There is a gallery of beauty, so intricate and precise, where every stroke of the brush creates a canvas of energy and color. It is a privilege to step inside the frame and share in it’s magnificence. Presenting some of the sites of the Magic of Nature, as seen through my eyes. “Hiking with theContinue reading “Natures Art Gallery”
Monthly Archives: September 2020
The Wolf Clan battle the Iroquois in Clearview
The Anishinaabe also have an extensive history in this area from time immemorial. In the late 1500s – 1650s, they shared the Land running alongside the Niagara Escarpment with the Betan (also known as the Tionontati and Petun) who are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people, closely related to the Huron-Wendat. They lived in many Villages from CraigleithContinue reading “The Wolf Clan battle the Iroquois in Clearview”
Historical Badge & Glen Haffy
In this series of Caledon Hills Bruce Trail Club Hiking badges, I am leading a hike of 16 participants, in a series of five, throughout the Caledon Area for the Caledon Bruce Trail Club. Upon completion of these hikes, you are awarded an “Historical Hike” badge for your collection. This 11 km hike was inContinue reading “Historical Badge & Glen Haffy”
Woodford & Lord Sydenham
This is about a 14 kms hike through crevices, bogs, amazing forests, and all along the escarpment ridge. I began my hike in Woodford, a very small hamlet on Hwy 26, in Sydenham Township near Owen Sound. The Township was named in part for Lord Sydenham, governor of Canada from 1839 to 1841. Sydenham TownshipContinue reading “Woodford & Lord Sydenham”
The Wood Wide Web
The Magical World of Forest Fungi I hiked Skinners Bluff in Wiarton where the fungi are out in huge numbers & varieties right now, likely thanks to the rain and humidity. Fungi play an intricate part in our ecosystem, providing nutrients to the trees in exchange for sugars. But even more, beneath every forest, thereContinue reading “The Wood Wide Web”
Silent Valley and the plane crash site
Tucked between the gentle slopes of a long-vanished glacial landscape and the Niagara Escarpment is an oasis of peace and tranquility on the side trails of Silent Valley. It has a past that extends 12,000 years to a time of glacial retreat and the depositing of its rock and silt on the gouged land. TimeContinue reading “Silent Valley and the plane crash site”
Paleozoic Era
“I’d like to be, under the sea, in an octopuses garden in the shade…”Well, did you know that you actually are living under the sea? This land that we live on was once called the Laurentia located at the Equator and covered by ancient warm water shallow seas, 500 million years ago! The evidence isContinue reading “Paleozoic Era”
The Wonderful World of Fungi
The fungi that you find on the Niagara Escarpment descended from one common ancestor that probably colonized the land during the Cambrian Period in the Paleozoic Era, over 500 million years ago, (Taylor & Osborn, 1996), but terrestrial fossils (land) had only become uncontroversial and common during the Devonian, 400 million years ago. It is probable that these earliest fungi livedContinue reading “The Wonderful World of Fungi”
Eugenia Falls – Hoggs Falls via Cuckoo Valley
Fun Facts 1. In 1852, an early settler named Brownlee near Flesherton, discovered a waterfall falling 30 metres over the Niagara Escarpment to the Beaver River below – Eugenia Falls. He saw some glittering in the rock and thought that he discovered gold, but alas, it was “fools gold”. It triggered the areas first andContinue reading “Eugenia Falls – Hoggs Falls via Cuckoo Valley”
Tom Thomson Trail
April 30, 2020, I began the 41 km hike on the Tom Thomson Trail, from Meaford to Owen Sound. I finished on May 3. The North-Grey Railway was originally planned for Collingwood – Owen Sound, but the line between Meaford (completed 1872) and Owen Sound was never finished. The Tom Thompson Trail begins at theContinue reading “Tom Thomson Trail”
Trout Hollow Trail
Meaford, ON The Bighead River runs through Trout Hollow in Meaford (first called Peggy’s Landing), named after the Trout family who built the sawmill there in 1850. The entrance to the trail is beside Bakeshop Bridge and has the remains of the Wm. Moore & Sons Flour Mill; originally built by Jessie T. Purdy inContinue reading “Trout Hollow Trail”
Bognor Marsh and tale of the The Turkey Tail
I hiked a 5.1 km loop around the wondrous Bognor Marsh, which features an open marsh, semi-flooded wetland, grassy meadows, and the Niagara Escarpment. The Marsh was originally a hardwood forest, but was continually flooded, creating a swamp, then a marsh. Once on top of the ridge, the world changes into a place of variedContinue reading “Bognor Marsh and tale of the The Turkey Tail”
NIAGARA ESCARPMENT HISTORY & HIKING 