Saturday, October 14, 2017

Legends of Devil’s Cave abound, including one that claims that William Lyon MacKenzie hid in the cave when his rebellion fell apart in 1837.  The cave is said to have an artesian well inside that creates a pool known as the Devil’s Pool.  It is located along Bronte Creek just north of the QEW.  The QEW and Bronte Road is the site of the former community of Merton  The last of the buildings for the town, including the 1857 school were removed to make way for the highway.  The Devil’s Cave has been closed and is not easily accessible but we decided to try and find it along with having a general exploration of the area looking for any evidence of the former community.  To start, we decided to try and make our way along Bronte Creek from a free parking lot in Petro Canada Park.

Mike “Prime Time” Post was an Oakville native and lightweight boxer.  Mike had a promising career when, tragically, he was found dead at the age of 28.  A memorial was erected in 2009 on the one-year anniversary of his untimely death.  It stands at the entrance to Petro Canada Park where Mike used to practice by running up and down the hill.

The Green Heron is one of the least common of all the heron species we have in Southern Ontario as we are near the northern extreme of its habitat.  It is small and stands at just 17 inches.  The neck is short and usually held tight against the body.

Black walnuts grow along the trail and are starting to drop off the trees.  These walnuts can be eaten and are grown for food.  The hull can be used for medicine to treat such ailments as syphilis and diphtheria.

We crossed the tracks to see if there was a better way access to the bottom but found that the best place was right beside the bridge abutment where large boulders had been placed and we were able to climb down.  Notice how the bridge has been expanded with the original section being made of cut limestone blocks while the newer part is made of poured concrete.  The original line was known as the Hamilton and Toronto Branch of the Great Western Railway and was opened to traffic on December 3, 1855.

Once at the bottom, we had to skirt around a small section of shale cliff but there is lots of room along the bottom with the water level in the creek being low.  You can make your way along the creek for some distance and today there was several dead salmon that had been left on the edge of the stream.  It is impossible to make it past this cliff of red shale and so continuing upstream at water level is not an option.  Notice the fisherman in the distance as it gives the photo a means of perspective.  This is a very long, high shale cliff.

We circled back and made our way to the top of the shale cliff and from there back out to Bronte Road which we followed back to the car.

We moved the car to the Car Pool parking near the QEW bridge.  From here we began to make our way upstream again.  This section of the creek flows through Bronte Creek Provincial Park with its very own haunted house.

There is a long section where there is a manmade berm running parallel to the embankment.  This very likely was a raceway leading to a mill in Merton.  The berm can be seen in the photo below where an animal trail runs along the top.  Trees grow on the top and sides of the berm where the ground is less marshy.

Bronte Creek was full of fishermen and we saw one person take a nice size salmon home.  It was hard to find occasions when you could get a picture without people knee deep in the river.

We followed animal trails along the side of the ravine trying to stay above the parts where water is seeping out of the side of the embankment.  The lower floodplain is a swamp throughout this area.  The side of the hill has a lot of loose leaves and topsoil on it and is very unstable.  Eventually, we determined that we needed to make our way to the top of the hill.  This landed us in someone’s backyard and so it was time to make a quick exit to Bronte Road before we found ourselves face to face with the owner.  Along the pathway, we came across this carving of an owl.

Returning to the car we followed the old Bronte Road that runs under the highway.  Prior to 2008 this was a 3 lane road, it now serves as a pedestrian and cyclist path that leads back to the Carpool parking lot.

Near the bridge, a small patch of milkweed stands with the seed pods almost ready to burst open and spread their seeds to the wind.  The pods are known as follicie and the seeds each have white filaments on them called coma.  These are hollow and make good insulation.  Due to this, milkweeds are also grown commercially for use as stuffing in hypoallergenic pillows.

We didn’t find the cave and discovered that this is not a hike that is safe for everyone.  Also, you may eventually be forced out onto private property so beware.  The cave is out there, waiting for us to come and find it some other day.

