Part 5 – Sixth Line Nassagaweya to Creditview Road – 231.2/890km

Part 5 was a weekend hike.

Saturday, April 27, 2024 – 2.7km-26.5km Toronto section

We left Toronto around 6:30am and arrived at our starting location around 7:20am. It was gray and misty out, but the rain had stopped by the time we got to the start, although that would not last. Overall it was a very soggy hike. We again had been driven to the start of our weekend hike by my partner and we started the first BT hike of this year around 7:35am.

You’ll immediately pop into the woods from the road and follow a narrow, but relatively flat, although at times karsty, path that follows the edge of the escarpment. There aren’t many view points, but there are a few along the way. Almost immediately when starting this section, there’s a side trail that takes you to a lookout of an old quarry, now filled with water that is part of the still operational Lafarge quarry. As the side trail was only a couple hundred meters out and back, we decided to see the view.

It started raining again, and pretty hard too, so we got our backpack rain covers out, but by the end of the day we were both pretty soggy, and the contents of my backpack were as well, including my clothes. Pro tip: put all your rain gear on before the deluge starts. My ‘rain jacket’ was also more suited to a light drizzle and so I got pretty wet almost right away on the hike, making it cold and uncomfortable. However, there were hardly any bugs at this time of year, it wasn’t hot or cold, and so I’ll take a bit of rain, which came on and off all hike.

You’ll get to a bridge that you can actually see from the 401 driving west, which leads you over the truck entrance to the operational quarry, which gives a nice view into the quarry as well as the surrounding countryside. Again, once on the other side you continue along the narrow trail through the woods. One thing that I got really excited about were the number of trilliums starting to bloom! I love trilliums mostly because they’re pretty elusive, blooming for only a short time, especially the red trilliums, of which we saw plenty on this hike!

Eventually you’ll come to a dead end road which you cross and pop back into the forest, into the Speyside Resource Management Area. Again the narrow trail continues to be a bit karsty in areas, and now due to the rain, a bit muddy. Some sections have boardwalks but take care as they become very slippery in the rain! We passed a large hiking group, but other than that, no one else was really on the trail.

You’ll then come out onto 15 Sideroad and walk along the road crossing Hwy 25, at which there are traffic lights, before popping back into the woods again. The trail is much the same only we found this section to be much muddier as it’s a bit swampy. We did see some lovely yellow marsh marigolds in the streams though. Again, always do these hikes with proper hiking boots, sometimes there’s nothing else to do but walk through the muck given how narrow the trail is. Also be mindful of creating alternate paths around the muddy parts, as it may harm the flora. This section had two interesting points of interest, the first being a row of logs just absolutely covered in mushrooms and the second being the largest grouping of red trilliums I’ve ever seen.

We got to Fourth Line around 12:30pm and quickly ate lunch as we were wet and resting made the cold worse. There’s what seems to be a scrap yard here beside the entrance to the woods and there were chickens roaming about and we could hear dogs barking and some kind of loud machinery. But there was a little concrete block that provided a nice seat, so we took advantage of it for our lunch stop. Once you cross Fourth Line, you head into a very narrow row of trees and scrub between two farm fields and continue along in this way for awhile before emerging at Fifth Line.

Here you’ll see a lovely old stone house on the opposite side of the road. You continue up the road a bit before popping again into the woods, which is now part of Limehouse Conservation Area. You’ll follow along the top of the escarpment before heading down a couple of ladders into a cave and going through the Hole in the Wall. This part of pretty cool, we also had the entire place to ourselves, as this conservation area is pretty popular and gets quite crowded. You’ll notice there are now ropes corralling you through the marked trail to deter people of causing damage to the fragile rock formations. Once through the cave, you’ll come to Black Creek, again with a fenced in bridge corralling you across the stream and many signs telling the more adventurous, but maybe not so thoughtful, to not climb onto the old and fragile stone arch that spans the creek beside the bridge that is part of the ruins that you can see on the opposite side of the creek. Up the short hill you’ll find more ruins, in the form of a lime kiln. Shortly after the ruins, you’ll pop out into the village of Limehouse on 22 Sideroad.

