The Passionate Hiker: The Cataraqui Trail (6): MacGillivray Road to Sydenham

Mon. 17 August: The Cataraqui Trail: MacGillivray Road to Sydenham

Upper Rideau Lake sunrise from Westport-Kingston road

Spoiler Alert! My Cataraqui Trail hiking colleagues may want to skip this blog entry.

This year, we have been making our way by stages from Smiths Falls down the Cataraqui Trail. Since I will not be able to join the team for the next section from MacGillivray Road to Sydenham, scheduled for late September, I decided to do this stage early. How awful it would be not to earn the end-to-end badge!

Since this was a solo effort, it involved doing the roughly sixteen kilometre stretch in BOTH directions. I chose for logistical reasons to start in Sydenham on foot. I then returned to my car by bike, having hidden the bike at a strategic spot along the trail, just off the Opinicon Road.

It would be a hot day, with temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius, so I made a very early start, being on the trail by just after 7 a.m. I wasn’t alone. There were two or three walkers and joggers out there ahead of me. But soon I had the trail to myself, and never saw another person until returning to Sydenham four hours later.

The highlight of this section of the Cataraqui Trail comes immediately after leaving Sydenham, with the trail following the northern edge of Sydenham Lake. A little further east, a causeway heads across the lake, over a sturdy iron railway bridge, to an island. At the far end of the island is another bridge, crossing the northern arm of the lake. There are many expensive homes above the lake, with their own boat docks accessed by wooden stairs leading down the short steep banks below the trail.

After several kilometres, the trail leaves the lake behind, and the houses too. This was a lonely section, through woodland and grassy valleys, the swamps never being far away. A couple of benches beside a lake made an ideal stopping place. This was a silent wilderness, oddly free of the sound of birds, and happily far from noisy roads too.

I passed a stretch of trail-side wild parsnip, which was leaning into the trail as if trying to catch unawares a passing traveller. At Perth Road was a prominent sign warning of the dangers of wild parsnip.

After crossing Perth Road, I soon came to the Opinicon Road, where I had hidden my bike earlier. From here to MacGillivray Road, about four kilometres, I biked through some beautiful countryside, bright yellow with goldenrod. After a brief stop at MacGillivray Road I turned back, now heading southwest, and returned all the way down the line to Sydenham.

There is hardly any gradient on this section of the old railway line, and so I kept up a steady pace, stopping only to take more pictures that nobody will ever see – unless you read this blog!

There was a warm breeze in my face as I whizzed along the trail. It was already a hot day, and temperatures were still climbing. Our next leg of this Cataraqui adventure, west from Sydenham to Yarker, will not be until October, by which time our lovely summer will be a distant memory.

Note: single-click on the first picture above to scroll through the photos separately. Also, see the Map at the end

Statistics:

Total Distance: 12.9 km (hike) + 20.5 km (bike) = 33.4 km

Height Gain: 105 ft.

Time on Trail: 4 hrs. 18 mins.

Sydenham: 7.20 am

Hogan Road: 8.19 am

Perth Road: 9.28 am

Hike=>Bike: 9.49 am

MacGillivray: 10.08 am

Sydenham: 11.38 am

Temp: +20C rising to +25C

Weather: Sunny, hot