Niagara Section Swayze Falls (km 40.5) to Balls Falls (km 55.0) June 23rd, 2016.

Hikers: Andy, Eric,David, Lesley, Bill and Ann.
Leaders: Steve and Richard (Behind the camera)..
Weather: Pleasantly warm and sunny with breezes under the forest canopy.

After positioning cars at Balls Falls, we drove to Swayze Falls parking on Roland Rd.

We took the Short Hills Provincial Parks access trail but with the recent dry spell Swayze Falls was dry.

We followed the trail through a wooded area over a steel bridge and exited the Provincial park on Effingham Rd. After following the road for a short distance the trail followed and old road allowance past a water filled quarry.

Up and down and through the woods above Rockway Rd we went, before finally crossing Rockway Rd and following the new trail route through Rockway Glen out onto Ninth line.

From Ninth Line we were in mature woods until crossing a creek and swampy area (mercifully quite dry). We followed an old road allowance past a vineyard reentering the bush of the Louth Conservation area.

This seemed like a good spot for "elevenses".

Passing the Louth Side Trail we followed the high ground above 16 Mile Creek past a pretty (but dry) waterfall that some of us just had to explore!

We exited onto Staff Ave and met our Tiger Swallowtail from last week feeding on sweet peas!

We turned onto Seventeenth St still hiking past vineyards and then getting a view of Toronto across the lake

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After a short walk along the road it was back into the bush up and down until we crossed Glen Rd and descended into Twenty Valley and Balls Falls Conservation area.

 This included a very steep set of stairs to get us up out of the valley and to the level of the Mill etc.

Seen extensively on this hike "Purple Flowering Raspberry" (Rubus Oderatus; Rose family)

Then we were back to the Balls Falls Parking Lot where we successfully negotiated free passage thru the barriers! One group headed straight home while another went to pick up the shuttle van.

Bill creeps closer to completing Niagara!