Sunday, December 31 – 2006

11:50 -
Roads: Ice Patches
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +2
Area: Niagara
Vehicles: Blue Suburban REBMA
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Trail Conditions:
Hikers: Wolf, Tori, Brian, Merlin, Morgana, Lupis
Plan: Hike section of the trail from km 9.6 along concession 6 to km 16 at wood-end

11:50 Arrived at conc. 6 to find the trail goes off down a road. For safety purposes we followed the road by car. At the Regency Motel where the map says the trail goes off we saw markers the trail had been moved. Following the trail it eventually set back in the woods where we got all the dogs and Brian ready. This was Brians first hike ever and may prove to be interesting.

12:21 Head into the trail from the road part of the trail.

12:27 We realised that the trail map is totally wrong. We come out on the road towards wood-end. We hiked across the trail map as we had already hiked on This section Dec – 21, 2006 We will be partially re-hiking this section of the trail.

12:44 Significantly earlier than expected, we crossed over Taylor road and over a fence west bound towards a golf course and Walker industries.

13:03 Crossing through the golf course we seemed to follow what appears to be a natural run off of water, very muddy. We stopped briefly at a bridge over point ..1007. It appears to be remnants of a street-car bridge. Large concrete walls with leftover steel rail embedded in it. We counted 9 tracks on one side, 10 on the other suggesting it was a crossover site many moons ago.

13:16 Hiking along the trails we came upon a section of the trail on the St. Lawrence seaway Although we have been here many times before, the large stone locks about 10m deep are always impressive. Brian stated he enjoys being out here and is still warm. 2 vehicles upside-down and one is upright, possibly an old K-car, a white minivan and an unknown blue car which can be seen as front wheel drive – possibly an Asian car lie in the water in the old locks.

14:15 After a hike along an asphalt trail, we headed up the escarpment and stopped to rest on a bench donated by Marg Archibald and enjoyed the view of the canal locks in Thorold.

15:07 Tori's ankle is sore, brian is starting to get cold. We called Wolf's mum to pick us up at lock 7 in Thorold. We found 3 chairs by the locks and sat in them to awayt Chris to pick us up. We are at km 24.6 of the trail.

15:25 Chris arrived in the suburban and we headed for home after loading everyone in the truck. This was our first one-way hike and it seemed to work out very well. Brian said he enjoyed himself very much. Tori wore her parka, beige hiking shirt and black pants with teva sandals and toe-socks. Brian wore white running shoes, black jeans, a black sweatshirt and grey jacket with toque. Wolf had on his hiking boots from Texas, black pants, flannel shirt – beige, as well as army parka and ski-mask. The hike went very well today. Brian may join us again.

Monday, December 25 – 2006

09:45 – 13:00
Roads: Dry / Clear
Visbility: 24km
Temp: 12C
Area: Niagara
Vehicle: Suburban REBMA
Weather: Overcast
Trail Conditions: wet / muddy
Hikers: Wolf, Tori, Merlin, Morgana, Lupis
Plan: Pick up where we left off at the last hike. Walk up-hill on four mile creek road and cross towards firemans park.

09:45 Arrive on Four mile Creek road. Leave for trails.

09:48 Part way in to the trail we saw what appeared to be a section of the trail washed away. Upon closer inspection, a large black pipe had been excavated and exposed. We hiked past the large depression and onward through the trail which ran parallel to a set of train-tracks. The trail had several deep mud depressions which were filled with water. Eventually we came to a road where a silver Dodge Durango and several people with three golden labs. We went past them and down a set of cement stairs. Turning right we went around part of a large fish pond and back into the woods. Several hills and valleys later we came across a wooden bridge where we sat and relaxed as well as caught up on our logsheet. We have no timepeice to see what time it is. There was a male and female cardinal in the trees ahead of us. We watched them and when they flew off continued our journey. We decided to head back to the truck when we came to the Werner road intersection. Heading back we came across a small cave opening, but it was only about 2m deep. When we got back to firemans park we stopped to rest at the parking lot. The hike back to the truck from the parking lot went quickly. We all felt tired.

12:50 Returning to the truck, we loaded the dogs in and completed our notebook. Tori wore her teva sandals, old black pants and a santa-fe style fleece shirt and hiking jacket. Her ankle was wrapped with a blue elastic bandage for support. Wolf wore steel toed polypropylene birkenstock shoes with thick socks, camouflage pants, a fleece beige shirt, hiking jacket and ski-mask The hike was long but very rewarding on this Christmas day. We can't wait to pick up where we left off.

Yule Bruce Trail Hike, 2006

Thursday, December 21 – 2006

08:00 – 11:40
Roads: Dry / Clear
Visibility: 20km
Temp: +16C
Area: Niagara
Vehicle: Suburban REBMA
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Trail Conditions: Dry with some mud
Hikers: Tori, Wolf, Lupis, Merlin Morgana
Plan: Hike wood-end part of bruce trail on Yule.

08:00 Parking by the road, we could see part of the trail go off over a fence. We headed away from that area and along the escarpment where we ran into a girl who had a falcon in the park. She mentioned the bird was scared of dogs and that she had a JRT at home. Continuing the hike we eventually hiked along the ridge of the escarpment. We could see some amazing boulders and rocks of massive size. In the distance we could see Niagara College.
As we hiked along we saw a large semi-circle structure sticking up the side of the escarpment. Wolf touched a part which started a small rock collapse which Tori sustained a bump on the head. After a short rest from the rock fall, we climbed up the escarpment towards the trail. There was a large white house with beautiful decks and even a small pet cemetery. The house is probably owned by the government as part of the park now. Hiking around the house we descended down the other side of the escarpment to our south side there was a farmers field. To the East was the QEW highway. We hiked up along the escarpment until the trail crossed over the parking lot and led us back to the truck. There were very few people here which was very nice. We wore our knee-high rubber boots in anticipation of cold, wet conditions but could have almost hiked barefoot. This was a great early-morning hike on a very important holiday of ours – Yule. We returned to the truck and headed home.