Friday, November 18, 2016

Yesterday's Hike, Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday, the remaining highlight of our walk down the east side of the lower valley was a new pair of bridges over Rock Creek.  They were amazing!

This is the first of the two bridges, over 30 feet bank to bank, and very well made if you ask me.

This is the stream they were bridging, a wide shallow channel that used to be crossed by an 'Irish' bridge - stepping stones.

The railing is not only for safety, but helps strengthen the bridge and make it more rigid.

Then I discovered that the 32 Combat Engineer Regiment helped a lot of Bruce Trail volunteers build the bridges.  They are based at the Land Forces Central Area Training Base just outside Meaford, and have helped with other bridges too - it's good training for their troops.

It's actually a beautiful little stream, with very clear water.

But the second bridge was nearly twice as long as the first one!  Nearly 60 feet!  All the lumber for these had to be carried in along the trail, from the nearest point a truck can get to, across adjoining farm fields.  This pair of bridges was a major operation!  And it was all done in three days!

There was still lots of beautiful open deciduous forest to walk through; as you can see, it was up and down hill a lot.

There were still lots of Beech leaves on the saplings.

And then we ended the hike after 3 hours, at Hogg's Falls again.  

Just playing around with water images, as I always like to do.


13 comments:

  1. Beautiful!!! The falls, in slow motion, and what great bridges. A huge amount of man power to get them made.

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  2. It is nice that the Forestry Division of our government tries to make the trails safer for everyone to use. Always love the pictures.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  3. I'm always in awe of the great trail bridges that get built far away from any vehicular access. Lovely waterfalls!

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  4. Three hours of hiking up and down those hills! Good for you! Nice bridges ... I like that they left one side open for maybe paddling your feet on a hot day? Hoggs Falls is so pretty. Your photos are enticing me to hike out that way.
    Wendy

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  5. Wow! Those bridges are great, and built in such a short time, too. I love it when you play with settings on water shots. :-)

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  6. Those bridges are great. What a great hike!

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  7. A couple of fine bridges, as you'd expect from the engineers regiment. And I love the waterfall picture. Science and art on the same trail!

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  8. Beautiful bridges, hopefully they'll survive high water.

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  9. beautiful images and bridges - waterfalls are always my favorites!!!

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  10. The falls are wonderful. They have such a sharp straight down fall from above. I really liked seeing the bridges. That is a lot of work plus having to haul all of the wood to the two sites. Many people made the hauling a little easier.

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  11. Some nice foot bridges to walk over. I miss walking over all the ones I walked where I used to live.

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  12. Nice job on the water shots! Lovely area for hiking.

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  13. The bridges look well put together, and those falls are such a delightful sight.

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