Pinnacle Rock Hike

One day recently we hiked through the Pinnacle Rock and Mill Creek section of the Bruce Trail.  I'd seen a small part of this section before, but not much.  It turned out to be a long and challenging hike for me in terms of the cardio, but I loved it.  Beautiful and scenic, mostly through the woods, with one waterfall, some interesting geology, and Mill Creek itself.

We took the Townline Access Side Trail in to meet the main Bruce Trail here, mostly through part of Duncan Crevice Caves Provincial Nature Reserve.  At the junction we enter a large property donated to the Bruce Trail Conservancy just 3 years ago.

The well known feature of that property, after which it's named, is Pinnacle Rock.  It's a huge chunk of the Amabel Dolostone that forms the caprock of the Niagara Escarpment that has toppled over and is lying on its side at the top of the slope.

It looks bigger from below, but once the leaves are out you will hardly see it at all.  There are many big 'flowerpots' of bedrock along the trail, either eroded in place, or slipping sideways, like crevices, but this is the only example I know of a big chunk toppling over like this.

The family who donated the property requested that the plaque be placed on Pinnacle Rock itself.   For many years they knew their land as Pinnacle Rock Farm.

It was a steep downhill walk just past the big rock, which sits at the top of the escarpment.  The entire rest of our hike was across a wide valley, with two lower stream-carved valleys within it.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, brisk enough that we didn't get hot til later on.  This is the sort of moss-covered bouldery slope that I'd like to come back and search for ferns on later on in the season.

And partway down, right beside the trail, we found a nice patch of Hepatica.  It is perhaps our earliest native flower to bloom among those that are found in the woods.  Most of the year you just see the leaves.  This is probably the Sharp-lobed Hepatica.

And there was a waterfall on a small creek.  No name I know of, but I think I'll refer to this one as Pinnacle Rock Falls, since it sits in the valley directly below Pinnacle Rock.  This waterfalls is formed by the Manitoulin Dolostone layer of the escarpment.  I realized after walking down this hill that this must be one of the best places to see both the Amabel formation and the Manitoulin formation close together, and see the contrasting geology.

And of course I played around with a few water shots, these at a high ISO and fast speed to try and 'stop' the water.  I like the results.  Tomorrow we'll finish the second half of this hike.

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It was a miserable cold rainy day today though, a complete contrast to the day we did this hike.  There wasn't much to do but stay inside and catch up on all that paperwork that seems to accumulate.  I'm finalizing two talks to give this week and next, planning summer trips, paying bills (too many bills!), and all that sort of thing that sends my mind into a spin thinking I've missed or forgotten something.

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