Hiking The Elgin Trail: Hiking With Heather

   A couple of days ago, I received an invitation from my friend, Heather, to tag along with her as she hiked the Elgin Trail. This is a 49K trail which begins in Port Stanley in southwestern Ontario and winds its way up through Elgin County, eventually arriving at Southdel Road, where it then joins with the Thames Valley Trail. It's a trail I've always known I wanted to hike someday so when Heather contacted me, I kind of jumped at the opportunity!

Looking up toward the St. Thomas
Elevated Parkway

   We agreed to meet under the towering railway trestle you encounter as you're traveling from London to Port Stanley, just at St. Thomas. The trestle used to support the Michigan Central Railroad but currently is being converted into something known as the St. Thomas Elevated Park---if you can imagine a park about a hundred feet in the air!
   We left Heather's car parked under the trestle and I then drove us north to the start of the hike, where we left my car by the side of the road. After a ceremonial signing of the Trail log, we headed off!
   

Heather sign us in!

Heather's plan was to hike about a 12K section of the trail, right in the middle of it. Now, if you know me, this goes totally against the way I approach hiking a trail! When I hike a trail, I start at the very beginning and I hike it right through to the end, in the direction the map says to go, and I don't miss any sections. So, to start in the middle of a trail and then hike in the wrong direction is not my usual plan, as you can imagine. Faced, however, with a beautiful Fall day for hiking and someone who, right out of the blue, was willing to give me a guided tour and I really had no problem!
   Part of Heather's motivation for wanting to get out yesterday was to enjoy the Fall colours and also to hopefully come up with some great photo opportunities. She has recently decided to concentrate much of her energy on creating art through photography and is

Me, at the start of the middle of my journey!

already producing amazing work. She has her own website, Exploration Project, (click on it, you really need to!) and has traveled near and far, documenting her hiking adventures in prose and pictures. Recently, she has taken a further leap by submitting selections of her photography to online journals dedicated to the arts. Her pics

This was a mushroom literally
the size of a volleyball!

now appear in the current and upcoming issues of an amazing journal called Barren Magazine. This is an online magazine which features outstanding poetry, fiction and photography and Heather's work fits in perfectly. Follow the link and and you will see one of her pics on the cover of the current edition! She is drawn to deserted things, places and buildings and if you are at all interested in the slightly spooky then you should seek out her work online.
   It was a great day for hiking! The air was crisp and the colours were amazing. I am so glad Heather was there as she was familiar with the trail and pretty well every time the blazes seemed to peter out, she was able to corral the next one. The hiking was also very challenging,

The signpost for Lyle Side Road.
If you enlarge the pic, you can
see where it says the "trial" will
continue a hundred meters down
the road. At that point, I became
judge, jury and executioner.
*giggle*

some of the most challenging I've been on. Much of the trekking was up and down steep, slippery slopes with lots of fallen trees to traverse. Counter to that, though, were the gentle strolls along creek beds, sharing the path with horseback riders. At one point we found ourselves crossing the rolling pastures (paddocks?) of a horse farm. Great photo op there!
   After about four and a half hours, we found ourselves back under the railway trestle. From there, Heather drove me back to my car and my first foray on the Elgin Trail was done! Many thanks to Heather for the invitation!
   

Heather, stopped by horses!

   

The Shoe Tree! A tradition I
did not partake of!

Huge, barbed-wire gate

The Railway Trestle---off in the distance

Almost back to the car