Kate's Lake

Sun. 28 September:  Kate’s Lake

Our hiker's gathering point:  Conlon Farm, Perth

This hiking club outing took us up into the Lanark Highlands, to the northwest of Perth.  Driving up the Lanark Road, Hwy 511, is always enjoyable, and today it was made more so by the early Fall colors all around. 

Turning right on the Tatlock Road, then left on Concession Road #6, we were soon at our trailhead, on  a good gravel road.  We followed this road for about three kilometres as it climbed quite steeply then undulated through the forest.  An occasional rustic hunter’s cabin was passed.  These cabins will soon be filled, as hunting season gets under way.

This road ended at Highway 511, where the weekend traffic was whizzing by at great speed, around a blind corner – not a place to linger.  We retraced our steps for a kilometre or so, before turning off onto a fainter trail.  We negotiated a beaver dam across the end of a swamp, and then very soon afterwards reached the edge of Kate’s Lake. 

Here a truck was parked, and four young guys were enjoying some fishing.  We stopped beside the lake on a handy rock for our lunch. An upturned boat sat beside the dark waters.  This would have made an ideal place to swim, although we could see how steeply the rock disappeared into the inky depths of the lake.

There was much to learn on this trip, and knowledgeable hiking partners.  For example, the different types of maple trees, the calls of different birds, and the ecology of a healthy lake, just to name a few topics.

On our journey we also passed by several “erratics”, or rocks which were left behind by the glaciers from the last ice age.  Moss and lichen were now growing profusely over these rocks. This was once a great mountain chain, now a fascinating forested wilderness.

We left our fishing friends frying up their trout, and completed a circuit, returning to our cars along a good forest trail, under a colorful canopy of tall trees.

As an additional bonus, we also visited a gigantic quarry which was close to the Tatlock road.  Walking up the steep road, we suddenly came to a white wall of rock.  The quarry must have been half a kilometre wide at the top, and descended in multiple layers to the quarry floor far below.  A tall wire fence kept visitors out, although a handy set of bleacher seats was positioned to allow a school party to watch the mining trucks at work.  This is the OMYA calcium carbonate quarry.  OMYA is a Swiss company.  The mineral is used as a filler for paints, plastic and toothpaste.  OMYA has a large plant just outside of Perth, where they turn the rock into a slurry for shipment across Canada and the USA.  I selected a good size rock to take home, which grew in weight as we returned to the car.

This last fascinating side trip sealed a very successful outing, on a day which was perfect for outdoor adventure – and the hiking club calendar is full right up to Christmas!

Statistics (Kate’s Lake plus the Quarry walk):

Total Distance:          9 + 2 = 11 km (hike)

Height Gain:             Say 200 + 100 = 300 ft.

Time on Trail:          4 hrs. 09 mins. (202+47 mins.)

Start Kate’s L. hike:   9.54 am

Hwy. 511:                10.46 am

Kate’s Lake arr.:      11.43 am

Kate’s Lake dep.:    12.29 pm

Ret. to cars:               1.16 pm

Start Quarry hike:      1.24 pm

Ret. to cars:               2.11 pm

Temp:                      Rising to +23C

Weather:                 Cloudless

Setting out from Concession Road #6 near Tatlock

Hunters cabin - is that a person inside?

High level winds blowing the vapor trails about

Undulating forest road

Treetop colors

Good reflections in the swampy lake

Crossing the beaver dam

The colors of Fall

Kate's Lake

Idyllic picnic spot for our hiking group

Minnows in the water

Large rock "erratic" left by the last ice age - now covered in lichens and moss

In the woods

On the Tatlock Quarry road

Gigantic calcium carbonate quarry

These quarry rocks were too large to take home!!! - but I took a smaller piece!

The Rideau Trail: Narrows Lock Road (08C) to Black Ance Point Road (09A+)

Fri. 26 September:  The Rideau Trail:

Narrows Lock Road (08C) to Black Ance Point Road (09A+)

Beavers 1, Rideau Trail 0 (see fallen sign bottom left)

Always a surprise! Perhaps that should be the catch-phrase for the Rideau Trail. Or more appropriately, “Always be prepared for a surprise”.

I had imagined a fairly straight-forward stroll today through the Shield Country from Narrows Lock Road to Murphy’s Point Park.  Instead, I traversed the most challenging country along the entire Trail.  It wasn’t the terrain.  The ground was much less rugged than Frontenac Park.  It was the swamps, and the state of the trail itself.

