Hike 13 : ‘Ticked Off’ - Mount Nemo to Crawford Lake

Bruce Trail Iroquoia Section

Only a few days after our last walk on the Bruce Trail we are back for a short 15 km hike.  This time out it is our mutually busy summer schedules which have limited how much time we have available.   Following our established routine, we met up with our hiking companion Lenora at our destination for the day, Crawford Lake Conservation Area, where we left one vehicle before driving back to Mount Nemo Conservation Area. 

Trekking North of Mountain Nemo 

Arriving at our starting point, both Sean and I took a few minutes to get our large backpacks sorted.  As we did during the previous Bruce Trail trek from Waterdown to Mount Nemo, we are again walking with our full backpacks on to prepare for our pilgrimage on the Camino Frances in Spain, which we are leaving for in just a few days! Over the past couple of weeks we have been walking more and more with our fully loaded backpacks on, and so we have gotten increasingly used to the weight of them.  Thankfully, today’s weather was cool, with a refreshing breeze blowing, which is a nice break from the brutal summer heat and humidity of the previous weeks. 

We began today’s hike at the northern edge of Mount Nemo, which is where we left off at the end of our last trek.  This meant that we set out not on dedicated pathway, but rather walking along 4 or 5 kilometres of back-country roadways, which we marched steadily in single file to avoid the speeding traffic.  Thankfully, this was only a short section of road walking.  As always, this dangerous and exposed stretch gave us a renewed appreciation for the work undertaken by volunteers and the Bruce Trail Conservancy to create so many kilometres of pathway which are shaded and off the busy roadways.

Re-routes and Pipelines

After venturing crossing Guelph Line and walking along Colling Rd and Blind Line we crossed Britannia Rd onto what seemed like an abandoned concession road.  Glad to put vehicle traffic behind us, we entered the wooded area ahead.  To our dismay, we discovered a scene of brutal destruction.  The region was being torn up for a pipe line to be installed!   

As a result, the Bruce Trail was rerouted back out onto the road.  Thankfully, new trail signage had been installed to guide us around the mess.  Thankfully, at one point a new pathway had been cut, and we were soon directed towards a long metal bridge which spanned Bronte Creek.  Soon after that we met up with the River and Ruin Side Trail, and then an alternative pathway consisting of a wooden boardwalk.  This pathway into a marshy region was largely overgrown with some cattails overwhelming the decking and standing above our head.

 

With the morning pushing on we were soon trekking through the community of Kilbride.  This quaint community brought a welcome diversion after an hour and a half of hiking.  After navigating residential streets through quiet neighborhoods, we found a local convenience store and purchased cold ice teas. What a nice break!

Yaremko-Ridley Park

Feeling refreshed, we continued past the Kilbride Public School and through the North Burlington Tennis Club property. Crossing Derry Rd we entered into the forest of Yaremko-Ridley Park.  Here, under a dense forest canopy we trekked along a tunnel of trees. 

The greatest challenge was the fact that I was wearing a hiking skort which made some of the rocky climbs a little tricky.  Despite these moments, the region was stunning with large rocks protruding upwards out of the forest floor and a number of wonderful marshes providing amazing birding opportunities en route.  

Throughout this stretch the Bruce Trail wove through a beautiful forested corridor between various conservation areas.  Soon we passed out of Yaremko-Ridley Park, crossed the quiet Twiss Rd. and continued into the Crawford Forestry Tract.  Passing through this marshy region along muddy trails we made our final road crossing of the day when we traversed Guelph Line (yet again) and entered into Crawford Lake Conservation Area.

 

 

Crawford Lake Conservation Area

As we have experienced in the past in popular green spaces, we were slightly overwhelmed by the number of people on the trails in Crawford Lake Conservation Area.  Here we not only met other day hikers on the Bruce Trail, but also talked with groups of students who were backpacking the region with their class and having a great time.  It was wonderful to see so many people outside enjoying nature!

 

Despite the reroutes of the day, we soon found that we were ahead of our predicted pace.  So, with extra time available we detoured around Crawford Lake on the established wooden boardwalk to the Visitor Centre.   Crawford Lake is a meromixis lake, which is a body of water that is so deep its lower levels are never disturbed by wind or temperature changes.  As a result, there is very little bacterial breakdown and layers of sediment accumulate undisturbed.  These layers then provide a relatively accurate history of environmental and human disturbances in the region. 

