Vishwawalking

Hastings Heritage Trail

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4) Bonarlaw to Highway #7

Total: 7.9 kilometres
Running total: 49.7 kilometres

From the junction the trail runs through softwood forest with some fields to the east and marsh in places. Boulder Road (which is not indicated on many maps) ends at the trial about 500 metres from the junction. A gated road to a house and outhouses leads off left (west). Huff Road follows just short of a kilometre from the junction.

Just before Morrison Road (just over 2 kilometres), note the dead school bus off to your right. From Morrison, the trail passes through more softwood and marshy bits. Unfortunately, north of Morrison, just as you come into some pines and cedar with the beautiful smell of pine all around you, there are quite a number of old tires and other rubbish by the side of the trail.

Just before the trail crosses County Road #14 (the Stirling-Marmora Road), you get a view of the quarry to the north. Then at the road itself a yellow iron gate spans the north side of the trail; however, there's a side space for ATVs to drive through.  On the north-east side of the road, the quarry disappears briefly and behind the trees fringing the trail, the area becomes much more marshy.

As the marsh to the east opens up, the trail cuts through it and there are some open spots to negotiate. At this time of year (mid-May) it was easy to walk along the edge of the water. However, I don't think this area would be negotiable earlier in the spring without a serious pair of wading boots.

As the trial curves gently to the left, the marsh to the east is studded with dead trees and open areas of water appear, and a little lake is visible to the far east. On the left is an operating quarry. On the day, I walked this section, there were trucks and backhoes running about, kicking up dust as they ground across the gravel roads. Conveyors spat out fine rock. Dire "Trespassers will be prosecuted" signs hang on the fence.

As the trail passes the northern end of the quarry, an old iron bridge spans the trail (5.5 kilometres from the junction).

Another very straight 2.4 kilometres from the bridge will get you to Highway #7.  This is an interesting section , not for the trail itself (which is fairly mundane), but for the adventures you can have in the trails that branch off it.

Shortly after the bridge, a road angles northward slightly away from the trail. At most times of the year, this road is your only chance to branch eastward off the trail; marshland and open water prevent you (or at least slow you down) from doing this elsewhere. If you take the road, you'll find a cement building at the summit, with a sign warning about PCBs.

The destruction of land by the quarry has created rolling dirt and gravel areas that ATV users delight in. be warned; there were two of them raging across the terrain when i walked this section. 

If you angle northeast away from the building across the flats toward the woods, you'll find a trail entering the woods. Just inside the trees, the trail  branches. Take the left trail and it will lead you to Greensides Farm, an area where visions of the Virgin Mary have been seen. (I will describe this beautiful area in the Funky Places section.) Take the straight ahead trail and it will eventually lead you to a KOA campground. Both trails are beautiful; the straight-ahead trail is slightly boggy, with one major wet spot to negotiate, but nothing serious for experienced walkers. There is also a right trail that I haven't explored.

Further down the line, about 1.5 kilometres north of the bridge, a road/trail heads off to the west. This is the extension of Mary Street that leads into Marmora. The "Marmora Mine Trail" is a short (just over 600 metres long) section that leads up to the Marmora mine lookout. I've described the Marmora Mine elsewhere. The trail is closed to cars, but open to ATVs; west of the mine, it turns into a regular dirt road.

The beauty of these links are exciting. In my description of the Marmora mine I mention a connection between the mine and the religious area I talked about above. Here's your physical connection to the two areas, through some beautiful countryside. All these areas deserve serious exploring.

To the left, before you reach the Marmora mine road, you'll get a great view of the abandoned Marmora mine buildings and the operating talc mill beside it. You get an even better view from the top of the hill, beside the concrete building I describe above.
  
A rather unsteady marker indicates the
road that leads west to the Marmora mine
and connects to Mary Street that leads into Marmora.

On both sides of the trail leading up to Highway #7, there is marsh.  Someone has made a vague attempt to connect the "Marmora Mine Trail" (the Mary Street extension) from the east side of the marsh to the trail. It was far too watery for walking, in mid-May at least. If it did connect, there would be a more direct route to Greensides Farm; however, the diversion described above is just as good.

At Highway #7, there is an area to the north of the highway where you can park a car.

Rating:  (Lots of exciting trails and other adventures all around this section.)  Easy

5) Highway #7 to Malone (County Road #11/Deloro Road)

Total: 10 kilometres
Running total: 59.7 kilometres

The section to Station Drive moves through bunches of cedar trees mixed with swamp. To the north end, some rough fields open up. We (I walked this section with my wife Carol) met a farmer here, working on his fences. He said he was putting cattle into a field to the east of the trail. It looked fairly marshy. The farmer acknowledged that it was wet, but said that cattle didn't mind it and it dried up over the summer. He said that at one time hay was grown in the field, but beavers had flooded the area over the years.

Marmora Station at Station Drive, has only a house immediately west of the tracks now. A few houses lining the road some distance along.

There used to be an old building just north of the tracks at Marmora Station, the lone reminder of the station itself. I remember it when I walked this section 10 to 15 years ago. All that remains now are some burned remnants.

