Marching into March

Back in March I grabbed my ruck and went for an extended wander. Only now getting around to sticking up the few photos I took. 

Cut across Chedoke Golf Course. No one golfing yet.

Despite it being a beautiful day, chilly but sunny, this was the extent of people out. One cyclist overtook me, and 17 walkers and 3 cyclists passed me on the trail. Oh well.

View out across the Dundas Valley, the Niagara Escarpment on the opposite side on the left, with Lake Ontario in the distance on the right.

Closer to the Lake.

Hawk soaring on the thermals of the Escarpment.

Rainy Day Hike

Even before Hurricane Sandy hit, it has been raining here for days on end. Sunday was a grey, rainy, windy and cold day, but to me that makes it ideal to go hiking.

Sauntered across the abandoned greens of the golf course....

....to get to the Chedoke Radial Trail.

When I got to Lower Cliffview Falls, I decided to see if there was a way to get up closer, and also up to Cliffview Falls. It’s usually a trickle at best, but with all the rain, it was really roaring.

But that rain that made for a visually more appealing flow, also made for saturated, muddy ground, and wet, slick leaves. On steeply angled gorge walls. Oh and I was carrying a good sized pack. Yeah. Made for dangerous walking. I’m real smart like that. Cliffview Falls will have to wait until a drier day.

Getting back down may not have been my most graceful performance ever, but I got down in one piece. All that matters.

 Princess Falls.

Scenic Falls. Went down into the gorge last fall, but decided one hairy climb/descent in one day was enough.

Often if I go this way, I’ll return the way I came. Opted to cross the highway via the Bruce Trail overpass, and go back via Filman road, White Chapel Cemetery and along the Rail Trail.

Bruce Trail.

I came around a hill and there was a coyote walking along the trail. We stood and looked at one another for a while. Oh yeah, I should take a photo. The coyote decided to trot up a hill, along the top, and back down in order to go around me. My camera was on auto setting and it takes several seconds between each shot, and each time I clicked it was behind trees. About the only one that was any good, (said with tongue firmly in cheek), was this one. Not so easy to make out, but skylined on top of hill.

Fall Falls pt. 2 – Balls to the Walls

Last Sunday I wandered along the Niagara Escarpment, and had such a swell time I did it again this Sunday. Like last week, it was a grey, rainy day, but I will take a cool autumn day over a summer scorcher any day.

Partly I went because I just enjoy going wandering, and also because I had the idea to get down into Scenic Gorge to take some photos of the falls from below. It’s a steep descent and right now with freshly fallen leaves and quite a few rainy days in the last several weeks, they’ll be slippery and the ground underneath will be muddy. That’s what held me back last week, but all week I kept thinking about throwing caution to the wind and making my way down. It’s an intermittent waterfall, only making an appearance after rainfalls or spring melt. Best time to get some photos of it is now, after weeks of rainy weather. The descent involved a mud skidded ass and hands that required a rinse off in the creek, but I made it down in one piece

Start of the trail.

Made a little detour into Chedoke Gorge. Didn’t go in that far.

Remarkable where foliage will take hold.

From here I opted to check out the rest of the gorge. All those rocks you see on the ground – they covered the entire floor of the gorge from one end to the other. Some the size of a fist, some the size of a toaster, some the size of an oven, some the size of a car. Not to mention then being covered in leaves, and plenty of fallen trees. Made for treacherous footing.


I decided to explore another avenue out of the gorge further up and once I figured out that was a no go, I came back down and had a pucker moment when a rock slid out from under my foot, one leg went in one awkward direction, another foot slid and got wedged in behind another rock. My body, my legs, my knees, my ankles were in a strangely disjointed pose before I plunked myself down on my ass and stopped before anything snapped. Deep breath. And...on we go.

It seems that this is an area not frequented by people that much, simply by the lack of garbage. I only found three beer bottles and four beer cans. Probably too much trouble for shitheads to scramble in and clamber back out. What garbage there is looks like it is carried down here by the creek. A couple of tires, a completely rusted out wheel barrow, a destroyed suitcase. I’d like to organize a clean up of this area and one other in the spring. Do it with a group of people, some up top with ropes that can haul the stuff up and out. Trying to climb up the walls with tires and garbage bags in my hands doesn’t seem so feasible.

One last look around before clambering back out.

Even within the confines of a big city, and a highway not too far away, a really peaceful spot. Getting to sit on a big rock for a while, with the sound of a waterfall and a burbling brook right nearby - fantastic.