Google Maps Link: Petro Canada Park

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Saturday, October 7, 2017

The most popular new post so far in 2017 has been a collection entitled “Toronto’s Abandoned Roads“.  It contains links to a dozen posts about sections of road in Toronto that have been closed for various lengths of time but can still be identified and explored.  There is a closed ramp to the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) that has been on my “to do” list for a long time.  You can’t park on York Mills but it is only a short walk from Lochinvar, where you can park for free.  The Google Maps picture below shows the remains of the ramp as it appeared in 2016.

When the DVP was built the 1960’s the ramp was opened in a partial cloverleaf that did not include the northeast corner.  As the highway got busier the ramp in the northwest quadrant became the site of an increasing number of accidents.  Westbound traffic on York Mills entered the highway into the southbound lanes in close proximity to the exit ramp for southbound motorists who wanted to get off the DVP.  Cars slowing down right where others were trying to get up to highway speed proved to be a bad combination.  In 2005 it was decided to close the ramp and the section along the side of York Mills Road was removed and replaced with landscaping that hides the fact that there is an old ramp just out of sight.

The old road surface is already showing the signs of neglect.   The picture below shows the end of the pavement near York Mills.  There are trees growing through cracks in the pavement.

When the ramp was in use a ring of maple trees circled the inside of the ramp.  Today the area inside the ramp has been taken over by first-generation regrowth.  There has been some planting of white oak trees and other native trees and shrubs and now the open grass field has been transformed into a little oasis just metres away from the rush of the DVP.

The afternoon had turned warm at 19 degrees with only a slight breeze and I was pleasantly surprised to hear the call of cicadas in the trees.  I saw this large cottontail rabbit that paused to get his picture taken.  Cottontail rabbits are seldom seen on windy days because the wind interferes with their hearing which is their primary defence against predators.

An old sign prohibiting stopping can be seen beside what once served as a pedestrian walkway alongside the ramp.

A little farther along the old road, I came to a small trail leading into the trees along the side of the ramp.  The entrance to the trail was marked with a large amount of coyote scat which gave me a pretty good idea of what the rabbit had been listening for.

In the days before this sound barrier was constructed cars entered the DVP at this point.

This Google Earth shot was captured in 2002 at which time the ramp was still in use.  A car can be seen as it approaches the curve at the top of the ramp.

We have investigated several other closed sections of road, some of which have been out of service for many years.  It was good to see how much had been reclaimed in just twelve years to get a perspective on how fast nature moves back in.

Google Maps Link:  DVP and York Mills

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Sunday, August 7, 2017

Kariya Garden Park was officially opened in July 1992 in honour of Mississauga’s twin city, Kariya Japan.  The idea of sister cities, or twin cities, arose following the Second World War as a way of creating respect and commerce between former foes.  The city of Mississauga was twinned with Kariya on July 7, 1981.  To share a small bit of their culture with their twin city, there is a Mississauga Park in Kariya, Japan to match the Kariya Park in Mississauga, Ontario.  The Japanese city of Kariya has a population of about 150,000.   There are a few paid parking spots on Elm Street just east of Kariya Drive.

Japanese Gardens are designed with shrubs and rocks that are meant to have several layers of meaning.  The Japanese have developed their gardens over a 1,500 year period and the idea is to delight the senses and challenge the soul.  Kariya Gardens has worked hard to capture this sense of balance and aesthetics.  As you enter the park through the front gatehouse you see a small cascading water fall with a Red Japanese Maple standing beside it.  Every rock placed in the garden has a meaning and the city has provided a detailed tour guide explaining everything.

The south end of the park is being developed into a more deeply wooded section.  This area also includes several colourful gardens to compliment the Japanese Cherry Trees which bloom in May.

