The Passionate Hiker: The Rideau Trail: McIvor Road (02A) to Sydenham (03D)

Wed. 17 September: The Rideau Trail:

McIvor Road (02A) to Sydenham (03D)

Early start from Perth

In three consecutive days, I travelled fifty-six kilometres of Rideau Trail. It was not always an easy stroll. Although today’s journey was largely along an old railway line, it was fairly long. On the following two days, although the distance was shorter, the trail was a lot more rugged and challenging as I plunged into the Canadian Shield country.

At McIvor Road, I picked up from where I had ended my Kingston leg the previous week. Here the Rideau Trail shares the route of the K&P railway as it heads northwards through rural farmland. The line curves sharply westwards around a low escarpment, and a short distance later, the trail leaves the line behind and dives into the thick bush, heading north.

Travellers along the Rideau Trail need to stay alert. At the very moment when you feel you can’t go astray, the trail will suddenly take an unexpected turn. Today, as I was admiring the limestone slabs, looking for fossils, I missed the sign indicating that the trail turned abruptly left. It was only when I looked up to find no trail signs on the trees that I realized I had to back-track to find the right path. This has happened to me on more than one occasion already. The lesson is to stay alert for the orange signs, and be prepared to back-track when you find you can’t see the next sign.

By contrast, the trail then passes across the route of a major gas pipeline and turns left onto the Unity Road, busy today with trucks and other traffic. Happily leaving this road behind after about 800 metres, I turned north again across wide tree-lined fields. These led to a long, narrow lake, where I rested on a handy rock. I had company. Here sat a friendly frog, in no mood to leap into the water to escape me. This was his Frog Kingdom and it was I who, after a short stop, moved on, leaving him in charge of his frog-scape.

In order to re-gain the K&P trail, my path now turned west through remote woodland. Somewhere along this stretch, under the power lines, there should have been a primitive campsite. Despite back-tracking to check if I had missed it, I could find no sign of any camping area. Luckily I had not planned to use it. There were some good camping spots in the woods, however, for those who did plan to stop here along the way.

Once back on the railway line, I walked in a straight north-westerly line for three and a half kilometres to Orser Road. Along this stretch I passed a couple of walkers and three bikers. There were very few other travelers today. At Orser Road there was a sign describing the last journey south of Sir John A MacDonald, first Prime Minister of Canada, whose funeral trail passed this way en route to Kingston in June 1891. The sign notes that “farmers working in their fields stood hat in hand with bowed heads as the train passed them”.

Continuing north, I crossed the wide Millhaven Creek on a wide bridge. Now the line started to rise as it curved around a forested hillside. At the highest point, it passed through a steep-sided cutting, before curving westwards to the junction with the Cataraqui Trail, another abandoned railway line.

The K&P Trail continues west to Harrowsmith and northwards from there. The Cataraqui Trail heads east to Sydenham and northeast from there. This might occasionally have been a good place to train-spot, perhaps as the train from Kingston to Renfrew may have passed the train from Smiths Falls to Napanee on parallel lines.

At the junction, I turned right onto the Cataraqui Trail. The large iron bridge high above the Harrowsmith-Sydenham highway carried our trail, which then started to drop down and curve around the valley as it approached the edge of Sydenham. Here at the hardware store, by the lake, my car was parked. Tomorrow I would be back here for the next leg of this enchanted trail.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 24.7 km

Height Gain: Minimal

Time on Trail: 4 hrs. 41 mins.

McIvor Rd. (02A): 9.17 am

Bur Brook Rd (02B): 9.37 am

Unity/Cordukes Rd (02C): 10.46 am

K&P Trail Jn (02D): 11.48 am

Orser Rd (03A): 12.27 pm

Scanlan Rd (03B): 1.00 pm

Cataraqui Tr. (03C): 1.21 pm

Sydenham (03D): 1.58 pm