Mill Creek Hike

To continue yesterday's hike, we just kept on going east from the little waterfall all the way through to the next road.  Along the way we saw a lot of the Manitoulin formation rocks, as well as Mill Creek and the famous Mill Creek bridge.  Let's pick it up at the little Pinnacle Rock Waterfall where we ended yesterday.

As you know by now, I tried some 'slow' pictures of the falls, using a tripod, as well as yesterday's 'fast' pictures.  I figure it's legitimate to include yet more waterfall pictures if it's actually part of the hike!

This waterfall drops over the thin layers of the Manitoulin Dolostone, numerous layers only about 1" thick each.  This is a 'flowerpot' of the Manitoulin formation we encountered a little further on, as we followed the trail just below a short cliff formed by this rock.  This piece seemed to have slid down the slope, but stayed intact.

Further on, when we came to the valley of Mill Creek, we followed the Manitoulin cliff for a short distance on top, and then turned sharply to drop down the slope in a long diagonal below the rocks.  You get a really good view looking up at it.

There were several very long steep slopes on this hike, though the trail went gradually up or down.  Hikers in the valley immediately recognize the tall high cliffs of the Amabel formation, as at Old Baldy, but they maybe don't realize that there is an entirely separate shorter cliff lower down in the geological layers.  And it's the one that forms most of the waterfalls.

And then we came to the famous Mill Creek Bridge.  I've heard people praise the bridge for 2 or 3 years now, but never been there, so it was nice to see it.  It's quite long, and has a couple of interesting bends at one end, even with two benches so you can sit and enjoy the sound of rushing water..

As the sign says, it was built as a training exercise by an army regiment in 2011, supported by the two families whose land the trail goes through in this section, and a lot of local volunteers.  I think it's one of the longest bridges, over the biggest creek, within the Beaver Valley section of the trail.

I could have sat there and enjoyed it for a long time, but we pressed on up the hill out of the valley and finished our hike in about 2.5 hours.  The hills slow me down and wear me out, but that's where I get the greatest cardio benefit.  The best exercise I've had in ages, and a hike I will definitely repeat.  

Today has been miserable and cold, ice on the windshield this morning.  I'm hoping for better days to come starting soon!

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