Iroquoia - Mount Nemo (93 km) to Crawford Lake (106.3 km) - Dec. 8,2022.

Iroquoia - Mount Nemo (93 km) to Crawford Lake (106.3 km) - Dec. 8, 2022.

Hiking with Friends spent this week in the Iroquoia Section of the Bruce Trail and hiked roughly 14 km from Mount Nemo northward to the Crawford Lake Conservation Area. It was a busy day on this part of the trail and we encountered several hikers headed southward as we made our way...

An aerial view of the route as seen from the east...with just one major valley to cross (Bronte Creek), we only needed to huff and puff up a modest 258 meters of ascent during the 4 hour and 15 minute outing...there was a good chunk of road walking, but also some nice forested parts and overall, a minimum of technical work to be done...

Our hardy group of 10 on this overcast yet reasonably mild December morning included myself, Marleen, Steve R, Lesley, Annette (Hike Coordinator), Ron J, Barbara, Liz, Muris, and Doug...

After exiting the Mount Nemo Conservation Area parking lot and crossing Guelph Line, we merge onto the "collector lane" trail that parallels Colling Road and pass by an exhausted, water filled portion of the Nelson Aggregate Quarry...its larger, main operation is to the west...and still eating away at the escarpment...

It's back onto the blacktop as we head north on Blind Line...

Fortunately there is not a lot of car traffic on this stretch, which allows for some abreast style conversation in this equine centric "neigh"bourhood... 

After crossing Britannia Road, we finally get to immerse ourselves into real nature as we enter the Bronte Creek valley...there has been a good deal of tree cutting here (mostly Ash as you might suspect)...Apparently Doug cannot bear to look at the devastation...

While waiting on the rest of the group to make some clothing adjustments, I decided to sample a slice of "wood oven without the oven part" pizza...crust was dry... 

The bridge at Bronte Creek, built to withstand the enormously destructive power of spring flooding, looms over the currently drought induced, low flowing stream...and having provided a traditional picture posing moment, does require some effort to disembark its lofty perch...

The subsequent boardwalk through the large flood plain was quite delightfully framed by the tall grasses and the sun peeked through the low cloud to brighten our already buoyant mood...

...and buoyancy was an asset when it came to tackling our biggest climb of the day...

A small group of hikers held their position at the top of the hill to allow us to complete our effort and we reassembled and caught our collective breath...Ron tries out a well constructed bench and seems to like its comfort factor...

After emerging onto Twiss Road at 8th Side Road, we soon encounter Dave, a Bruce Trail volunteer who is cleaning up along the way...we express our gratitude during conversation and it turns out he is active with the Halton Outdoor Club as well...one of our group recognized him from a previous hike through that organization...having inquired about our outing today, he ultimately made his way over to join us for a few kilometers later in the morning and we just might have made a new "Friend"...

After the extremely unappealing left turn onto Derry Road and its construction vehicle choked, narrow shouldered unpleasantness behind us, the entrance to the newly additionally named Yaremko - Ridley AND Smith Natural Area beckons...guess there's a new member in the firm?..despite googling my best, I could not determine who the new Smith person is...

After our well earned break, it is back to walking the planks for a bit...

Nature can be weird too...

Its back to crossing the familiar Twiss Road...where we meet up with yet another group of hikers out enjoying a great day and more connections are made...it's here also that we met up with Dave again and he will travel with us over to Guelph Line before returning to his parked truck at this location...

As we enter the Crawford Forestry Tract, there is a nice little bit of scrambling to take us up a notch or two...there's a variety of approaches, and it's fun to see who chooses what path...a microcosm of life?..

A bit more technical stuff to keep us on our toes...

The recent passing of another well respected Bruce Trail volunteer is memorialized at this bridge in the forest...

We come to the end of our "main Trail" hike for the day and it's just a kilometer or so on the nicely groomed pathways of the Crawford Lake Conservation Area before we reach the dropped cars...

 There's a chance to appreciate some of the amazingly intricate and life-like wood carvings that grace the park before the cars are finally reached...it's been an excellent day on the Bruce and we're happy to have shared it with you...see you soon!

The End

"What hiking, and the holiday season, brings us..."