Caledon Hills - Chinguacousy Road (2.8 km) to Willoughby Road (16.1 km) - July 28, 2022.
The Hiking with Friends group was back on the Bruce Trail this past Thursday to enjoy a 13.3 km walk in the Forks of the Credit area of the Caledon Hills section...this route involves the ever popular "Devil's Pulpit" and, as an added bonus this week, we take a short Blue Side Trail to visit a massive kiln...
The aerial view of our trek and the elevation profile below which clearly delineates the descent of the escarpment and the Credit River Valley, followed by the climb back up. In total, we heaved ourselves up just about 400 meters so there was some huffing and puffing involved...
Our group of 12 friends this beautiful July morning was comprised of myself, Ron B, his daughter Danielle, guest hiker Evadnee (visiting from South Africa), Marleen, Frances, Brian, Steve R, Ann, Lesley, Michael, and our leader Steve...
We depart from the top of Chinguacousy Road and head into the forest...we had an early start to try and beat the anticipated heat of mid-day...
After passing the quarry and turning left to climb a small hill, we came out onto The Grange Side Road and encountered our first obstacle of the day, a rather large piece of construction equipment making its way down the hill...needless to say, we yielded to it...and "made the grade" doing so...
Does a more pretentious sounding side road exist in Ontario?...unlikely..."Grange" merely means "a farm with out-buildings" so nothing special there...I think the hikers are the special part of this scene...
A right turn onto Creditview Road led us to encounter these 3 strapping young men who were representing "Team R2R" or "Ruck to Remember", a non-profit organization that works with existing charities to serve and support the Veteran and First Responder communities. As part of an initiative in support of a Legion program called "Operation: Leave the Streets Behind", they had commenced a E2E march on July 5th in Tobermory and were well on their way to meeting their finishing date target of August 8th in Niagara...good luck to them!
We were soon on our way with our more modest goal still to be achieved...
A short piece of Caledon Mountain Drive leads us to the final trail section before Devil's Pulpit...the quite spectacular house and property at the end of this road is for sale...perhaps the B.T.C could purchase it and create a halfway house for hikers?..
Always a great spot for picture taking, our group makes the rocky descent down the escarpment...
Techniques vary but the goal is the same...get to the bottom safely...
And that we did...which led us to a particularly beautiful length of trail below...a little technically challenging, but very pretty as well...
For a few of us who had hiked this section before, but never taken the opportunity, the Ring Kiln Side Trail beckoned...
A massive structure awaited us, created with human fortitude, lying silent in the forest after its abandonment years ago...
We spent a few minutes admiring the ancient engineering, and then headed back to rejoin the main group...
...via the abandoned railway that once played such an important economic role in this area...Ann and Steve enjoy some local wild fruit...
The Forks of the Credit are our next point of interest...water levels are somewhat low after our recent dry spell...
After passing through Brimstone (and noting there was no "Fire 'n"), we catch up to the rest of our party in the Forks of the Credit P.P and stop by the banks of the Credit River to enjoy some rest and refreshment...
Brian finds a unique spot to enjoy his snack...
Soon afterwards, we are back on the trail and facing the long climb out of the valley...
After a brief but intense rain shower (during which no pictures could be taken), we emerged onto Puckering Lane...
A rather unique hand built stone wall graces the entrance to one property...
Here is that same wall under construction when we hiked by early last December...
After crossing McLaren Road, we are on the home stretch...just a couple of kilometers remain...
And that's it!...we've reached the dropped cars on Willoughby Road...we thoroughly enjoyed our 4 1/2 hour jaunt and look forward to more adventures on the Bruce in the near future...
The End