It was a short drive to my starting point, on Narrows Lock Road, having dropped one car off at Black Anse Point Road.  I chose not to detour to the pretty setting of Narrows Lock itself.  Instead I headed inland on a trail damp with overnight dew.  It was an interesting route, wandering all over the place:  through the woods, beside small lakes and swamps, and across or along several gravel roads.  I would have lost my direction very quickly without the signs, and without a bright sun shining out of a cloudless sky, to check my general direction.  

Very early in my hike I could hear the distant sound of an amplified voice, but not the words.  I assumed there was an event somewhere out on Big Rideau Lake.  The sound persisted, always somewhere ahead of me.  Soon it resolved into some sort of incantation, and I imagined some sort of religious hideout and a call to prayers.  I was both very wrong and very right.

In the meantime, my trail threaded along through the woods.  I passed a junction to the Ghost Town but decided to make this a separate trip.  Finally I emerged onto the Rideau North Shore Road, with the first glimpses of Big Rideau Lake through the trees.  Here were some very expensive homes perched above the lake. 

It seemed that the trail would not come close enough to the lake for a good view.  However, the guide book mentioned an unmarked side trail leading to a place called Red Rock.  I found the trail, and it led to (surprise!) a red rock rising up from the edge of the lake.  It was a grand place to rest and to admire the dark blue waters of the huge lake, hardly moving except for gentle ripples from a distant boat.  Since this is the only point along this section of trail which (almost) reaches Big Rideau Lake, it should be described in the guide as a “not to miss” viewpoint.  Look for the yellow triangle “Property Boundary – Rideau Waterway Land Trust” sign on a tree about two hundred metres east of house #599, and just past the sign you will see the trail dropping down towards the lake.  It’s worth the stop.

The wailing sound was still floating across the lonely swamps somewhere ahead of me.  The answer to this riddle came (partially) when I arrived at Miners Point Road as a number of buses were pulling away from a parking area in front of a large sign proclaiming the “St. Anthony Coptic Orthodox Monastery”. Clearly some large event was just wrapping up here, and streams of people were leaving this isolated corner of the forest.  The surprise came when I returned home and checked the internet.  Amazing to relate, it was no less than His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, who had travelled all the way from Egypt, to lay down the cornerstone of the monastery.  There were security people with red sashes, and bus-loads of smartly dressed people probably from all over Ontario, perhaps even other parts of Canada and the USA.  It must have been the voice of the Pope which had carried all those kilometres across the wilderness.  Sadly I had arrived too late to see the dignitaries leaving.  I learned that the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the largest Christian Church in Egypt and the Middle East, being established by Saint Mark in AD 42. The seat of the Pope is Cairo.  Now how many people travelling the Rideau Trail can say they were guided along the route by the live voice of a Pope?

This was just the start of my adventures today.  The next section of trail is probably the trickiest along the entire Rideau Trail.  I had to negotiate a vast area of swamps and lakes, by threading my way carefully across several beaver dams.  A beaver dam is not designed to be walked on, consisting of inter-twined branches and mud.  All I can advise the traveler is to take it slowly and have a sturdy walking stick in each hand for added balance. 

There were man-made obstacles too.  Bypassing the monastery I had to clamber across a huge pile of brush left there by recent contractors working on the monastery site.

The swamps extended for several kilometres, and the way was anything but straight.  There is a need to update the signage here, although there was really only one way through the maze.  And I did manage to keep my feet dry!  I saw a beaver swim silently across a lake but he quickly disappeared. As I had come to expect, there were several places along the trail where I had to back-track and search for the next sign.  How easy it would be to become lost, and so quickly. 

I noticed how good the birds are at detecting human presence.  A large flock of geese took off from a lake as I quietly approached the shoreline, and on several occasions lone herons would take to the wing as I neared the water’s edge, and always before I had noticed them.

Finally I emerged onto Black Anse Point Road, and was soon back at the car.  The temperatures had been gradually rising all day, and now stood at twenty three degrees C, on a hot, still day.  I was glad to have completed that section, and one so full of unexpected surprises and challenges!  I’m now halfway to my End-to-End goal.  There are bound to be lots more surprises along the way.

Statistics:

Total Distance:                    14.6 km (hike)

Height Gain:                        Minimal

Time on Trail:                      5 hrs. 20 mins.

Narrows Lock Rd (08C):     7.59 am

BRPT East Jn. (08D):          8.50 am

Ghost Town Tr. Jn. (08E):   9.38 am

Red Rock (08F):                 10.23 am

Miners Point Rd (08G):      11.33 am

Black Ance Pt Rd (09A+):   1.19 pm

Temp:                                  +9C rising to +23C

Weather:                              Cloudless. 

