Part 6 – Creditview Road to 7th Line – 274.6/890km

Part 6 was a weekend hike.

Saturday, May 25, 2024 – 0.0km-22.3km Caledon Hills section

We left Toronto around 6:20AM, again my partner drove my mom and I to our starting location at the entrance to the Cheltenham Badlands on Creditview Road. It was grey and cloudy and in the low 20s, so didn’t need a jacket, but the mosquitos were already out in force! We quickly sprayed ourselves with bug spray before starting our hike around 7AM.

You’ll walk through a narrow, sometimes boardwalked, trail through the woods that skirt the badlands. At one point the soil does turn the distinctive badlands red, but for the most part the trail bypasses any view points of the exposed and eroded Queenston shale 450 million year old ancient sea bed. You’ll come out into the parking lot, with the option of walking over to the boardwalk lookout onto the badlands, however, we’d been before and wanted to press on.

From the parking lot you’ll come out at Olde Baseline Road, along which you’ll walk before turning left onto Chinguacousy Road which turns into a dead end, however, there is some lovely exposed badlands along the west side of this road. At the end of the road you’ll pop into the woods along a narrow path that leads downwards and then you’ll walk along a relatively straight and level dirt (no karsty rocks here!) path for about 2km. The area is a bit marshy and we noticed several slugs along the trail, but also several tiny red spotted newts, so be careful where you step!

You’ll eventually pop out onto the gravel Grange Sideroad which is part of The Grange Equestrian Neighbourhood so watch out for any equine friends sharing the road! At this juncture there was a sign indicating that the main trail had changed due to construction on Dominion Street, however, the new course would bypass the Devil’s Pulpit, so we decided to take the blue side path at this point instead of the rerouted main trail as the side path led to the Devil’s Pulpit.

If you choose to do that, you’ll continue along The Grange Sideroad for about 1.5km before turning right onto the dead end of Creditview Road. Here again you’ll follow a relatively straight and level dirt path into the forest, passing a lot of red columbine at this time of year, until you reach the edge of the cliff. Here, there is a nice view over the valley. There are wooden steps and a rope to help you navigate down the Devil’s Pulpit at the bottom of which is a steep and rocky descent down into the valley. We saw some yellow lady’s slippers in bloom along this part of the trail. Not far along is a side trail that leads to the Ring Kiln, the impressive ruins of the Hoffman lime kiln. As we had seen the ruins before, we decided to continue down the valley, however, if you haven’t seen them, it’s well worth the short detour.

You’ll cross over some train tracks before again walking down some steep steps set into the hillside before popping out onto a dead end residential road that leads you to the Forks of the Credit Road which runs beside the Credit River, where we could see people fishing. By this point it was about 9:30am and it started raining, which never let up despite the forecast calling for an hour or so of drizzle. I hadn’t brought a rain jacket for that reason, as I didn’t want to carry extra items that wouldn’t see much use…always be prepared for anything and ignore weather forecasts!

At this point we had to decide if we could continue along the original trail or backtrack along the road to meet up with the alternative route, but the road was letting local traffic in and, as it was a weekend, there were no construction crews around, so we decided to follow the road which in short order brings you to a lovely residential area before dead ending in front of the Dominion Street entrance to the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park.

From here you’ll continue along a nice wide path alongside the river. Here we stopped for a snack, although there were no benches around, which would have been nice. A little further on, where the paths intersect is an outhouse, which wasn’t too bad. However, as we continued on up the hill and through the woods, the skies opened and the rain came down. Heavily. And did not stop for a good hour or two. And this is when we got lost.

Despite the signs at the junction of paths at the top of the hill, we must of mistook them in the rain and instead of turning right to continue along the Bruce Trail, we continued straight. Of course, we no longer saw any blazes, but pressed on until the next junction. It was pouring by this point and very difficult to use the map on our phones as our hands and the screen was wet and the paper map didn’t have the other provincial park trails marked on it, so we ended up pressing on a bit further, mostly out of pure desperation to find some tree cover to shelter us from the rain a bit. However, when in doubt, just retrace your steps, we ended up wasting an hour on this soggy detour and eventually came to the Trail again, at which point it stopped pouring, though kept lightly raining for the rest of the hike.

You’ll continue along a narrow path through the woods, passing the park boundary and eventually coming to Puckering Lane. At its intersection with McLaren Road we spotted a yellow school bus with a number of hikers stopped for lunch. Crossing the road, you’ll continue along a path into the woods. Although the rain had let up a bit, the mosquitos were now out in force again. Around 12:30pm we ate lunch while continuing to hike as there was no where to sit, everything was wet and the mosquitos were awful. You’ll climb a steep hill which then leads to a clearing that skirts an old water pump. There’s a pond which has a nice bench and a little free library beside it, but it was still raining, so we kept on. The path then narrows again and goes through some woodsy area before popping out at the Escarpment Sideroad which leads you past a few farm houses before entering a tunnel that crosses under the very busy Hurontario Street.