Before you cross over the rail tracks, take a peek at the lovely old stone memorial hall, built in 1876, which also has a coffee shop, although it was closed when we walked by. Right after the bridge you’ll turn left into a small residential street with some lovely old houses lining it before coming out onto Fifth Line again. You’ll then pop back into the woods at the side of the road and then climb up and over the escarpment, and again go through trees skirting farmers fields before descending into a forest and then again popping out onto Fifth Line.

After walking down the road a kilometer or so, you’ll climb across a fence and again walk the edge of fields before going into the woods. These woods are very marshy and have a lot of lovely boardwalks, but again take care as they become very slippery when wet. You’ll then come out onto Sixth Line. This is where we finished our day’s hike around 3:50pm. My cousin lives in nearby Georgetown and very kindly picked us up and let us stay overnight with her and her family.

After showering and changing, into somewhat damp clothes, we ended up taking my cousin, her husband, their children and her sister (also my cousin), who was able to pop by, out for dinner at the Copper Kettle Pub in Glen Williams. It looks like the lovely old building was one time a general store. I had the Shepherd’s Pie, which was pretty good. Glen Williams is a lovely little village, and I will have to come back to explore more of the lovely old preserved buildings. Back at my cousins, we finished the day with some tea and lovely conversation before falling asleep around 10pm.

Sunday, April 28, 2024 – 26.5km-50.3km Toronto section

We got up around 6am and got ready. Had some breakfast at my cousin’s and then got the our starting point for the day around 7:30am. It was bright and sunny out and a bit humid, probably around 20 degrees Celsius, however there were menacing clouds in the west, and it would again turn out to be a soggy hike.

You’ll walk along the road of Sixth Line for a kilometer or so before turning right onto Hwy 7, before heading into the woods. Again the trail is narrow, a bit muddy, with some boardwalks, however, we soon had one of our coolest animal encounters on the BT to date, not that we’ve had many. We could hear a scratching noise in the trees above us that seemed too slow for a squirrel or chipmunk, and then saw a huge porcupine slowly making his way up the trunk of the tree to find a nice branch upon which to nap. By the time I got my camera out, he was hidden among the branches so I only have my phone pictures, but it was awesome to be able to see our little porcupine friend in the wild going about his day.

Fairly soon after our animal encounter we came to Trafalgar Road. You cross the road and again head into the forest on the other side. This area again was marshy and had a lot of boardwalks, mud and rocks. Eventually you’ll cross 27 Sideroad and enter Silver Creek Conservation Area on the opposite side. Here the trail is nice and wide, flat with few rocks. We saw a little garter snake sunning himself, so take care where you step. You’ll then cross Eighth Line and continue through Silver Creek Conservation Area. This section was the muddiest yet as it follows just underneath the top of the escarpment and so is crossed numerous times by small streams running down into the valley below. Eventually, you’ll get to the bottom of the valley and cross over lovely Snows Creek before ascending the hill on the opposite side, which leads to a bench right before the road, Fallbrook Trail, which you cross and again continue through Silver Creek.

In this section you’ll find a lookout over the valley, but the coolest thing are the turkey vultures perched pretty much at eye level in the trees and circling around overhead. This section was also quite karsty and and then descends again into a valley before reaching the parking lot. It was about 11:45am and there were some logs upon which to sit, so we decided to stop for lunch, at which point the skies opened and torrents of rain poured forth. We again got absolutely soaked, however, we had earlier when the skies began to darken put our rain gear on ourselves and our backpacks. The heavy rain didn’t last long, but came on and off for pretty much for the rest of the hike.