The south pond has a large rock in it which is known as turtle rock.  It is meant to represent a turtle coming out of the water.  On this day, there was a turtle sunning itself on the rock.  Turtles are said to be the oldest group of reptiles and are claimed to be unchanged in 250 million years.  Unlike many shelled creatures, the turtle cannot crawl out of its shell as it is attached to the spine and shoulders.  Turtles don’t breathe like most creatures which expand the ribs to make room for the lungs to take in the air.  Turtle shells prevent this and so the animal has an extra set of muscles to pull the other organs out of the way while it takes in air and then pushes on the lungs to expel it.

The gardens were designed in 1989 by Mississauga City landscape architects and then reviewed with their counterparts in Japan. Stones have been set up to represent a dry stream bed.  The stones are placed closer together to represent the faster moving water and smaller stones imitate slow moving eddies in the stream.

Outside the park, on the north end, is a Zen garden which can be seen from the bridge across the north pond.   There is a pavilion which separates the north pond from the Zen garden.  The pavilion is made of two main sections which each represent one of the twin cities.  The two sections of the pavilion are joined in the middle where a friendship bell hangs.

The friendship bell was cast in Japan and represents the friendship that the two cities have forged together.  It was installed for the opening ceremonies of Phase 2 of the park on July 7, 2001, and is just one of many sculptures that have been donated to the park by the City of Kariya, Japan.  The inscription on the bell reads “By welcoming the new century this bell is produced as a symbol of everlasting friendship between the City of Mississauga and the City of Kariya”.  The bronze bell is rung on ceremonial occasions.

Kariya Gardens is a unique park in the city as it provides an interesting and relaxing look into the culture of a Japanese Garden.

Google Maps Link: Kariya Gardens

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Sunday, August 27, 2017

People who live in the GTA and enjoy exploring our local history are often looking for excursions for when they’re away from home.  This road trip is for those headed up the 400 and Highway 11 with a destination in Gravenhurst and one just outside of Orillia. This post combines the WW2 Prisoner of War camp in Gravenhurst and the historic mill in Marchmont, starting with the former.

When the Germans began to bomb Britain the allies became concerned that the island might fall into Nazi hands.  If this were to happen thousands of POWs that were interred in England would be released and allowed to return to combat.  It was decided to move them to places such as Canada, for safe keeping.  An old tuberculosis hospital in Gravenhurst was selected as the home for Camp 20, also known as Camp Calydor.  June 30, 1940, was the opening day of the prison camp and there were 476 prisoners and 109 guards on hand to mark the occasion.  The picture below shows modifications made to the sewage system to prevent prisoners from being able to fit through the pipes.

The camp was fenced in on all sides, including a fence that enclosed part of the lake so the inmates could swim in the summer.  When they arrived in town they were marched from the train station, down Lorne Street, and into the compound.  The sole entrance and exit for inmates was up this set of stairs.

Most of the old concrete foundations have been removed in the name of progress so that a new subdivision can be created.  The picture below shows some of the foundations for the main building and a boiler as they existed in the late 1980’s.

The POWs built an aquarium and stocked it with fish they caught in the lake.  This little reminder of the lives of the residents of Camp Calydor has been rescued and put on display in the little parkette at the end of Lorne Street.

On either the northbound or southbound trip you may want to take a ten-minute detour to see the old mill in Marchmont.  Coldwater Road heading out of Orillia will lead you to the town of Marchmont.  The mill pond is still in place as is the old metal penstock that began to draw water from the pond in 1910 when it replaced the original wooden one. Since the mill is no longer in service the flume is no lo longer repaired and has several large holes rusted through it.

The grist mill in Marchmont was built in 1834 and was initially intended to provide work for local natives.  It operated until 1884 when it was destroyed by a fire.  The town went without a grist mill for three years until a new one was built in 1887.  For the next 60 years, it ground flour and then it was converted into a feed mill in 1947.  In 1987, for its 100th anniversary, it was closed and converted into a private residence.

Parts of the old turbine are laying on the corner of the property.  The spiral casing is also nearby.

Marchmont has several historic buildings as it still retains much of the old Victorian era charm.  As for Gravenhurst, it has many stories left to tell.

