Caledon Hills Section -Willoughby Road (15.9 km) to Innis Lake Road (30.8 km) - November 6, 2025
Caledon Hills Section: Willoughby Road (15.9 km) to Innis Lake Road (30.8 km) - Nov. 6, 2025.
Sixteen of us and a goat (more on the goat later) hiked 15 km from Willoughby Road to Innis Lake Road. It was a coldish day. Mixed sun and cloud, with wind that mostly came from the north, sometimes from the east, not from the forecast northwest. Winter is coming!
From left to right, hiking were Doug (HC & photos), Grace, Frank, Marleen, Andrea, Frances (photos), Renu, Donna, Rita, Annette (photos), Barbara, Faryde, Ivan (photos), Andrew (photos), Sandra (sweep) and Ron B. A cheerful group, full of beans!
Off we go, leaving Willoughby Road immediately, climbing to the abandoned wind pump and the library in the bush ...
... and into a glorious carpet of fallen leaves.
Road walking on Escarpment Sideroad (lots more to come) and the Highway 10 pedestrian underpass.
Back to the bush ...
... into the bush again and a sea of leaves.
Passing friendly horses and then into the bush once more and an abandoned car (1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass?) on the new routing via St. Andrew's Road which avoids the earlier scary walk up the shoulder of Airport Road.
The stairs we were using for our elevensies led up to Mountanview Road. We walked north on it to this splendid Halloween display ...
... and a little further to this paddock full of friendly horses.
This is where a goat joined our hike without asking permission or introducing itself. It came out of one of the buildings beyond the barn.
After it had followed us for a hundred metres or so we debated what to do about it. Some of us wanted to take it take it back. Others, like I (Doug), favoured ignoring it, assuming that it would not venture too far from its territory. Frances recalled recent Caledon Club buzz about this goat. Apparently, it has joined other hikes recently. Some of us thought it was a Billy because it had horns and a beard. Others thought it was a Nanny because it looked pregnant. None of us wanted to inspect its nethers too closely. It was friendly, but it had those horns.
We decided to ignore it and on we went. So did the goat, until we crossed Airport Road and it followed us and we realized that the animal had become a liability and an embarrassment. We could not abandon it. None of us wanted to return it to its home in one of our cars. What did we know of the habits of goats? Andrea and Grace approached the monks in the nearby Lao Buddhist temple for their advice. They were sympathetic but unhelpful. Andrew called Caledon Animal Control who promised a car, provided someone stayed with the goat. Doug stopped a passing Caledon Town employee who knew the goat's owners. He sped off to alert them of their escapee. The goat's owner (friendly but exasperated with the goat) got to us first. Promising to lock it up in future, and thanking us nicely, she left just before Caledon Animal Control arrived. The Caledon Town employee came back too. Such excitement. The goat was a Nanny, name of Belle. We never found out if she was pregnant.
A weird but memorable hike.
Postscript: Here is a link to today's (Saturday, November 8, 2025) Globe & Mail article about Rita's and Andrea's End-to-End completion on October 9. (Thanks to Lesley for the inspiration, and for the pdf of the article!)
Just saw the article in the G&M. I’m trying to hike the BT, but I am a solo hiker which means I have to double back a lot in areas I can’t get an Uber. Is there a way I can connect with your group?
ReplyDeleteAlso interested in information on how to connect with your group. Have completed the Bruce Trail once and am interested in doing it again but need a group to do it with.
Delete