The parking lot is at Tenth Line which you follow before popping into Terra Cotta Conversation Area. You’ll cross a river and then climb up to the trail that runs along the top of the hill through the forest for a bit. Again the heavy rain started so I don’t have many pictures from this section but the trail was nice and wide with few rocks. At one point there’s a fence with a wooden step ladder leading you over it which marks the end of Terra Cotta Conservation Area, however, the trail and scenery remain much the same. You can hear the river flowing quickly at the bottom of the valley to your left. At Winston Churchill Blvd. you again cross back into Terra Cotta Conservation Area. There was a nice big rock near the road on which to rest. My plantar fasciitis, although not gone, is considerably better. My feet never really started hurting like they did last year until the end, and then I think it was more just regular foot pain from walking 8.5 hours with a heavy backpack on two days in a row.

Again the trail goes through the forest, however switches at one point to a nice coniferous forest before again going back into the muddier deciduous woods. You’ll eventually come out onto Heritage Drive, upon which you walk a bit before crossing over to pop back into the woods on the other side. However, I noticed a nice concrete block on the other side of the road, to have a nice rest before the last leg of our hike as my legs were getting pretty tired by this point. So we stopped, sat and had a snack, we also took our raingear off as it was getting a bit sunny. However, a dark blue pickup truck drove up the hill and past us. A few moments later the same truck was driving back towards us from the other direction. This road is deserted, there aren’t really any houses nearby, so for any women doing this hike, be extra vigilant. The truck stopped in front of us and the 50ish man in a plaid shirt and baseball cap asked my mom and me if we were parked around here. I said ‘no’ and then he replied ‘That’s good.’ and drove on before pulling over at the bottom of the hill and stopping. That was enough for us, we grabbed our gear and ran into the woods. The whole encounter was weird and unsettling. I’m not sure why he needed to ask us that, or why he drove by twice and then stopped at the bottom of the hill. But we were scared enough not to hang around and find out. Not all snakes are poisonous, but some are.

The rest of the hike was kind of ruined as were we pretty scared. I called my partner to let him know what had happened so if we weren’t at the pick up location at least he’d have some clue. My mom was worried he’d be waiting for us at the exit of this forest track on the other road, so that was disconcerting and caused much anxiety in this very mucky section of the hike. We also kept looking behind us to see if maybe he had followed us and didn’t dare stop in case he had. Unfortunately, this is the reality of just trying to be a women in the world and doing your own thing. It could have been nothing, although the encounter was very strange and creepy, but again not all snakes are poisonous, but some are and it only takes one poisonous snake to do you harm. All we could think of for this section of the hike was what did he want, why did he do that? Why ask us if we were parked around there? If we had said ‘yes’ would be have said something along the lines that its illegal and offer to drive us to our vehicle to move it? For real or for an excuse to get us in his truck? Also, is he not aware how much that scenario resembles the start of a horror movie, why do that?

Luckily when we came out onto the dead end road of Boston Mills, there was no pick up truck and there were houses, and people and cars driving along Mississauga Road, so our anxiety was immediately lifted. But so frustrating and annoying that someone’s small action, whether meant in malice or not, can have such a big impact on others. I’m very anxious for our next section of our BT hike, which goes along roads a good chunk of the time. Although scary, I did have to laugh a bit when I thought of the question making its rounds on social media for women of would you rather meet a man or a bear in the woods? Although there aren’t bears this far south in Ontario, I guess we would definitely choose the bear over a man, seeing how quickly we ran into those woods.

Anyway, you continue along Boston Mills Road, across Mississauga Road, past some houses and then turn left onto Creditview Road. At the start of the trail into Cheltenham Badlands Conservation Area, the Toronto section ends and the Caledon Hills section begins. This is where we ended our hike for the weekend. My partner drove past right before we got to the finish and so we didn’t have to wait along the side of the road at all. We then stopped at Tim’s for the washroom and got some tea. My partner had brought us homemade sandwiches and we got back home around 5pm.