Snowshoeing at Bayview Escarpment

I hadn't joined a Bruce Trail hike since my heart surgery, and this one was labelled 'leisurely', so I thought I'd try it.  And I'd been stuck inside far too much recently.  It was a snowshoe walk in a loop up onto the Bayview Escarpment northwest of Meaford, and it was a bright beautiful sunny, if cold day.

Driving north along the way to Meaford I actually stopped to take a picture of the escarpment where we'd be hiking.  We walked up onto that bluff in the distance over to the left; someday I'd like to walk all the way out to the corner looking over the bay to the north.

There's still lots of snow, but we've had enough above-freezing sunny days that the snow is now all hard and crusty, or what I believe the Inuit call 'sillik'.  You could just walk right across the top without sinking in at all.

But there was a somewhat strenuous (at least for me) uphill stretch at the beginning, where the cliff disappears for awhile and you can walk to the top.  This is the rocky upper edge of the bluff.

Then it was simply a beautiful walk through the woods, mostly along the Bruce Trail.  In early spring a 'well' melts around each tree in the woods first, but the snow is still 8" thick.  The shadows were nice on the bright sunny day.

Then we got to the views over Georgian Bay to the east (from which 'Bayview' Escarpment gets its name).  Here we're looking slightly southeast; Meaford is along the shore on the right.

This view looks somewhat further north, and you get a good look at Georgian Bay in the distance, still all completely solid ice.  The spring melt is proceeding very slowly; it will be a while before the bay is open at all.

After 45 minutes we came to a large fissure in the cliff face where a natural ramp had formed, allowing the trail to head back downhill past the cliffs.  I was a little slower than the rest, but all in all it was a great hike.

These two pictures I couldn't resist adding are from a walk I did a little earlier in the winter with two friends on the same trail a year ago, when the woods was a fairy land of fresh snow.

We actually haven't had a single day of snow like this all winter this year.  Temperature has to be just right for it to stick to the trees; this year has been too cold!

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Railways and Mills

In Durham the other day I was reminded of the importance of saw and grist mills in determining the settlement pattern of southern Ontario.  Almost all the towns and villages I can think of had their start with the establishment of a water-powered mill of some sort.  Thirty years later the railways came along, and became another dominant feature of the landscape, though in this region they're mostly gone now.

In Durham, as soon as we got out of the car we came across this old railway bridge.  I read about the 19th Century railroad building epoch years ago, but haven't paid much attention recently - since they aren't here anymore anyway.  This particular line was the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway.

In a number of towns the old bridges have been saved, and remade into pedestrian walkways.  This one provided a nice view over the river, and it's lit up at night.

Beyond is the old Knechtel Flour Mill, and the rebuilt dam that forms the mill pond.  Like the railways, many of these old mills have closed, though the buildings often still stand.  But they're actually a key part of the heritage of these small towns.

I'm sure this has been repaired, but it's interesting to think of them building this back in the 1870s without power tools and machinery.  An enormous amount of labour went into building the railroads all across North America.

I found the dam itself interesting too.  The green gantry in the foreground can roll back and forth across the dam, removing or adding stop logs like those on the left, to control water level in the mill pond.

On this sunny day the snow was disappearing fast, but we've had a cold snap now for two days, and it feels like we're back in February!

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Durham Murals

When we were in Durham chasing down the waterfall, we walked down the main steet to see a few murals that we'd noticed driving through town in the past.  Chemainus, a town on Vancouver Island, led the way in Canada in decorating with murals after the local sawmill closed down, and now claims to have 'the world's leading community-driven art tourism experience', with 44 large murals.  But a few towns in Ontario, like Durham, have developed at least a few murals.

We've driven by this one many times; it's right at the traffic light on the main corner.  On the right it shows pioneers ploughing fields once they've established their farm, and on the left it shows a church and school, the first community concerns of most pioneers.  This part of southern Ontario was settled by Irish, Scots and English in the 1850s and '60s, after agreement with native peoples opened the area for pioneers.

Just up the road was this view of the river.  This is approximately the same view as the last picture in yesterday's post - compare them and see.

Walking down the main street we came across this mural advertising Durham's Wood Show, looking a little the worse for wear!  The show ran from 1983 to 2003, and was then taken over by the Welbeck Sawmill up the road, where it's still running.  Forestry has long been a major business in this region, though the big furniture factories are now closed and gone.

Then as we walked past the next store we realized that this mural was actually a bit bigger, but most of this is almost blocked by a building.

Finally, a store around the corner had a mural of the Last Supper.  Interesting to find in a small Ontario town, but I have no idea what the story behind it being here is.

Since for the first time on this blog

I have some murals to share, I'm linking to 

Monday Mural.

McGowan Falls

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, even if it was a little cool, and we headed out for Durham, about half an hour west of here, on the Saugeen River.  I wanted to visit McGowan Falls, the last of the waterfalls in Grey County's Waterfall Tour that I hadn't yet seen.