The importance of meromixis activity in general, and Crawford Lake in particular, was noted by Dr. Jock McAndrew of the Royal Ontario Museum who, according to the text Country Walks “lower[d] a weighted tube filled with dry ice to the lake bottom, … to retrieve fossilized leaves, twigs, pollen and other debris” to determine the lake’s age and regional events throughout the past thousand years. Bodies such as this are therefore essential in understanding human impact on local environments. 

Arriving at the Crawford Lake Visitor’s Centre, we took a break before exploring the reconstructed Indigenous village which consists of a series of Iroquois longhouses.  This project is the result of Dr. Bill Finlayson of the University of Western Ontario.  In 1973 Finlayson led an archaeological dig in the Crawford Lake region which eventually demonstrated the importance of the region prior to European settlement. The findings of this study proved that the Middleport tribe settled in the region and was one of the largest Indigenous groups in Ontario.  As a result, in 1982, the Halton Conservation Authority built a reconstruction of a Native village within the park.

Nassagaweya Canyon

Fascinated by the local findings and having taken another break, we soon backtracked along the side trail and returned to the main pathway of the Bruce Trail to continue our trek through Crawford Lake Conservation Area.  While parts of the trail throughout this region were rocky and challenging, it was such a beautiful landscape that the extra effort was more than worth it.  The Bruce Trail soon took us along the edge of the escarpment until we met up with the rim of the Nassagaweya Canyon.  Throughout this stretch we were provided wonderful views of the day’s starting point, Mount Nemo to the south as well as the city of Oakville. 

According to trail signage, the topography of this region is defined by the Nassagaweya Canyon, which is a pre-glacial valley.  Apparently, this canyon is the result of local rivers digging through the sedimentary rock, which eventually lead to a section of the rock being carved away from the escarpment.  Today this feature is known as the Milton Outlier, and it is protected by the Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area.

Following the trail, we first traced the edge of the canyon in one direction before descending along the rocky slopes and crossing Limestone Creek.  We then turned and trekked in the opposite direction prior to ascending the opposite rim to reach the Rattlesnake Point section.   Given the terrain, and loose rocks covering the trail bed, this descent and ascent made for one of the most challenging stretches of the Bruce Trail that we had yet undertaken. Exhausted after our climb back up to the rim of the canyon, we followed the Bruce Trail around Rattlesnake point.   Here we were provided panoramic views of Nassagaweya Canyon and Milton Ontario.

Milton Ontario

The city of Milton, whose urban sprawl and commercial development dominated the landscape around us, is (somewhat predictably) named after the English author of Paradise Lost, John Milton.  Once again, as we noted on our last hike, time on the Bruce Trail makes it very clear that much of Ontario’s rural and agricultural regions are quickly being developed.  The bird's eye views of this urban encroachment afforded by the Bruce Trail underscore the immense importance and urgency of maintaining and protecting the narrow band of green space along the Niagara Escarpment and the Greenbelt. 

 

 

Following the dirt pathway, we soon made our way to Appleby Line and our parked car.  Here, our short trek came to an end and we gratefully slipped off our backpacks and refilled our water bottles from a cooler in the trunk of the car to cool off.

Camino de Santiago

Saying our goodbyes before we drove home, we chatted about our coming pilgrimage across Spain to Santiago de Compostella.   We were looking forward with anticipation and a little trepidation to this next adventure.  However, I soon began to worry that something was wrong with Sean, who kept squiggling in his seat while driving.  After about 20 minutes of this we pulled into a Tim Hortons to get a cold drink and use the washrooms.   Sean kept scratching at his legs throughout our break and repeatedly returned to the washroom.  After his third trip he came out to tell me that he had dozens of ticks up his legs and on his thighs.  Apparently, they had been biting him throughout the day on the trail.  Shocked, I hurriedly went to the washroom and dropped my pants around my ankles to check and sure enough I had several ticks crawling up the inside of my pants and on my legs as well.  Gross!!!

This year has really been a tough one for ticks, and while we are usually very lucky and don’t seem to attract them, this hike was clearly the exception.  In total, we would remove more than 30 ticks from our clothes and bodies by night’s end.  All in all this was an unfortunate end to a great day’s hiking, but it is also a reflection of the growing realities of the rising number of ticks in Ontario over the last few years.