Blue Mountain km km 30.1 to 47.1 - 4 November, 2015

Section from the Devil's Glen Provincial Park parking lot on Hwy 124, km 30.1, to the Pretty River Access Trail at km 47.1.

Weather; lovely fall weather +/- 20C and sunny.

Actual Distance;

This is a makeup hike for Christine, Andy and Case 

We left Oakville at 7 am and drove into fog on Hwy 10. Unfortunatey there was an accident just south of Orangevlle that resulted in us losingabout half an hour of hiking time.To save time Steve and Ann dropped the rest of the hikers off at the Devil's Glen Prov. Park to start their hike. They then proceeded to park the second car at the north end of the hike,returned to Devils Glen and struck out in 'Hot Persuit' to catch the rest of us.

Steve, Ann, Case, Andy, Christine Helgy and our leader Karen

We left the parking lot and headed west about 50 m, turn left off the road following the 
edge of the escarpment were came upon this field of Milkweed going to seed.

We soon came back out at Hwy 124 where we crossed the fence and the the highway.

We hiked along the side of a cornfield then turned left into a hardwood forest

Here we met a local porcupine taking advantage of the good weather.

At km 32.7 the Trail turns right on to Concession 10 and we follow it for km 2.5.

A beautiful 'Dry' Stone Wall' (no morter)

Lovely renovated, stone, one roomschoolhouse.

The Trail turned left and ran parallel to Simcoe Rd 91

We took a short side trail to look at an old lime kiln.
Steve and Ann caught up to us at this point.

Elevensies, every chance he gets Steve is busy studying for his
Junior Hike Leader Badge.

We arrive at the descent into the Standing Rock and Caves Side Trail.
Standing on the rim, as evidenced by our shadows, we try to decide, who is going down first.

Case on top taking a picture of Karen and Steve below taking a picture of him.

The Walking Ferns are the ones with the solid fronds.

We rejoin the main Trail at km 42.0 and descend to the 30/31 Sideroad.

Crossing the 30/31 Sideroad the Trail continues north along the Blue Mountain - Clearview
 Townline to the top of the hill. It then turns left descending to the Pretty River..

Crossing the Pretty River Sideroad the Trail climbs steeply up and over a moraine, now
 known as Helgy's Hill. The mound is sand and gravel left by a glacier 12,000 years ago
. The trail enters a traditional forest and then descends steeply down the other side of the
 moraine to the Pretty River Access Trail where we parked our car. 

Beaver Valley, km 13.3 to km 27.9; October 27th, 2015

Hikers: Christine and Andy

Leaders: Steve and Richard

Section and distance: Beaver Valley Parking just south of km 13.3 to km 27.9

Weather: Cool start, sun and clouds approx 10C with occasional light breezes.

Actual distance hiked: 14.7 km

The remnants of Hurricane Patrica were expected to hit our proposed hike on Wednesday. So a smaller than usual group met Tuesday at Tim's in Shelburne to do a Beaver valley make up for Andy, Christine and Richard.

Steve, Christine and Andy raring to go!

Richard works on his selfie skills.

Although it was a cool start with frost still on the ground in places, the climb up 6th Line and brisk walk along CR 119 for over 2 km of road walking soon had us warmed up and making wardrobe adjustments. We followed the trail into the woods.

Too early for Elevensies!

We crossed the stream.

Bridge Picture

And then met our first stile.

Then our second,

Then #3

Then #4

Which got us to 12th Sideroad. After a short walk down the road we were back into the fields where we met a new style of Bruce trail blaze and a good spot for Elevensies.

Hanging cylindrical blaze!

A bench and a view for Elevensies

We then briefly followed a section of the Old Mail Road before turning south to meet another series of stiles!

Stile # 5

Stile # 7

Stile # 6

Stile # 8

Stile # 9 this side and # 10 the other side of CR 19

Stile #12 gets us off CR 2

Stile #11 gets us onto CR 2

After crossing CR 2 we pass through a horse farm.

Andy channels his inner Karen

Then into the forest, over a stream and up Mitchell's Hill.

Via Stile # 13

And Stile # 14

To our lunch spot with a bench and a view over the lower Beaver Valley out into Georgian Bay (Sorry no photo too hazy)

.

What, no picnic table?

As we proceeded through the woods to Metcalfe rock we discovered a spare stile (number 15 on our day) but we are not sure it counted as we didn't have to climb it!

Stile # 15

And then we had the excitement of descending the escarpment on the Metcalfe Crevice Side Trail.

As the Bruce Trail Guide describes it "a rocky gorge 30m high, where huge slabs of dolostone have broken away to form crevices containing several caves.".  We needed all the skills Steve had exhibited climbing down to the Grotto a couple of weeks ago to make it out alive.

Andy surveys Metcalfe Rock from above.

An amazing tangle of cedar roots from a tree growing out from the side of the gorge.

Andy and Christine explore a cave.

Christine explores a cave

Metcalfe Rock ST at its steepest

And the same section looking up!

After the glories of Metcalfe Rock ST it was a short walk to cross the stream and get out to 10th Line and the car. We picked up the second car, settled accounts and high tailed it home.