2024/03/31 – Dundas Valley Hydro / Rail

I published a YouTube Video about this walk on April 22, 2024. Check it out below.

Good morning from north of Cherokee Golf Club in Hamilton. Today I’m heading into Dundas Valley, following a hydro corridor to its west edge, and coming back on a rail trail. Let’s go. The hydro corridor actually starts further north, but it’s inaccessible. So I join it at the tail end of CPKC’s Aberdeen Yard, and through the Ainslie Wood neighbourhood.

I was along here in the fall following Chedoke Creek, as it’s west branch is buried here. The soggy grass is a dead giveaway that a local valley for a lost river resides here. Eventually we meet with a trunk corridor that scales the mountain.

Through the north – south artery, and between some houses and the 403. The corridor is flanked by some woods where drainage comes down from the mountain. Then you walk into a cemetery, where it pushes you to Main Street instead of letting you continue westwards.

As Main Street turns into Wilson, you meet the corridor again. And then you lose it as it dives back to private property. And then you meet it again along Lower Lions Club Road.

This criss cross game continues as you get deeper into Dundas Valley. And we’re at the point that, in addition to the hydro corridor being placed on private property, some local creeks and their cascades are too.

I’m in the thick of the woods now. Glimpses of the hydro corridor are sparse, but I’m not complaining about a lack of a straight line out here. It’s quiet, cool and peaceful. Eventually you come back onto the roads at Mineral Springs Road.

A brief shot of the corridor, then it’s a big jaunt south along the Headwaters Trail within Dundas Valley Conservation Area.

After a steep climb out of the valley, you meet the hydro corridor again on the aptly named Powerline Road. This has crossed the threshold from metroscapes to ruralscapes now. After going along the road for a while, there’s a bend, and a cul-de-sac branches off. You can’t continue straight, so it’s another detour and a sketchy hike on the shoulder of Highway 52, until you come to the rail trail.

While the hydro corridor continues west, I’m going east now on the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail. Right away, you come to the Summit Bog, and an old foundation for a water tower at what used to be Summit Station. This is appropriately named, because if you walk the rail trail another 400 metres further east, you can say that you crossed a Great Lakes divide. At this point, everything behind you flows into the Grand River and Lake Erie. Everything in front of you flows into Cootes Paradise and Lake Ontario.

The rail trail starts through long bends, hugging the north side of Dundas Valley instead of diving straight in. This is because trains need gentle inclines, with gradients of only a few percent. So this turns adds around a third of extra distance to a what it would be as the crow flies. After crossing Mineral Springs Road for the third time, I’ve reached the halfway point from Highway 52.

An homage to the railway sits east of Sulphur Springs Road, where an old train station is now a trail centre. After this it’s a long couple kilometers in a straight line before you start flanking deep gullies. The signposts indicate there’s only 3 kilometres left, but that’s only from Ewen Road, the trail goes further than that. We’re starting to flank houses now, and the trail activity has picked up. Beltline Trail vibes.

The first significant grade change along this whole trail comes at the Ancaster Creek crossing, an artifact of converting this from rails to trails. A bridge over Main Street, and then we meet the Dundas Trunk Hydro Corridor again.

An abrupt interruption. The rail trail east of Ewen Road has been chopped up by parking lots. After being pinballed through a commercial plaza, it’s back on the straight and narrow. We begin to see the hydro corridor from this morning, and then we come to Aberdeen Yard. That’s it for today, thanks for following.