Falling Water Trail Part III

Picking up on the past two days' posts, we carried on toward Hogg's Falls.  The trail followed the slope making walking easy, but then it headed down to the river, and back up again.  A bit more challenging!

Still a beautiful golden canopy overhead.

And then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a faded fern that looked unusual.  I stopped and took a close look - this was a fern I had never seen before! 

This is the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort or Silvery Glade Fern, Athyrium picnocarpon, (according to my fern guide), a fern that has these simple leaflets with no sub-leaflets.  I've made a bit of a hobby of identifying ferns, and have seen nearly every species in southern Ontario, so I was thrilled to finally see this one.  I'll have to return in mid-summer and get better pictures.

We finally climbed down a steep slope, clambered over a log jam above the falls, and came out at Hogg's Falls.  Having left the car further north, and walked further than we planned, we had to walk back up the valley road to get it!  A total of 6 km, the longest I've walked since my heart surgery.

The ravine here was dark, and there was a tree to lean against, so I managed to get this picture of Hogg's Falls by shooting on the shutter mode, with a 1/4 second exposure, just hand-held.  A great end to our best hike of the year.