduous tree that was covered with huge globules of amber-coloured sap. We weren't sure why it would be leaking the sap in this manner, so we stopped and wondered at it for a minute.

After a number of smaller hills (both up and down), we came to a clearing. It had a stile that apparently used to be over a fence, but someone had decided that that section of the fence was no longer needed. Not far past that was another stile, again with a section of fence removed. We walked through the opening and continued into a weedfield. The trail took us downhill and around the edge of the field, before leading us back into a woods. There was what actually looked like a laneway going downhill here, and beside the lane grew bushes of red and black currants, and crabapple trees beside the currants. There were also some needle-bearing trees that I thought were quite unique.

We weren't very far along after that, when a series of mopeds came roaring past us, and also a motor-trike. We soon realized that the bikes must have come from the highway, as we were now quite close to Highway 9. One quite interesting thing we found before we got to the highway was what appeared to be a little winged-frog-like insect attached to a tall piece of grass. It was obviously dead, and given the heat, we thought it likely that it had stopped to rest and had just dried up. Earlier on the trail we saw something much like it, only it looked like a June bug that (we thought) had completed molting (if June bugs molt - we weren't sure at the time). There was also another currant bush here.

To get to Highway 9, we had to walk down a long, fairly steep slope. We took it slowly. The trail turned to the left, wend around the outside of the railings for about 40 feet and then... continued on the other side of the highway. This part of the Highway 9 is four lanes across. We ran, when there was a suitable break in the traffic. Don't try this at home, folks.

At this point we almost lost one of our members, not to the traffic, but to the relatively flat ground beside the highway that would certainly lead to the end of the trail in a straightforward manner. I think that if she knew what was in store, she most definitely would have walked that way instead. The hills in the next section of the trail became harder to climb. But first we went downhill for a ways. The footing here wasn't all that great, but we soon came to a boardwalk over a small creek. And then we went down again - this time there were tree roots and small steps (dirt and wood) to help us.

Soon after that we came to a larger stream, and a bridge. Not missing an opportunity to take a picture (or to cool my hands off in the water), I climbed down onto some rocks in the water, and took a few snapshots of my group, and then of the stream. A little ways along the trail from the bridge was a dam. Interesting.

Was was NOT interesting, at least from our point of view (people who had been walking for over 10km at that point) was the hill that we were faced with after that. It wasn't steep, but it just kept going. And then it turned and kept going some more. We stopped for a short break when we noticed that some of the trees had some black goopey stuff "growing" on them. Yuck! Onwards and upwards, as they say. So we went on. And up.

After the hill was another weedfield, and some more crabapple trees. And then - you guessed it - another hill. Bigger and badder than the previous one. It went up, then turned, up some more, turned, and up some more. Every time we thought we'd got to the top, we turned a corner and... more hill. And this one was a bit steeper than the previous. We ended up stopping partway to catch our breath and take a break. And to save a little toad or frog from being walked on, by shooing it off the trail. :)

So we finally found the top of that trail, and the trail was nice and flat for a ways. On one side of the trail was an interesting archway made from a tree that had bent over. I also at one point found quite a large tree stump that had some greens shooting out of it. And we took another rest stop - fallen logs are very convenient places to take breaks on the trail. :)

And then it was down a (small) hill, and up a (small) hill, and down a (rocky) hill, and up a (rocky) hill. And down a long, twisty hill, and down about a dozen steps into a valley. We could see the high bluffs all around us, and knew what was in store for us. And dreaded it. But what else could we do at this point? We kept walking. We walked up a small hill, then took a short rest stop before climbing the last large hill. This climb was of the sort that was cut back-and-forth into the side of the hill to make it easier for hikers. And towards the top of the climb were a few stairs, also to help.

The last stretch was across flat land, around the edge of a weedfield. Before we reached the end (we were actually in view of the parking lot), we were rewarded with a rare view: the trees beside the trail fell away and we could see the town below. (I was later told that the "serious" hikers actually did a double-take and decided to stop here for a minute.) A flat-style bench had been placed at that spot, so Mike climbed up on the bench, and us girls stood near the edge of the bluff and posed for a very beautiful picture of this week's hike. br>

Continue on to the next hike (Hike #17)