Capturing the Art of Nature
Borer's Falls (Day 4)
Borer Falls is one of the best to be seen, so we hiked in to view it from below unfortunately we forgot the water!
Category
Ontario Adventures
2012
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Our day of adventure began at noon with a trip to a small sandwich shop that Mike had seen before and which looked like a popular spot. He had never tried it so we decided to take a chance and give it a go. The sandwiches were quite good and of a decent size. It was no longer a wonder that the place was very popular.
Lucas was also with us and being young and full of energy he was often leading our way along the trail waiting for us to catch up. The trail at first seemed to be leading away from the falls and so Mike was eyeing the edge of the grassy field we were crossing for a path down and towards the correct location. We didn't find anything usable and so we continued along the trodden path. We were soon dropping down into a small feeder stream bed. It was completely dry and so we had no trouble crossing it and up the far side. Eventually the trail joined up with a side trail of the Bruce trail, now we had a tough decision, which way to go, neither direction seemed to go towards the fall. After some agonizing moments we went left and down slope. We had a short ridge between us and the falls so this seemed like the best way to get around it and to the spot we needed.
We continued along the well used trail but soon we realized we were getting too far away from the sliver of valley leading to the falls. So we turned back and before long found a leaf covered side trail that led in the right direction. It was easy travel for a while but soon after reaching the creek the trail ended and we had to continue along the creek bed. Tis was a difficult hike as the bed was mostly loose boulders punctuated with small pools of water and all covered in dry leaves making it hard to find good footing.
We continued along the creek as we could see that we were now getting closer to our goal. But now we were getting splattered with drops of rain and getting worried at whether we could safely continue. We pressed on and soon the falls was spotted through the trees. Finally arriving, we were greeted with a very diminished flow and an unimpressive sight, so much effort for a disappointing view. Rather than commiserate on the lack of water we looked around and found a number of smaller things to shoot graph including a pair of large toads one of which posed for us for some time.
After spending a good amount of time at the foot of the falls we saw a rough steep trail that climbed the side of the gorge to the road that passes by along the top and which we had been on last year! It was a steep climb up and one muddy spot a bit challenging, but we were able to get up the cliff face and now we were at the top of the falls and on the Bruce trail. We felt that following the trail back though longer would be easier and faster than fighting our way along the creek bed.
Now that we were on top of the escarpment we had lovely views of the trees below and could finally see the vast expanses of colour that were missed when we were hiding under it. We followed the trail along the escarpment edge and soon it dropped down the cliff face and there the side trail we were on earlier forked off it. Walking the side trail soon brought us to the spot where we first reached it, having at that time taken the direction down rather than up. So we left the side trail for the minor one back to where our car was parked. By now the rain was falling more seriously and we didn't want to dawdle. Finally we reached the car where we were able to take a needed rest before starting back for home. It was a fun hike and bit challenging in places, but worth the effort even though the actual falls was a bit lame thanks to the dryness of the season.