Niagara Section - Kinsmen Park (69.8 km) to Grimsby (83.3 km) - Dec. 14, 2023.

Niagara Section - Kinsmen Park (69.8 km) to Grimsby (83.3 km) - Dec. 14, 2023. 

It's our final outing of 2023 for the Hiking With Friends group, and we wrapped up another great year by hitting the western end of the Niagara Section last Thursday for a hike of roughly 14 km from Kinsmen Park in Lincoln to the Lions Community Center in Grimsby.

The view from above of an area known as "The Benchlands", a descriptor gleaned from the distinctive forested ridge that is the Niagara escarpment and prominent for its numerous vineyards that occupy the verdant landscape (or at least that portion that hasn't been developed for housing)...our hike will take 4 hours and 40 minutes to complete and require a modest 330 meters of climbing...nothing to whine about there...

Having dropped some vehicles at the parking lot of the Grimsby Lions Community Pool, we venture over to the starting point at Kinsmen Park where 11 of us gather to greet the day and look forward to spending some time together once more before the holiday season...there's myself, Muris, Barbara, Marleen, Liz, Steve K, Annette, Frances, Tom, Catherine, and our H.C for today, Doug...

'Tis the season of short daylight and a low sun, which can make for jolly long shadows and dramatic backdrops as we slide into the forest on a crisp, invigorating morning...

It's cold enough that the trail is not muddy (yet) and the lack of snow so far this winter makes the conditions just about ideal for a mid-December hike...

The mostly monochromatic, naked forest is tinged here and there with brilliant green mosses on the rocks, and there's literally no ground not covered by crunchy dead leaves...

The pace has been sprightly and it's time for a quick break and regroup...it's warming up a tad as well as the sun tries its best at its low angle...

We are definitely in the heart of wine country, and although it's pretty quiet around the vineyards this time of year, we bask in the task of enjoying the land of the cask...

Here are some 'grape' side trails...

Having traveled along Locust Lane and crossed Mountainview Road, we prepare to enter the Mountainview Conservation Area, a quite impressive 25 hectare area of Carolinian forest with exposed dolostone rock, many bedrock fractures, and eroded talus slopes...some of our favorite B.T features!..

There's a bit of hill work to be done, but our H.C sets forth and leads his troops onward...

A trail captain without sensitivity has inscribed a turn blaze on an already fallen tree...a questionable choice at best...and that is followed by another occurrence of the more common "death by blaze"...a classic chicken and egg conundrum...we'll take a "poll" to see which "tree" came first...

A short stroll down the aptly named "Walker" Road, past an eclectic roadside shop, gets us to Thirty Mile Creek Falls and, being the halfway point of our journey, it's a familiar and comfortable spot to take a refreshment break and frame up the second half of the hike...

Frances and Marleen examine the beautifully crafted log box on this site...

Despite it being the beginning of winter, the forest still has many weird and wonderful natural manifestations of its constant cycle of life...

...and we continue our left leaning walk along the sloped escarpment face...

Another short road walk up Park Road South and along Ridge Road leads back into the forest (after a quick boot brush), and our last leg of today's adventure...the legs are getting weary and the surface of the ground has thawed enough that footing is getting a little suspect in spots...wet leaves on top of a thin layer of mud make for challenging down slopes...

Frozen spears of seeping groundwater are stark reminders of the season that's upon us...but so far, there's been no need for icer's so that's a bonus...

It's a happy group of HWF enthusiasts who have enjoyed another great day on the Bruce Trail...a bridge picture before we knock off the last couple of kilometers...

Two more examples of "death by blaze" grace the trail...an area where both myself and another hiker slid to our downfall and muddied our backsides unceremoniously...obviously a cursed section...oh, and I cursed...

Our climb off Grimsby Mountain is taken nice and slowly and we all make it down safely onto Mountain Road, er...Street (the wood carver did not do a Google check obviously)...all that's left is an easy stroll through town and we will be done...

Everything's gone pretty swimmingly today and we arrive at the dropped cars...it's been a satisfying conclusion to 2023 (and my 4th year hiking the B.T)...we have several of our Hiking With Friends group well within reach of their coveted 'E2E' goal now, and it will be exciting to see them perhaps achieve their dream in 2024...until we meet again next year, may I wish everyone a happy, safe, and healthy  holiday season!

The End

"Hiking Christmas Tree"