The Rideau Trail: Lally Homestead (09B) to Narrows Lock Road (09E+)

Sun. 6 July:  The Rideau Trail:

Lally Homestead (09B) to Narrows Lock Road (09E+)

In a quiet corner of the Rideau Trail

This more challenging section of the trail started about twenty kilometres south of Perth and headed through the undulating Canadian Shield country of forest and swamp, beside an area of abandoned mica mines.

Logistics were made easy today as L. was heading to the Silver Queen mica mine as a Sunday volunteer, showing the tourists how life used to be in a mining camp.  She played the role of the cook’s mother!

Anyway, this gave me the perfect start for this trip.  Lally Homestead consists of two old log houses sitting in a field, preserved but not accessible to the public.  This also marks the start of the Central section of the Rideau Trail.  It runs north through Perth then east to Smiths Falls and on to Rosedale.

The air was full of flies banging into my face, so I tried out my one piece bug jacket which worked perfectly.  I was glad that I didn’t meet anyone on the trail, as I probably looked a little ridiculous, but all day the flies and mosquitoes were buzzing all around my face and the jacket allowed me to stop to take better pictures without being attacked.  As far as meeting people is concerned, I have now travelled close to thirty kilometres of this trail over three trips and have yet to meet another person!

At the very first swamp I surprised a young deer standing at the water’s edge.  This section of trail twists and turns through the forest, following a random course which was well marked by the red triangle pointers nailed to trees.  Nevertheless, there were three or four occasions today where I might have easily gone astray as the markers were not easily visible in the leafy forest and bush.  I was careful not to stray too far from the last known red arrow before heading out into the unknown.  It would be easy enough to get lost out here – and it would be a serious lost!  No shinning up a ridge to get the lie of the land as in Alberta, just a vast area of forest, swamp and lake.  

Perhaps the trickiest route-finding challenge was in a series of open fields with cows grazing.  The "obvious" path turned out not to be my trail, but a cattle path.  Finally I found a trail sign higher up the field to my right, hidden by the bushes.  And at one point deep in the forest, the trail dropped into a small depression where the exit point took some finding - but I found it. 

I stopped for a snack at a handy outcrop above a small swamp, with the strong breeze in my face.  On two occasions the trail comes near to a road, and for a while follows the gravel access road to a group camp.  But it generally takes its own winding course through the wilderness.

The most interesting section comes after waypoint 09D, where I passed through an extensive area of old mica mines.  There were many holes in the ground as I followed the top of a forested ridge.  Some of the holes were quite deep.  It would be a terrible end to slip down into one of them.  A sign alerts hikers to stay on the trail due to “deep holes”.  A good caution.

Eventually the trail became more clear, turning into a double track and then a gravel road, Powers Road, which leads to Narrows Lock Road.  Along Powers Road I picked up a companion - a friendly dog.  He gave me a scare as we approached the main road as he trotted out in front of an oncoming car but the driver had seen my frantic waving.  Luckily a man stopped and told me he was the dog’s neighbour and took care of it before any major accident could occur.  

The final section of my journey today was along this road which was luckily not too busy.  It’s a shame that the Rideau Trail has to revert occasionally to the reality of roadsides, after spending most of its time in a magical wilderness world.

I returned to my car which I had left at the lonely roadside Municipal Hall and parking area for large snow-ploughs.  I don’t see myself trying to do the Rideau Trail in winter.  There is a well-earned badge for doing so.  I will settle for completing the Central portion of this compelling trail by the end of this hiking season.  I’m well on my way already.

Statistics:

Total Distance:                10.9 km (hike)

Height Gain:                    Some small ups & downs

Time on Trail:                  3 hrs. 51 mins.

Start (Lally H’stead):         8.40 am

Group Campsite (09C):    9.22 am

Long Lake Rd. (09D):      10.38 am

Narrows Lk/Powers Rd:  12.18 pm

Car:                                  12.31 pm

Temp:                             +19C to +24C

Weather:           Sunny, clouds building.  Strong breeze. 

Lally Homestead - start of today's hike

The trail to the right leads to an old mica mine - highly recommended!

In the swamp

One of several swamps passed on today's trail

Trail ghosts?  Or trying out my bug jacket (worked well!)

Road to the group camp is also a great XC ski trail

Impossible to miss overhead trail marker

Some markers were much harder to spot (see top left)

Alarming sign warning of old mica mines in the area

No doubt about the danger here!

Great place to stop for a snack above this pretty swamp in the strong breeze

Lots of butterflies today

Glittering pathway with pieces of  mica catching the sunlight

Large swamp beside the Narrows Lock road

Bandits!! Low ten o'clock!!!!

Typical stile on the Rideau Trail - this one leads off Long Lake road

Looking straight down into an old mica mine - deep hole.

