We met at The 100 Acres Brewery on Ashburnham Dr for an informal get together to close out the cycling/hiking year, The brewery offered a selection of their tasty craft beers & wood fired pizzas baked in a large pizza oven. Dave Messervey gave an interesting talk about the restoration of the Hope Mill that we tour each year. Dave sold copies of the booklet The Hope Mill Challenge that he updated for the years from 2006-2023.
Pete Gardner, his brother Tim, George Post & Pete MacLoghlin met Thursday morning for a hike on the Red Trail in J E Chase Memorial Park a magnificent 400 acre KLT property at Gannon's Narrows. The trail was safe for walking with firm footing & the weather was ideal, -4 C, sunshine under clear blue skies.
After a 15 cm snowfall 5 intrepid hikers met at Warsaw caves for a 6 km slog in powder snow on the Caves & Scenic Lookout trail to the Lookout over the Indian R gorge that we reach from Rock Rd on our Warsaw ride. From the entrance take the road on your left past the flagpole to the big parking lot, not the road to the boat launch & campsites. The trail starts in the SE corner of the parking lot & was a bit challenging with deep snow covering the uneven terrain, 1st photo, takes you down to the bridge where the river goes underground, 4th photo. From there we had difficulty finding the unmarked trail, head a bit right & follow a narrow path that widens as you approach Cooper Rd. After a 1 km walk you reach a side-trail, K, that takes you to a lower lookout. From there marked L it is another 2 km walk up to the Lookout where we took a break before retracing our steps.
On cold but sunny day we met at Harold Town Park for a 3 km hike up the Meade Creek drumlin. From the parking lot we walked east on a level path where we had to walk around a muddy stretch before starting the climb where there was a difficult detour over wet rocks. From there the trails were dry as we walked up to the "summit" then taking a trail down the east side of the drumlin to the cars after an hours hike. We decided to do a 2nd hike of 4 km in the Robert Johnston Eco Forest Trails on the Douro 5th Line, off County Rd 8 between Hwy 28 & Douro, for an hours walk starting on the Lowland Trail over a large wetland on a boardwalk to the Birdwatching Trail which takes you to the Wildlife Trail & a hike up to a lookout. This is a "hidden gem" that is well worth the effort to explore
On another gorgeous fall day we met in the KLT parking lot on Fire Rd 10 off Northey's Bay Rd. During the walk Bill Hardwick noticed a bracket fungus which Garry Kotelse said was a Turkey Tail mushroom & as we continued Garry was able to identify several other types of mushrooms, plants & trees. This is a rolling walk thru the woods to a hilltop overlooking Stony Lake & the surrounding area including KNSC followed by a long walk down to the Stony Lk shoreline. After a break beside the lake we hiked on a bush road on the recently acquired Jeffrey-Cowan extension property which includes 300 feet of shoreline on Northey's Bay. After the hike we had lunch at Honey's
We met John Ambler in the parking lot at King & Caldwell Streets who led us on a 7 km walk starting on the Waterfront Trail for a 4 km walk on a gravel trail beside Lake Ontario. From there we walked over railway tracks & up Elgin St to a trail that took us eventually to William St & down King St which has lovely heritage homes to a boardwalk that took us to The Ganaraska Brewery for lunch.
