Iroquoia - Twiss Road (102.6 km) to Britannia Road (95.8 km) - April 7th, 2022.

Our Hiking with Friends group returned to the Iroquoia Section of the Bruce Trail this past week to walk 6.8 km of the main trail and, just because we can, added a 2.6 km side trail excursion, for a total distance of 9.4 km. We spent 2 hours and 50 minutes enjoying a quite nice spring day in nature, and ascended 177 meters while doing so...not a particularly grueling climbing day, but hey, not all of our hikes need to leave us with sore calves, right?..

This is what our travels would have appeared like to a bird (and you could certainly sense their return to life after a long winter). A good stretch of forest walking, followed by a couple of kilometers of hard surface trail (aka road), and then back into the woods for the remainder of the morning. Not sure what that would look like?...then continue scrolling and you'll see some fine video evidence of what we experienced...

Our group today featured a lot of the regular gang...myself (that smile seems really strained...must have been stressed about getting everybody in the shot), Ron J, Brian (our leader today in Steve's absence), Marleen, Michael, Arpi, Muris (contributing photographer), Barbara, Ron B, and Sandra (sweep). We are assembled at the side of Twiss Road and ready to explore the trail...let's get started!..

We are on our way with a quick pace to begin...we have entered Yaremko-Ridley Park, a 160 acre property just west of Milton that contains mixed escarpment forest with glacial valleys, rolling landscapes and numerous rock outcroppings and deposits. The marl (soft calcium carbonate) deposits on the valley floor, which were mined in the early 20th century, are recognized as part of an industrial archaeological site. The resulting pits (as seen above) form part of a provincially significant wetland complex. The property was generously donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust by John Yaremko and John Ridley in 1972. (Source: Ontario Heritage Trust website)

The rising morning sun peaks through the forest to our left...not so evident in this photo, but there was clearly a "clearing" of emerald ash done recently and a lot of debris remained scattered about as a result of this herculean effort...

A last, lonely remnant of the winter snow/ice pack...I left my icers at home and sneered at this dying vestige of the past few months...I am done with winter!

It's warming up nicely, and so are our bodies...some of us will soon be taking off a layer...typical for this time of year when a 10 degree temperature change can happen over a couple of hours...

Looked up "gnarly" in the dictionary and found this picture...even in death, some trees retain their own kind of beauty...

We cross one of the several boardwalks in this park...

 

The sunlight really highlighted this small grove of trees which still had their foliage...

 

We exit the forest onto Derry Road and head east...

A right turn follows onto Twiss Road...

 

No rush this morning...so why not pause and rest by the roadside for a bit?..

 

We arrive at No. 8 Sideroad and enter back into the forest...we will now be hiking through the valley of Bronte Creek in the Cedar Springs area...

We begin our biggest descent of the day down to the valley floor...

 

The sun...the smell...the birds...it finally felt like a true spring day...without all the mud!...yeah!..

We have reached the valley floor and approach Bronte Creek...

 

...and here you have it...our bridge picture!..

 

The creek has a good flow to it this morning...all this water will eventually pass by my house in Bronte and out into Lake Ontario...

A great spot for our "Elevensie's" and Barbara has brought some banana bread to compliment our snacks...

Fed and watered...time to get back at it...

 

We begin our side trail adventure...some of the group try to "corral" their excitement...

 

If I said that our hike had "gone to ruins", it might sound like a bad thing...well it did, but it was not...

 

We work our way back to the main trail and push for the finish line...

Across a small creek and then one last climb up to Britannia Road...

 

We have reached our dropped cars and the hike is over for another day...and we're done before noon!..thanks for spending some time with us and see you again next week...from somewhere on the Bruce Trail.

The End