This warning sign sits beside a large hole in the ground filled with water

New found friend joins me along the Powers road

Some less than ideal hiking beside the Narrows Lock road

From an official mica collection, showing how the rock can be separated
 into thin layers, once used as lamp glass and windows.

The Rideau Trail: Rathwell Road (11A) to Port Elmsley (11D)

Fri. 4 July:  The Rideau Trail:

Rathwell Road (11A) to Port Elmsley (11D)

At Lower Beveridges Lock

Today’s section of the Rideau Trail took me further east from Perth, towards Ottawa.  It was a day of contrasts:  bush-whacking, woodland trails, a dam, canal paths, and finally a road walk, all in the space of about twelve kilometres.

I set off from Rathwell Road, where last week’s journey had ended.  Striding down the pleasant country lane, I almost missed the red triangle pointing left into a field.  Here I immediately plunged into tall grasses and bush.  It had rained last night.  The clouds were rapidly disappearing to the east, leaving a clear blue sky and cooler temperatures.  It didn’t take long for me to get wet as I waded through the grass.  

Thank heavens for all those trail signs which, along this section, were the only way I had any clue of my route.  The long grass hid any sign of a trail, and anyway it zig-zagged all over the place, following fence lines, then diving in and out of the woods and along the edges of fields.  It was obvious that the early season would have been a better time to travel this section, before things started to grow!

Nevertheless, it was an exciting challenge, watching out for the signs.  At one point a red arrow appeared to point me towards a field, over a low fence.  Using some of my accumulated hiking sense, I soon realized that the sign pointed in the wrong direction, and I quickly found the right trail in the woods.  Apart from that one incident, despite the often overgrown state of the trail, one could hardly go wrong;  although, on several occasions, I only had blind faith to lead me from one sign to the next.  Eventually I heard the sound of traffic and, passing a snowmobile abandoned on the trail, I came out onto the fairly busy Highway 43, the Perth-Smiths Falls road.

As I walked along the edge of the highway, I almost missed the orange trail sign in the ditch below the road, beside a wood, pointing across a field.  I followed the edge of the wood into the field, and here the red signs continued to point the way.  The trail skirted a number of open fields, diving in and out of the woods, before passing through a more open woodland section on a wider trail.  This soon led to the Beveridges Dam.

In earlier days, the original Tay Canal followed the river all the way to Port Elmsley, my destination today.  But the canal fell into disrepair and a new canal was built at this point, heading straight into Rideau Lake.  This dam was built to raise the water upstream sufficient to allow the new canal to function.  It also created (or enlarged) a wide area of marshland.

It’s not a big dam, possibly a hundred metres across, but water flows over the low wall and so you have to be careful not to slip.  Being over-prepared, I had brought my MICROspikes along for added traction and managed to tip-toe through four or five inches of fast-flowing water to reach the higher central section of the dam.  A chain winch on rails would at one time have allowed the central gate to restrict flow of the river, but it didn’t look to me as if it had been used in decades.  The river flowed wide and fast below the dam.

After continuing down a pleasant access road beside the marsh, I came to the canal itself, at the Upper Beveridges Lock.  A small tugboat lay moored above the lock, and a white lock-keeper’s building sat beside the canal.  A bike was chained to a tree but I saw no signs of life.  I have always been fascinated by canals and here was a classic canal scene, minus any activity!  

But further down the trail I came to the Lower Beveridges Lock, where I was just in time to watch three lock-keepers in green teeshirts operating winches to open up the lock for a flotilla of boats; or to be exact, a small motor boat and a canoe with a man and woman and their dog!

Here the canal drops down to the level of Lower Rideau Lake, joining the lake just below the Lock.  It was a peaceful scene, with kids fishing and a rental boat moored below the lock.

The rest of my trip today was a forced march beside a (luckily quiet) paved road leading to the tiny village of Port Elmsley.  Not very inspiring.  But there is always something to notice:  An old outdoor movie theatre, still in use (last night it was showing the Transformers movie!!);  a modern school, closed for summer; some brightly coloured wild flowers right beside the road, and finally the bridge across the Tay River, which flowed gracefully between the trees on its final run into Lower Rideau Lake.  

I was soon back at the car, which I had parked in a large, ideally located parking lot beside the Community Hall on Station Road.  Now I’m planning to complete the entire Central section of the Rideau Trail this year.  There’s something addictive about the trail of red triangles.  I just have to keep following them!

Wildlife seen today:  Two deer (one a stag with antlers), heron, frog, hidden duck in the marsh

Statistics:

Total Distance:                12.2 km (hike)

Height Gain:                    Negligible

Time on Trail:                  3 hrs. 38 mins.

Start (Rathwell Rd.):        `8.49 am

Frizell Rd./Hwy 43 :           9.49 am

Beveridge Dam:               10.25 am

Upper Beveridge Lock:    11.01 am

Lower Beveridge Lock:    11.21 am

Port Elmsley:                   12.27 pm 

Temp:                             +16C to +20C

Weather:                         Sunny, clouds building.  Cooler.  Light breeze.