I had the wrong impression from photographs that McGowan Falls was just a stretch of rocky ledges over which the river ran, but we found it to be a major roaring current over about an 8 foot drop.  The river runs in part through low limestone bluffs which you can see on the left of this picture.  The falls was in fact just out of sight from the main road we've driven down many times into town, and about a 50 foot walk from the parking lot!

Above the falls is a mill dam and quite a large pond, but we saw no evidence of an old mill here.  I'm going to have to do some sleuthing to find out the history.  I must return with tripod and filters to try to get a better photo.  It was far too bright today to 'slow down' the water.

The winter ice here has mostly melted, and the water was running underneath the ice that remained.  I was intrigued by the water coming out beneath the ice here.

But I wondered about this canoe, apparently abandoned here for the winter.  I wonder what's the story behind this!

You can walk across the dam on a narrow walkway to the Conservation Area on the north side of the river, and get a good view down the river.  Lots of snow here still except for the main rivers and some small streams which are now open flowing water.

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Critters Stirring; Migrants Returning

For two weeks I've noticed our local critters who stay with us all winter, stirring more actively, and now the first migrating birds have returned.  A good way to celebrate the arrival of spring!

One of the first critters I noticed was our friendly little Red Squirrel returning to our deck to seek spilled sunflower seeds beneath the feeder.  He's certainly a bold creature, though he has to content himself with the spilled goodies, as our feeders are 'squirrel proof' (and I think they actually are).

We last saw this little fellow in late December, so I expect he's been hibernating in a cavity deep beneath the old fencerow throughout the cold part of the winter, but he's up and about now.

We see and hear a few crows throughout the winter, but not like the past two weeks.  Their calls seem to be constantly in your ears from near or far these days, and we frequently see one or two perched in trees calling.  They're just a lot more active than they have been, presumably getting ready to nest.

We still have the Chickadees around, about the only birds that come to our feeder steadily over the winter.  They will disperse into nesting pairs soon, and we won't see them as much until early fall.

And early in the week the first returning migrants showed up.  The first were Starlings, but this photo is of a Red-Wing Blackbird.  It's distinctive call really marks early spring here.  And this is all too typical of my stunning wildlife photos!  I'm determined to improve my bird photography this summer, and recently signed up of 'Ebird' so I could read about recent sightings, and enter my own contributions.

Besides the Red-Wing, today we saw our first Robins, and first Turkey Vulture.  Spring is definitely here, even though our world is still mostly white.  Visited a new waterfall today as well - pictures of that tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll link to:

Early Spring Drive

I was out driving today, in the hopes of seeing some migrating spring birds, perhaps a pair of geese on a pond or something?  I had no luck at all with birds, but I did see these horses, who looked very glad to be outside in the sun!

This horse was out in the pasture, looking like it was just enjoying the sun.  It was a cold day again; I don't think the temperature got above freezing.  But the sun was shining. 

And then I noticed a second horse, heading out from the barn.  And this one was certainly frisky, galloping across the field to meet the first.

This horse was definitely glad to be out in the spring sunshine!

It got close, but didn't stay, galloping back toward the barn, apparently just for the fun of it.  As you can see, bare patches are beginning to show up in some fields where the wind had blown the snow fairly thin in the first place.

And while I notice those fences, here are three more fence photos, but taken back in January when it really was winter.

Here I just noticed that there were a lot of fences between me and those barns - four if I'm counting correctly.  These fields are actively used pastures; I'm surprised they have maintained the old cedar rail fences rather than replacing them.

All four of the horse pictures above have been rescued from being badly over-exposed (I still don't know how), and it mainly taught me that you're MUCH better off to get the exposure right in the first place with your camera!

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Fishing - Canadian Style

I was in Meaford a few days ago and was surprised to find fishermen out on the ice by the harbour.  I've driven by here several times before, but this was the first time I've seen this.

It being a sunny day I got out of the car to take a few pictures, wondering about the line-up of pick-up trucks along the side of the road.  When I climbed over the big snowbank I realized why!  Two portable ice fishing huts.

Looking around I saw there were four altogether, but two fishermen were simply sitting on chairs beside their fishing holes.  There was a brisk north wind blowing in off Georgian Bay, and it was well below zero, so I sure hope they were dressed warmly!

This is pretty common on Canadian lakes in the winter; on some lakes if the ice is thick enough you see pick-up trucks right out on the ice, and some ice huts can be pretty substantial.  The trick is to get them off the ice at the right moment in the spring!

The delightfully lumpy ice had obviously been melting along the shoreline and refrozen.  It was treacherous to walk on, though there was no open water to fall into.

This is my usual view to the west, across the open bay toward what we all still call the 'Meaford Tank Range'.  Officially it's the 'Land Force Central Area Training Centre' for Canadian Army Reservists.  It would certainly have been frigid sitting on these benches, though the view was nice.  It's a great summer view if the waves are rolling in and the sun shining.

Next stop Christian Island, 40 km. away!    With apologies to the fishermen, but ice fishing is the last way I'd want to spend my winter hours, both cold and bored.  But I admire their stamina and dedication!

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