Beyond the 7th Line

The 7th Line is not merely a route from our place to Meaford.  It leads me past 16 different sideroads, each of which takes me to interesting places I can walk or explore.  Waterfalls, sinkholes, trails, wetlands, you can find all kinds of things that interest me along the sideroads beyond the 7th Line..

An astonishing half of the 16 sideroads off the 7th Line are now dead-ends, all but two of them formerly travelled, but now unused because of steep eroded slopes along the Niagara Escarpment.  On several of them you can still find the dog's-leg track that vehicles once followed to get down the hill - but no more.  there is very little traffic, and lots of trails to walk down.

This view looks across the valley from the opposite side, and shows you the edge of the Niagara Escarpment than runs north and south parallel to the 7th Line, cutting off all those sideroads.  The 7th Line is just beyond the top of that slope.  Three sideroads from the west reach a dead-end in the space of that photo.

The spots I visit regularly start right at the beginning, directly east of Hutchison's Corners, where the the top entrance to the Beaver Valley Ski Club is found.  This is a view over Avalanche Gully, looking southeast down the valley.

On the right hand side of that gully, torn out by a post-glacial river and waterfall, is today's ephemeral waterfall, which only flows in the spring when there's too much water to fit down the sinkholes.  there's quite a stretch of escarpment cliff here.

Extending north from the ski club over two concessions is the beautiful Kimberley Forest, about 1000 acres of forested escarpment slope.  There are wonderful trails here, originally laid out for cross-country skiing, and now used by many groups.

At the far end of the forest are the Wodehouse Karst sinkholes, here in a photo taken in Feb. 5 years ago.  Now there's a new Wodehouse Karst Side Trail here, running past the sinkholes from the 7th Line to the main Bruce Trail.

Over the edge of the hill is Kimberley Springs, where the water that disappears into the sinkholes flows out, cutting a ravine down the slope.

Down the next sideroad, you come to the top of the old Talisman Ski Club, now Talisman Springs Resort.  The ski slopes are abandoned, but the view is terrific.  The Bruce Trail is about 50 feet behind me.

Skipping a few concessions north, we find the Sligo Side Trail of the Bruce Trail.  This view is actually quite typical of the trail, which runs along a lot of fencerows at the edge of hayfields - when it's not running through the woods.

At the other end of this side trail, if you explore a little on a County Forest property, you'll find the remains of this old log cabin.  This is only half a mile from the stone Sligo Schoolhouse I showed you the day before yesterday.

Tomorrow we'll pick up at this point and check out a couple of places further north.