Shortly north of Station drive, the watercourse to the east that the trail has been vaguely following crosses the trail. A small bridge makes for a good stopping point, to watch the stream as it opens up to the northwest.
The burned remains of Marmora Station

This little stream, at least in May, is impressive. I presume it's part of the Crowe Lake water system.

It meanders southward through lush marshland north of the bridge, held in by a ridge running north-south. The trail passes over the stream again roughly 1.3 kilometres north of the first bridge and  bubbles narrowly through the trees to the right.
Shortly after this, comes the big payoff for this walk: an incredible little waterfall, just off the trail, pouring over the rocks on two sides of the waterbed, with a little island in between: Niagara Falls in miniature (and without the crowds).

Shortly after the waterfall,another bridge appears and the stream opens up again on the left.

This view looks south and westward as the little stream opens up after passing
under the trail.



This waterfall, after the second bridge north of Marmora Station, is spectacular. This is how it looks in May; perhaps it diminishes somewhat over the summer. Nevertheless, it's worth walking a long way to experience.

Just north of the third bridge (depending upon how you count -- the second bridge is really just a little underpass) is Milk Run Road, about 4.2 kilometres from Highway #7. You can walk in to the trail on this little side road (it's not fit for cars). However, in both May and October at least, the water is at least a couple of feet deep on the side trail and very cold. I waded in from Milk Run Road (it's just under 400 metres to the road). The trail is a very pleasant one and the wade was not too onerous. Strangely, about thirty feet from the trail, a huge slab of concrete sits under the water. I wondered whether the original tracks might have been situated here, or perhaps a little building, a milk drop-off for for Milk Run Road. The trail continues on the east side, but the water looks even deeper there. I imagine you could walk/swim to Lajoie Road which is a dead-end north-south road not far to the east.

In both May and October, the section of the trail itself just north of Milk Run Road was also flooded. Again, the water was cold, but not a problem if you bring water slippers (I've done it in bare feet and the large gravel is not fun to walk on). This little water wade briefly takes the walk from "easy" to medium.

The trail passes through mostly coniferous forests from this point, then swamps as it gets closer to Malone Road.

Some effort has been spent here to build the trail up as it passes through large expanses of swamp on either side. The swamp to the right (east) is most open. If you bicycle this section, be prepared to negotiate the large gravel rocks; the road at this point is built more to suit ATVs.


Between Milk Run Road and Deloro Road, the trail runs through mostly bush and
marsh. Here, an open section of marsh opens up to the right of the trail. Considerable work
has been done on the trail, with gravel (unfortunately with large rocks friendlier to ATVs than bicycles)
and a few underpasses for water flow.
 
A hunt camp is situated on the right, close to the trail. Roughly 2.8 kilometres from County Road #11, a  snowmobile/ATV trail cuts east and west across the trail. A sign labels it as the Cordova Lake Trail. Cordova Lake (a fairly sizeable body of water north of Belmont Lake) is 15 kilometres to the west as the crow flies. The trail looks intriguing: rougher than the road-like Hastings Heritage Trail. A sign at the crossing indicates that Marmora is 10.9 kilometres to the south.

As the trail closes in on Malone,  fields open up, and farm houses can be seen.

Just before Malone Road (about 500 metres from Deloro Road) look to your right; a log retaining wall runs parallel to the trail. Part of an old station? There's a bit of rubble on the hill above the wall.

Just over a fence in a field is a concrete wall, all that remains of an old building.

After Malone Road  a considerable amount of garbage has been dumped on both sides of the trail and particularly behind a barn on the right.

At County Road #11/Deloro Road, the trail bridge over the West Moira runs close to the bridge for the road..

When I walked this section, cows were feeding in a nearby field, with full access to the river, a disgusting setup that should be outlawed as the animals go to the river to drink, and, of course, shit in the water at the same time.



Cattle graze in a field just off the trail near Malone. Notice the West Moira close
by. The cows have direct access to the river; here is a living example of irresponsible farming.

Look to your right when you get to the road; you'll see a rough road following the river on the east side. The river runs south-easterly at this point. Where it makes a sharp right-hand (southward) turn, you'll notice a ruined cottage on the river bank. It looks like some disaster hit it as it seems to be ripped in two.

We'll be running into the West Moira and its tributaries on and off from here on.

Parts of the West Moira make for interesting canoeing; I have paddled several sections around here.


Unfortunately I didn't chronicle my canoeing adventures adequately, so have no permanent record of of them. From the point where the trail crosses Deloro Road to Deloro, I remember placid bits interspersed with very shallow rapids. I think it was a bit of a scrape, at least in midsummer.

The trail angles across the road at this point. There is lots of space here to park your car well off the road. 

Rating:  Easy, except for the water wade. (The potential for ATVs cuts this fine walk back a rating; the waterfall, at least in May, gets a five-dude rating. The water on the trail can be a good thing; when I walked it, the water was definitely too deep for ATVs, but tolerable for wading.)  The section north of Milk Run Road is not as interesting as the opening section.


More photos.

Back to the main Hastings Heritage Trail page
Back to the previous section (Glen Ross to Bonarlaw)
On to Bannockburn to Brinklow Road  (Not completed yet)