Google Maps links: Marchmont Grist Mill and Camp Calydor

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Saturday, August 5, 2017

Lakeside Park in Mississauga isn’t the one made famous by the Rush song of the same name, but it does have its own claim to fame.  Lakeside Park has a unique red shingle beach.  The area was originally known as Marigold’s Point and was settled beginning in 1808 by United Empire Loyalists, many of whom came from New Brunswick. The properties slowly switched from agricultural uses to industrial as Toronto Township was developed.  Early industry in the area included an oil refinery, cement company and a sewer pipe company.

The Hamilton and Toronto Sewer Pipe Company built a factory in Clarkson in 1955 with the idea of operating a state of the art facility.  The press release claimed that the new building would accommodate every new advance in pipe technology, manufacturing and installation.  For the next 25 years, the facility would produce various sizes of baked clay pipes.  As with any manufacturing, there were often pieces that didn’t meet the company’s quality standards.  These pipes were piled up at the edge of the property along the shore of Lake Ontario.

The pipes were buried and forgotten.  Slowly, the embankment has been eroding and the pipes are being exposed to the weather and water.  As they break up and fall into the lake they get tumbled by the waves until they become small rounded shingles.  They mix with shale from the lake bottom to form a shingle beach.  The tiles on the east end of the site are the least broken up and as you walk west along the shore they become smaller and more rounded.  This is due to the natural counter clockwise east to west rotation of the lake.  Water that flows over Niagara Falls supplies most of the water to Lake Ontario and it causes the currents in the lake.  The pipes that have been in the lake the longest end up slowly being pushed west along the beach and tumbled into smaller, more rounded pieces.  The former industrial uses for the land have manifested themselves as a unique beach with some unusual opportunities for wildlife habitat.  The pipe section shown below was likely made in 1979 and is slowly making its way toward to crashing of the waves.

The shores of Lake Ontario are lined with shingle beaches that are formed when the lake throws broken shale onto the shoreline during times of heavy waves.  Just east of Lakeside Park is Rattray Marsh. This marsh only exists because a shingle beach keeps the land behind from draining completely.  Between Lakeside Park and Rattray Marsh is Bradley House Museum which makes an interesting place to visit because it showcases four historic buildings, three of which are designated as Heritage Houses.  One of these is a regency style cottage called The Anchorage, which is pictured below.  It stood near Lakeside Park from the 1830’s where it was home to a Commander John Skynner who had retired from the Royal Navy. It is said that when John retired to the home he wrote in his journal that he was now retired and the home would become his anchorage.  The Anchorage was moved to Bradley Museum in 1978.

Lakeside Park boasts one of the most unique beaches in the GTA and is an interesting example of nature making something beautiful out of an industrial garbage dump.

Google Maps Link: Lakeside Park

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July 22, 2017

Enerals Griffin arrived in Port Stanley in 1829 with his wife Priscilla from the United States. They came to Canada via the underground railroad to start a new life where black people had a measure of freedom that they didn’t have in Virginia at the time.  There is no record of where the Griffin family lived during the years between 1829 and 1834 but they started a family and saved enough money to establish themselves.  In 1834 they bought a small one and a half story, four room house that had been built in 1827 and was owned by George Hogeboom.  It has a front-sloping gable roof and is clad in unfinished horizontal clapboards.  The picture below shows the house and the old driveway while the cover photo shows a closer view of the front of the house.

Along with the house, they purchased 50 acres of land on Mineral Springs Road in Ancaster, from which they would make a living and sustain their family.  Over the next 154 years, the family would continue to farm the property until it was sold to the Hamilton Conservation Authority in 1988.  The house was named as a National Historic Site in 2008 partly because it is one of last early 19th century Georgian Style clapboard homes in the Ancaster area.  It is also listed as one of six sites in Ontario that is culturally relevant to Canadian Black history.  Rather than settling in an area that was designated for former slaves, the Griffins chose to buy a farm and live in a predominantly white European area.  The area has been determined to be archaeologically sensitive and digs on the site have uncovered over 3,000 artifacts including stoneware and clay pipes.  The ruins of the family saw mill stand near the crest of a waterfall on a small tributary of Sulphur Creek.  The original boards for the construction of the home were cut in this saw mill from trees that were felled on the property.

