Saturday, September 2, 2017

More Beyond the 7th Line

As we head north toward Meaford, there are more favourite sideroads and the secret places I can explore down them.  Let's start with the wetlands.

Down one of the sideroads is a Bruce Trail property known as the Young Wetlands.  It's a large beaver pond, with a stream flowing over the dam and downstream.  I was able to get partway out on the dam to get this picture.

The beaver seemed to have been absent for a few years, but then they returned, raising the dam, and building a series of smaller dams downstream, flooding the trail crossing.  It ended up far worse than this picture shows, and an entire new crossing had to be built last year.

There's another big beaver dam and wetland down one of the other sideroads, this one on Wodehouse Creek.  I've explored around here several times too.

Then we hit the Bruce Trail itself, in this view heading west from the 7th Line through some nice deciduous forest.

The first stretch of trail here is riven with several mossy crevices in the limestone, a common pattern along the edge of the escarpment cliff.  And a great place to hunt for ferns.

There's also another ephemeral waterfall here, a waterfall that only flows in the spring.  We had to climb down a short cliff to get this picture; exploring comes with its own adventures!

This stretch of trail will only be 10 minutes from our new home, so I'm sure I'll be back here regularly.

Finally, along the Bighead River near Meaford you can follow the Trout Hollow Trail downstream past the site of the sawmill where John Muir worked in the 1860's.  This would have been the view from the front of the cabin where he and other mill hands lived.

We know exactly where the cabin stood because of both this extant map, and some archeological work.  Muir also did a sketch of the cabin, kept a journal, and wrote letters back to a family here after he left Meaford, heading first south and then west.

Just upstream is the ruins of an old hydro dam, which is another fascinating story.  It never lasted long as it was washed out by a big storm a few years after it was built.

Hope you've got the idea that the landscape here has lots of spots of interest for me to go exploring.  From our present home I drive north to these spots, from our new home I'll be driving south, but I expect I'll still get back to many of the same places.  Today was a wonderful late summer day, cold in the morning and tonight, but very nice during the day.  We got a lot of work done outside potting up plants we're going to take with us.


15 comments:

  1. Even more proof of the beauty in your surrounding area.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That rickety pathway looks a lot like some we have around here. But it's gone now, you say, and has been replaced with a better one? I hope you'll share a picture of it with me. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love that waterfall photo, so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You will certainly not giving up anything if you will be closer to places like this for your hikes. I love the mossy crevices, the waterfall and the beautiful white trilliums especially!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello, this looks like a lovely place to visit and walk. The waterfalls is beautiful, I love the wildflowers. That boardwalk looks a little shaky for me. Great series of photos. Happy Sunday, enjoy your day and new week ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So many areas to explore, FG. Paradise.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Have you ever seen any beavers at this pond?

    ReplyDelete
  8. What fabulous views - love the waterfall. And so interesting about Muir - great info - thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Didn't know that John Muir was ever around there, though in those days everyone must have disembarked on the East coast then worked their way across the continent. I wonder how much time he had to explore the area, I'm guessing that he'd've loved that waterfall.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful waterfall. Beaver ponds are always interesting, you're lucky to be living where there seem to be quite a few.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely waterfall. Beavers are something I've never seen, we don't have them here.

    ReplyDelete
  12. how pretty, what a beautiful waterfall!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely place, the Waterfall was especially nice.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is amazing what beavers are capable of doing.

    ReplyDelete