Saturday, May 24 – 2008
10:50 – 16:50
Start: 12:00
Roads: Dry / Clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +13C
Area: Crooks Hollow, Ontario
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Sunny & Bright
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hikers: Chuck, Wolf
Plan: Explore some ruins
GPS: 43 16.60N x 80 00.39N
10:50 Chuck picked me up in his back sunfire around 10:50 and headed up the QEW to Dundas .
12:00 We arrived by the Dundas School – supposedly the most haunted school in Ontario and parked nearby. I put on my new Vibram Five Finger shoes and MEC pants and Jeep shirt and we hit the trails. We followed the stream to the old train tunnel and grabbed some photos, including some great ones of Morganna and headed back to the car. Then over the bridge and into the ankle deep water and up-stream back to the few waterfalls that were there and got some great and interesting photos. This was Chucks first barefoot outdoor experience and he found the moss in the water squishy and very cold. Morgana had a fun time navigating the thick rapids and we headed back. Chuck got shod and we arrive back at the car around 13:00hrs. From the there we went to the nearby town of Crooks Hollow.
13:20 Arrived at Crooks Hollow and explored the supposedly haunted ruins of the Grimely grist mill. We took some photos and explored inside the old mill. We found a secluded area and took a few photos. Morgana did not seem to like it here. We took the GPS unit and got a reading of 43 16.60N by 80 00.39N and an elevation of 235m above sea level.
14:00 I slipped on my Vibram five fingers and we headed up the stone path towards what google maps showed was an old stream or quarry. We ended up at a really nice dam.
14:20 We walked across the dam and ended up seeing hundreds and hundreds of catfish hovering near the edge of the dam, in the murky waters. Even feeling ill, and pumped up on dayQuil, they were a spectacular sight to see. If we ate fish, we could have fed here all summer. This was a nice, unexpected surprise.
14:30 We headed back to the car, and I could not believe how well the Vibram FiveFingers performed. They are amasingly transparent on my feet.
14:40 We arrived back at the car and headed out. As we left for the town of Dundas, we crossed several nice marked trails at the side of the road. Unfortunately Chuck somehow pulled a muscle in his thigh when we were under the bridge in the shallow stream earlier.
15:00 We left Crooks Hollow and stopped at the Dairy Queen in Dundas which was poorly serviced and took a long time to get our food – particularly Wolf’s french fries.
15:30 With Chuck’s leg still troubling him, we decided to head out after checking out the British store where Chuck picked up some cookies.
16:10 We stopped at the end of Prince William St. in Jordan to show Chuck an old set of rail bridges there which were well suited for climbing purposes. We took some time to enjoy the scenery and headed back to the ar around 16:50 to go and wait to pick Tori up at 18:00hrs from her job.
For a full photo set of the adventure click here
