They're not many people who have a waterfall named after themselves, but I do - by accident! A little more than 10 years ago the Bruce Trail Conservancy purchased a large property where the trail went past a trickling stream and up over a high lookout. It was my job as a volunteer to check out the property and find the corner stakes (easier said than done!).
Thus it was me who donned snowshoes one winter and clambered down a VERY steep slope to see this small waterfall. I was blown away by what I found, a beautiful curtain of ice. This is the first picture I originally took of the falls. Credit to my sister for the remaining pictures below, except for the last one.
In contrast, this is the tiny trickle that you find in the summer. But it's the slow trickle that builds up the beautiful ice curtain in the winter. You can also see the geology here. The top half of the waterfall is the Manitoulin Formation, thin layers of dolostone; the bottom half is the reddish or bluish Queenston shale.
Eventually I recommended and flagged a side trail, because the main trail did not give you a view of the falls, going on up the slope above. I have to give credit to Cathy Little who suggested the idea, and Bob Hann who suggested the name. Then I ended up in the hospital for half a year and when I returned they had built the side trail. And they named the side trail after me!
This is the surprisingly large group that gathered to declare the side trail open. I'm gratified that many of these were friends who really came to be there for me. That's me in the centre of the picture in my wheelchair with my favourite brown hat on at the opening ceremony.
The trail goes through a beautiful hardwood forest before coming to the waterfall. Though I had designed the trail originally, I of course could not go on the hike to see the waterfalls in my wheelchair.
My sister went for me, and here she is posing beside the new sign for the 'Stew Hilts Side Trail'. Maybe I should have persuaded them to name it the 'Furry Gnome Side Trail', but now you know who I am.
At any rate, people started hiking this new side trail, and posting pictures of the waterfalls on Facebook. The regional tourist brochure on waterfalls added it to their list. And in all this, since it was at the end of the Stew Hilts Side Trail, it became known by default as Hilts Falls. There you go, my very own waterfalls, best visited in winter if you want to see the curtain of ice.
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