Bruce Trail: Sam Lawrence Park to Scenic Drive

First some photos from the Saturday hike that Nicola sent me and should have gone into that post:

Selfie near the start, looking quite chipper. Note the new sweatbands, we are gradually increasing our hiking accessories.

Red Creek, also near the start.

At the top of the Wentworth St steps, no longer chipper, not even close.

After a lovely night and great breakfast at the B&B we set out from Sam Lawrence Park and the hike couldn't have been more different.

The first section was negotiating a "mountain" access road

though the views across Hamilton were pretty impressive.

Quite unattractive

urban hiking.

Finally, after crossing a busy road, we took some stairs down

to a well worn path through woods and beside rock outcroppings.

The rest of the time we were off and on a rail trail

This time the stairs went down! I can manage those fine.

This was the second time we had seen the Hamilton bike share at an access point. What a good idea.

The rail trail was a steady incline but thankfully mostly in the shade.

It was heavily used on a Sunday morning by joggers, bicyclists and just people out for a stroll. We felt a little out of place with our hiking poles and backpacks.

Close to our end point we could look down on the 403 climbing "the mountain"

and passed one of Hamilton's many waterfalls.

We only did about 6km (about 9.5 the day before) and took about 2 hours. While the Saturday hike had been pretty rough with rubble strewn trail and overgrowth in places and the "stairs from Hell", Sunday's hike was a breeze though rather boring and without that same sense of wilderness that we had on all the previous sections.

So now we have completed some of the Niagara section and some of the Iroquois (Hamilton) section.

When I got home my Bruce Trail Conservancy membership package had arrived. I had to choose a club to join and as the Hamilton section is closest to me I joined the Iroquois. The newsletter lists many group, guided hikes and also updates which sections of the trail are closed or rerouted (useful to know)