Seaway Hike, December 31, 2006

Sunday, December 31 – 2006

11:50 –
Roads: Ice Patches
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +2
Area: Niagara
Vehicles: Blue Suburban REBMA
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Trail Conditions:
Hikers: Wolf, Tori, Brian, Merlin, Morgana, Lupis
Plan: Hike section of the trail from km 9.6 along concession 6 to km 16 at wood-end

11:50 Arrived at conc. 6 to find the trail goes off down a road. For safety purposes we followed the road by car. At the Regency Motel where the map says the trail goes off we saw markers the trail had been moved. Following the trail it eventually set back in the woods where we got all the dogs and Brian ready. This was Brians first hike ever and may prove to be interesting.

12:21 Head into the trail from the road part of the trail.

12:27 We realised that the trail map is totally wrong. We come out on the road towards wood-end. We hiked across the trail map as we had already hiked on This section Dec – 21, 2006 We will be partially re-hiking this section of the trail.

12:44 Significantly earlier than expected, we crossed over Taylor road and over a fence west bound towards a golf course and Walker industries.

13:03 Crossing through the golf course we seemed to follow what appears to be a natural run off of water, very muddy. We stopped briefly at a bridge over point ..1007. It appears to be remnants of a street-car bridge. Large concrete walls with leftover steel rail embedded in it. We counted 9 tracks on one side, 10 on the other suggesting it was a crossover site many moons ago.

13:16 Hiking along the trails we came upon a section of the trail on the St. Lawrence seaway Although we have been here many times before, the large stone locks about 10m deep are always impressive. Brian stated he enjoys being out here and is still warm. 2 vehicles upside-down and one is upright, possibly an old K-car, a white minivan and an unknown blue car which can be seen as front wheel drive – possibly an Asian car lie in the water in the old locks.

14:15 After a hike along an asphalt trail, we headed up the escarpment and stopped to rest on a bench donated by Marg Archibald and enjoyed the view of the canal locks in Thorold.

15:07 Tori’s ankle is sore, brian is starting to get cold. We called Wolf’s mum to pick us up at lock 7 in Thorold. We found 3 chairs by the locks and sat in them to awayt Chris to pick us up. We are at km 24.6 of the trail.

15:25 Chris arrived in the suburban and we headed for home after loading everyone in the truck. This was our first one-way hike and it seemed to work out very well. Brian said he enjoyed himself very much. Tori wore her parka, beige hiking shirt and black pants with teva sandals and toe-socks. Brian wore white running shoes, black jeans, a black sweatshirt and grey jacket with toque. Wolf had on his hiking boots from Texas, black pants, flannel shirt – beige, as well as army parka and ski-mask. The hike went very well today. Brian may join us again.