RT Completed to Date =  52.5% (= 173.4/330.4 km)

Mist rising from the lakes

Today's hike started from Narrows Lock Road

Not so many of these old trail signs remain 

Morning dew on the leaves

Sunlight through the trees

First of many swampy lakes seen today

Following the sun - and the mysterious voice

Beside Big Rideau North Shore Road

The stunning Big Rideau Lake from Red Rock

Coptic Monastery and visit from Pope Tawadros II

Trail marker - tricky swamps ahead

On the first of several beaver dams

Frog in his element

Another beaver dam

Signage could do with upgrading through this section

Winding through a vast area of swampland

I saw a beaver swimming across this lake

On the final beaver dam

A snake in the grass

The Rideau Trail: Bedford/Salmon Lake Roads (04E) to Perth Road (05C)

Fri. 19 September:  The Rideau Trail:

Bedford/Salmon Lake Roads (04E) to Perth Road (05C)

Signs of Fall

Day three dawned cloudless but very cool - a few degrees below freezing.  After a welcome bowl of hot porridge I was on my way, glad of my gloves and wooly hat. Mist was rising from the lakes as I walked down Salmon Lake Road towards Frontenac Provincial Park.  

If I had been walking through wilderness yesterday, then today it was even more so.  The only way you can stay overnight within Frontenac Park is to hike into one of the back-country campsites dotted around this large area of lakes and forests.  Today I would hike right through the Park from west to east, gaining an idea of what Frontenac has to offer. 

During September and October, they sponsor the “Frontenac Challenge”, in which people are encouraged to hike every one of the eleven loops around the remote Park, a distance of 160 kilometres.  Apparently over two hundred people successfully complete this challenge each year.

The trail passes the modern concrete lakeside visitor centre before heading out into the forest.  It was a pleasant path through the woods, but not dissimilar to many other sections of the Rideau Trail.  The further east I walked, the more spectacular it became.  The trail brought me, in about four and a half kilometres, to Doe Lake, perhaps a kilometre from end to end.  Here was a pretty campsite by the water’s edge.  There were no campers, but there was a park worker busily maintaining the campsite with shovel and rake.  All around were small signs warning of poison ivy. We greeted each other – he assumed I was on the Frontenac Challenge, and he was a little surprised I was “doing the Rideau Trail”. 

The next section of trail took me through an enchanted land.  Each small lake or swamp was prettier than the next, with early Fall colors reflecting in the water.  The rocky pathway wandered through the rugged landscape, with a surprise around every corner.  Distance seemed to play tricks, making each kilometre feel three times as far.  But I wasn’t complaining.

The biggest surprise of the day was Flagpole Hill.  Suddenly I came out of the forest to find a bare rocky slope ahead of me.  A quick scramble brought me to a spectacular 360 degree viewpoint.  I heard voices, and two minutes later, a party of three appeared up the trail from the east.  One of the party was a senior member of the Friends of Frontenac Park, and he invited me to join the Fall trail maintenance crew later this month.  He also kindly took a rare photo of The Passionate Hiker on the trail, enjoying the view from this magnificent vantage point. 

The trail became more challenging as I continued east, with constant ups and downs.  I passed a swamp where a Rideau Trail marker sat on a tree stump in the middle of the water – perhaps more useful in winter when you could walk across the ice!!  Further on, I dropped down into a chasm where a bridge crossed over beneath the cliffs.  I passed the junction to Slide Lake Loop, considered highly scenic apparently. 

Finally, after my magical journey through this enchanted land, I found myself suddenly on the Perth Road.  I had made it through perhaps the most rugged section of the Rideau Trail, but there was plenty more ahead.

Statistics:

Total Distance:               14.6 km (hike)

Height Gain:                   Say 600 ft. in small gains

Time on Trail:                5 hrs. 50 mins.

Salmon Lake Rd (04E):      7.35 am

Frontenac Park (04F):         8.10 am

Doe Lake (04G):                 9.28 am

West Slide Jn (05A):        12.03 pm

South Slide Jn(05B):        12.35 pm

Perth Road (05C):              1.25 pm

Temp:                             Minus 2C rising to +10C

Weather:                        Cloudless. 

RT Completed to Date =  48.1% (= 158.8/330.4 km)

Sub-zero morning calls for hot porridge!

Morning mist rising off the lake at the Frontenac Park visitor centre

Early stage of the rugged trail through Frontenac Park

Doe Lake from the campsite

Fisherman across the lake

I wandered through an enchanted land...

...discovering one gem after another

Flagpole Hill:  an unobstructed 360 degree view..

...which took me by surprise as I emerged from the woods...

...giving the feeling of being on top of the world

Hilarious placement of the Rideau Trail route sign

Another stunningly beautiful  corner of Frontenac Park

This was rugged terrain - quite possible to end up like this!

Climbing out of Caldwell Creek

Emerging from the wilderness at Perth Road