Friday, February 19, 2021

Waterfalls Presentation! I'm a (Very Minor) YouTube Star!

My presentation on waterfalls in this area for the Thornbury Library went live last Thursday evening, and it worked fine.  It's now up on YouTube so you can watch this scintillating half hour talk if you wish at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDwlWSdWsY

It's actually risen to over 500 views (in less than a week) which makes it the library's most popular video, and this library has produced a lot of them!  You can also search for it at the 'Blue Mountains Public Library' on YouTube,  search for 'Waterfalls of the Beaver Valley'.


This isn't a secret waterfalls, but it's one you may not have seen yet.  It's half-way through the new Stew Hilts Side Trail Loop.  The walk as far as the falls and out again makes a great winter snowshoe.


Secret Waterfalls - as a way of grabbing your attention, here are two of the 'secret' waterfalls I talk about.


Did you know that you can see two 'secret' waterfalls in the Beaver Valley?  They're 'secret' in the sense that they don't flow all the time.  In the tiny stream above each falls there are sinkholes, and most of the year the water in the creek just drains down through the sinkhole, leaving the waterfall totally dry.  But at least in the high water of early spring there's too much water for the sinkholes, so there's suddenly a waterfall. 


It might be just for a few days, or for several weeks depending on the rate at which the snow melts.  These falls may also emerge into life after a very heavy rainstorm too, but I've never been there to see that.


The first, a falls I've seen described as Minniehill Falls, is just west of the 7th Line on the Bruce Trail, on GSCA property, approximately at km. 111.6.   At dry times of the year you might not even recognize the rocky stream bed as you step across the limestone, but otherwise you may have to leap a small creek.  The falls plunges 20 feet just to your right.  The best view is by going past the creek and looking back.



Parking here is tricky, right at the crest of the large hill down the escarpment, but it is possible to pull a vehicle totally off the roadway on the east side just where the trail crosses.


The second 'secret' waterfall is the Woodford Creek Falls, at approximately km. 42.8 of the Sydenham Trail Section, just outside the village of Woodford.  As the Bruce Trail Guide notes, this waterfalls 'thunders over the edge for about one week of the year'.  The rest of the year it disappears into the rock above, and emerges as a spring below the slope.  If you approach from the west the trail is at the top of the slope.  Over the dry creek it drops down to the level of the spring before heading east.  



Approaching on the trail from the east the trail goes through an interesting crevice that is labelled as too narrow for those feeling claustrophobic!  I didn't find it so; other crevices just east of Owen Sound are much deeper and darker.  Safe parking here is available both at the Community Centre in Woodford and on the St. Vincent-Sydenham Townline.         


We're enjoying a beautiful sunny day here and facing at least a few days of rising temperatures.  Yes!  I think I'm going to transform this post into a short piece for the local Bruce Trail Club newsletter.                                                                                           

16 comments:

  1. Lovely waterfalls! I'll have a look at the video.

    Here the snow is falling today.

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  2. Magnificent photos of these "secret" waterfalls are just wonderful! I'll go check out the video, too. :-)

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  3. Beautiful waterfalls. We have a secret waterfall back of us too. It's a tumble off Gariepy Creek at the bottom of a very steep ravine. Trying to get down the ravine trail one can just imagine how deep Gariepy Creek was WAY WAY back.

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  4. Great pictures of those very interesting waterfalls that only flow sometimes. I'll go see the video too.

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  5. Looking forward to watching your video -- waterfalls are some of my favorite subjects.

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  6. An excellent and informative presentation, Stew. It's nice to hear your voice at last after so long of just seeing your words on the screen. Some years ago I used to lead walks in the Neath Valley of South Wales below the village of Ystrefellte (lucky for you that you don't have to pronounce that one) where there's a similar concentration of falls, for similar reasons to your group of falls - limestone above shales. We used to invite someone with local expertise to talk to our walkers on one evening during the week. If you'd been local I'd have been on the phone pestering you to give a presentation!

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  7. To hear you talk with an accent, this is great, those photography tips, the whole presentation was superb. Well done to be on You Tube, and to give us your speciality with the Stew Hilts Side Trail Loop, that waterfall definitely needs a name. 605 views this evening. Congratulations in the highest.

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  8. Cool waterfalls, I like the frozen one, and all the levels of the Minniehill one.

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  9. We enjoyed your presentation Stew. You often talked about the geology on our hikes, it was interesting to see the pictorial explanations. It gave me a better understanding of what you see when you look at these falls and features. G.

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  10. Waterfalls are great subjects, and you have done well. Do you watch any youtube photogs? I like to follow Adam Gibbs on Vancouver Island. He has done quite a few little falls although not just lately. I live how he talks you through hi thoughts in composing photos.

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  11. Lovely photos! I haven't watched the Y-tube video but have bookmarked it for later viewing.

    Take care, stay well!

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  12. Beautiful waterfall, lovely photographs.
    I haven't yet watched the video.

    All the best Jan

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  13. Just watched your waterfall presentation Stew and must say 'well done' my friend. As someone else mentioned, it was nice to put a voice to the words after these number of blogging years. Had I watched this presentation without knowing anything about you I might have been able to guess at you being a teacher. Good stuff:))

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  14. I love finding waterfalls. There are a few spring ones around here. Perhaps in the spring...

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