The trail immediately plunges into long grass, wet from last night's rain

Interesting large fungus growing on the side of a tree

This long-ago abandoned truck tells me I'm on the right path

Typical stile along the trail

Looking back to an impossibly tangled section of trail

Open fields, but tall grasses hide the route

The Perth-Smiths Falls road (Hwy 43) at Frizell Road

Pleasant contrast between dark woods and open fields

More open woodland and wider track, approaching the dam

Beveridge Dam - the trail crosses the fast flowing water on the dam wall

Tay River and canal above the dam

Upper Beveridges Lock, looking upstream towards Perth

Upper Beveridges Lock gate

Lower Beveridges Lock - an active scene as the gate is opened

And this canoe party passes through the gate on its way upstream

Peaceful scene at Lower Beveridges Lock

Rideau Lake from the entrance to the Tay Canal

On the road to Port Elmsley

The Tay River at Port Elmsley

The Rideau Trail: Making a Start. Conlon Farm in Perth (10D) to Rathwell Road (11A)

Sun. 29 June:  The Rideau Trail: Making a Start
Conlon Farm (10D) to Rathwell Road (11A)

The Bandstand in Stewart Park, Perth

This 300+ km trail links Kingston, Perth and Ottawa.  It is by no means a straight line northwards across flat countryside.  It passes through the rugged Canadian Shield, a jigsaw puzzle of lakes and forest and low rocky hills.  

Perhaps few people walk it from end to end (or E2E as it is called), in one single trip, as there are often no convenient campsites along the way.  Instead, people pick away at sections, gradually completing the whole thing.  The trail is divided into three sections, the south section managed by the Kingston club, the central section based on Perth, and the northern section managed from Ottawa.  There are good maps of the complex route, divided into manageable well-defined and measured sections. 

As a new member of the Rideau Trail Association, I felt a compelling need to get started.  So today I completed sections 10D and 10E, covering the town of Perth and the upper part of the Tay Canal.

It’s quite a remote trail in many places, and so you have to make use of the maps to pick the best access point for vehicles.  My plan today involved dropping my bike off at the far end of my hike, so I could bike back to Perth afterwards.  Future trips will require more complex arrangements to get me to where I need to be.

Section 10D of the Rideau Trail starts at the Conlon Farm recreation area on the west side of town.  It soon crosses then recrosses the Tay River, runs through the pretty Stewart Park, and passes the Town Hall and the Tay canal basin on its way out of town.  This early on a Sunday morning, Perth was still asleep.  For several kilometres the path follows the Tay River – my kayaking route of yesterday.  The river banks are wooded, but I enjoyed many glimpses of the river.  

Further along, the trail runs along the very edge of the river, and one could be in danger of slipping off the narrow path into the water below.  The banks were eroding and sections of the trail may soon need rerouting.  

After about three kilometres, the trail turned abruptly away from the river and followed a ditch then the edge of a field to my destination, Rathwell Road.  The path was steadily becoming more overgrown as I moved away from Perth, and I had to make my way through grasses well above my knees.  There was no doubt about the route, even in the most overgrown sections.  Little red isosceles triangles nailed to handy trees, the long end pointing in the right direction, kept me safely on track.

At the Rathwell Road, I had earlier dropped off my bike, and so I was able to make an easy return to Perth along the main road from Smiths Falls, in light traffic and enjoying a cooling headwind.

I had completed just 6.6 kilometres of this long trail, but it was a start.  I felt capable of doing much longer sections in the future.  After all, it was not yet 10 o’clock in the morning.  But it had been a hot walk, and I was ready to put my feet up and relax. 

My E2E challenge was under way!  

Statistics:

Total Distance: 6.6 km (hike) + 6.0 km (bike)          = 12.6 km

Height Gain:       negligible

Time on Trail:    2 hrs. 1 min.

Dep. car:           7.40 am

Perth Basin:      8.00 am

Rathwell Rd:     9.11 am

Ret. to car:         9.41 am

Temp:               +20C to +24C

Weather:           Sunny, hot, light S. breeze

Crossing the Tay River in Perth

Beautiful Stewart Park in the middle of town

Sign opposite the Town Hall

The Anglican church spire seen across the fields

Perth Outfitters - awesome selection of canoes and kayaks

Tay River and Last Duel Park

A reminder that this long trail passes through much private land

Hugging the edge of a field - trail sign points the way

Lots of wild flowers along the trail

 

And some wild life too!

The trail runs through the woods beside the river

Some stunning views across the marshes

I had kayaked along this stretch just yesterday.

Leaving the river, the trail heads through tall grasses beside a marshy ditch

A little rough going in places, but the route is never in doubt

Rathwell Road - end of section 10E of the Rideau Trail