On the other side you’ll again continue along the road for a bit before popping into the woods again. This then opens up into a lovely meadow. However, the path is quite overgrown with tall grasses, horrifying in both the prospect of ticks and in the reality of the ongoing rain. My boots, socks and pants were completed soaked within a few minutes of wading through the damp grass and so I had to finish the last 3km of the hike with wet, squishy socks.

You’ll come out onto the road again and this time you’ll stay on it, passing fields and farm houses. We ended the hike at the intersection of Escarpment Road and Horseshoe Hill Road around 2:30pm. I couldn’t wait for my cousin to pick us up and drive the half hour back to her place before changing into dry clothes, so a mailbox provided a changing screen. It was such a relief to get those wet socks and boots off! I always make sure to bring a pair of flip flops to change into at the end.

There are a few big rocks on the corner that we sat on while waiting for my cousin who very kindly came to pick us up around 3pm. It was about a 30 minute drive back to her place in Georgetown where we gratefully had a warm shower. Her sister (also my cousin) and her three young children were also there for a visit and so it was quite a full house and we ordered in pizza from ‘Joe’s’, which was very good! We ended up going to sleep around 9:30pm as we were exhausted.

Sunday, May 26, 2024 – 22.3km-43.4km Caledon Hills section

The next morning we got up around 6:15am and had breakfast, leaving around 7am. Again my cousin generously drove up to our start point for the day. It was very hazy and hot out but not raining. We started hiking around 7:50am, continuing on along Escarpment Sideroad, before popping into the woods which follows a narrow path before coming out onto St. Andrew’s Road. Following St. Andrew’s you’ll pass the 1853 St. Andrew’s Stone Church, the stones of which are locally quarried limestone, after which you’ll come to a farm, through whose fields the trail passes. The trail weaves through a few more field edges before entering the woods (filled with mosquitos!) Make sure you have bug spray if hiking between May and October and reapply it occasionally otherwise its just insufferable!

You’ll again pop out onto Escarpment Sideroad, walking along for a bit before again venturing into the woods and walking beside a stream for a bit before again regaining the road along which you’ll continue until you turn left onto Airport Road. This is a busy road so take care. You’ll also pass the Wat Lao Veluwanaram Buddhist temple before turning right onto Finnerty Sideroad. Again, you’re mostly following the road, dipping slightly into the woods for a bit before exiting at Innis Lake Road. You’ll turn left and continue along until the dead end. It was about 10:30am at this point and the road sections of today’s hike were mostly done, the rest being through the forest, so we reapplied bug spray and heading into the woods.

The path continue from the road in a fairly straight line with evidence of it also being used by horses, so it’s fairly wide and level, which is quite nice. After a couple of kilometers you’ll reach the Glen Haffy Conservation Area sign and climb a small hill before embarking upon lovely, wide, pine needle covered paths. I did not miss the karsty trails along this portion of the hike! Again we spotted many slugs and some red spotted newts along this section. You’ll make an easy descent to the Dingle, a lovely stream you’ll step stone across before making a steep ascent ack up the other side. At the top you’ll come to the Bruce Trail’s junction with the Oak Ridges Moraine Trail.

The Oak Ridges Moraine is a hilly ridge created by an ice sheet during the last ice age that stretches 160km east to west from the Trent River to the Niagara Escarpment, and yes, you can hike it in its entirety! I actually bought the trail guidebook as soon as I got home and know what our next big hiking adventure will be!

From this juncture you continue through the woods along a fairly straight path before crossing Coolihans Sideroad, the other side of which is still Glen Haffy CA. You’ll start in the woods, then come out into a large open field with picnic tables and then head back into the forest along a nice wide path. You’ll continue on for about 3km through the woods, occasionally coming out into some lovely pine tree lined clearings. There were lots of wildflowers and little blue butterflies. The sun was shining and it was hot. But not raining! You’ll make a steep descent down to Hwy 9, which is a very busy and noisy road but there’s a guardrail which provides some seating. It was here were stopped and had a noisy lunch around 12:30pm.

We carried on along the road which then come into the town of Mono Mills at the intersection with Airport Road, which has a gas station, a Tim’s and a Starbucks clustered around. So we took the opportunity to use the facilities at the Starbucks before heading across the road and back the way we came, only this time along a narrow path running along the side of the hill behind the road which leads into a valley. There are a number of steep descents and ascents as you cross a few streams and I was hot and tired. You’ll pass a little pond before making the last steep ascent up to a lookout over the Humber River source, where there is a bench (!) then skirt a large farm property before reaching 7th Line. This was the end of our hike for today, which we reached around 2:30pm. I gratefully could see my partner walking up the road from the 7th Line parking lot with water and sandwiches. We stopped at the Tim’s to get tea and iced coffee and we got back home around 4pm.