2020/06/28 – Beach Hydro

Good morning from Hamilton Beach. Today I will be following hydro corridors around industrial Hamilton Harbour and along the Beach Bar. I’m starting north of the Skyway/Tesla Boulevard interchange, looping around, and then heading north along the bar. Let’s go.

Gotta divert from the corridor right away, the junction of hydro lines is over by the highway interchange. No complaints though, I’ll take a lakeside formal public trail any day.

My gravitational attraction to the lake almost made me miss my turnoff, a gravel path bisecting wetlands. Deer flies and blackbirds attacking. Brief glimpse of this branch before it heads to Niagara.

Across the QEW. The branch to Niagara meets another. The other branch goes west into Hamilton via Brampton Street. Stunning vistas on the way.

A street straddling hydro corridor. Eventually comes to the heart of distribution: Beach Transformer Station. Lines from Niagara, Toronto, Hamilton Harbour, west GTA and the Mountain all converge here.

Dirty elevated expressway named after a man who brought clean power to the province. Was following a parallel service road that apparently was transferred to private ownership. Security was kind enough to let me go on. Back to a hydro junction at the Skyway.

Back to the sandbar, where a hydro corridor straddles the edge of the lake. Busy multi-use trailfor bikers and walkers, lots of folks flocking for a beach day. Pretty fantastic space.

The view is pretty consistent, only broken up by interesting access points. The dull roar and thump of the Skyway gets louder as the view of Burlington gets clearer.

Suddenly, two of the hydro towers stick way above the rest to traverse Burlington Bay Canal with enough clearance. Marks the border between Hamilton and Burlington.