Following the Griffin Trail to the Homestead Trail allows you to explore the property and also brings you to the waterfall.  Known as Griffin Falls and also as Heritage Falls there was very little water on this day and moss was taking over the cliff face.  In the spring there is normally water here and this is the best time to view this 5-metre washboard classical cascade.

We had parked at The Hermitage where there is a 10 dollar fee per car.  In the corner of the parking lot, the old gatehouse for the Hermitage still guards the entrance.

On a previous visit, the Hermitage was under restoration and we wanted to see how the job had turned out. There are many trails through the property including the Bruce Trail and we followed the one leading to the old homestead.  The ruins of the main house have been restored on three sides.  The burned ends of the second-floor beams can still be seen sticking out of the wall.

Google Maps Link: Griffin House

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Thursday, July 6, 2017

The Oakville Recreation Commission operated several day camps in the 1950’s along Sixteen Mile Creek.  Two of them were located on Lower Base Line and were on the Milton side of Lower Base Line.  Children were taken from town to the day camps to give them an experience of the outdoors as part of their summer vacation from school.  Older teens were taken every summer to a training camp at Fisher’s Glen on Lake Erie.

Rotary Park or Pine Ridge Day Camp was located on the top of the hill while Henderson Park was along the banks of Sixteen Mile Creek below.  Day campers would walk between the two to go swimming in the creek on hot summer days.   There were originally 5 buildings on the Pine Ridge site which were screened from the creek by a row of pine trees along the ridge of the ravine.  The three cabins and the dining hall were removed a long time ago but for some reason, the washroom facility was left intact.  The picture below shows the old playing field along with the remains of the washrooms, tucked in under the trees.

Inside the washrooms, there is little left.  When I first visited here in the late 1990’s the building was more or less intact and all the toilets were undamaged.  The first ten years of abandonment wasn’t very hard on the building.  The next twenty years, along with some senseless vandalism has nearly demolished the building.  It is unlikely that there are very many winter storms left in the old structure.  It is impressive that the children who came to day camp here had the use of flush toilets instead of the typical outhouse one might expect to find.  The people who closed the place up removed four buildings and then placed concrete blocks to prevent people from parking along the road or entering the old laneway.  They took out the electrical wires and left the place pretty much as they found it when it was severed from the corner of the farmer’s field. All except the washrooms!  Perhaps they were expecting to use the fields for games or events in the future and anticipated the need for the washrooms.

Down the hill from Pink Ridge Camp was Henderson Park where the children would go swimming and fishing.  Adjacent to Henderson Park there used to be a small parking lot that allowed continued access to the river even after the park had closed.  From here you could get to a trail along the top of the ravine above the Queenston shale embankments on the opposite side of Sixteen Mile Creek.

This parking lot was closed several years ago because there were too many late night parties with large campfires. Alcohol, cars and backroads are a bad combination and so the parking lot was sealed off around 2012 when the one lane bridge was replaced.  The parking lot has since filled up with field grasses and weeds.  A new invader, Giant Hogweed now lines the creek banks and is spreading through the floodplain.  They can be seen in the picture above where they stand out against the red shale.  Each plant goes to seed only once before it dies but it can produce between 50,000 and 120,000 seeds.  These can be blown up to 10 metres on the wind but travel much farther when carried by water.  They will float for up to three days without sinking and get washed out across the floodplains during high water events.  The example in the picture below is likely 10 feet tall.

Pine Ridge and Henderson Day Camps were in the business of making great summer memories for children.  Today, they are in danger of becoming just a memory themselves.

Google Maps Link: Pine Ridge Park

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