Today I met old uni friend at Woodend, left my car and drove to the Southern Terminus to start at trail kilometre 0. The Cairn was easy find and the trees well marked through the park field leading us to the trail. This past week’s double digit warm weather melted the snow and ice making the trail very muddy and slippery.

Despite being 6 degrees, this felt like one of the coldest hikes all winter. The wind was blowing up from Lake Iroquois to the exposed escarpment that would provide more coverage with Spring growth.

There were a few ups and downs but the trail was one of the easiest, except for around kilometre 4. There was a steep switch back trail leading down to where the main trail meets the Upper Canada Heritage Side Trail.

Much of the trail meets up with the Laura Second Trail. One can imagine her 30km overnight venture to warn the British of American plans.

The trail connection at Four Mile Creek wasn’t hard to find, but the road is busy.

Crossing Dorchester Road to Firemen’s Park was simple. Watch for gliding frisbee golf discs. There were golfers even on this brisk day.

The trail was easy to follow except around Mewburn Rd. Once we got back on the trail it was fairly easy going. We had some rolling hills, passed vineyards and had one more steep, muddy section before the bridge over the QEW.

When we got to the screaming tunnel there was film crew wrapping up for Niagara Loves Concert Series. One of the singers did a great scream for us.

The rest of the hike mostly followed the road. We found a couple of gems like this hand carved bull mailbox and shoe tree.