The Bruce Trail is our birthright...
Here's your space to celebrate the magnificent, breath-taking Niagara sections of the Bruce Trail through words, art and photos. Please stick to sections that have FREE PARKING.
We won't be guiding people to Rockway Conservation Area just outside of St. Catharines because the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority in now charging to park at the trailhead. Time to vote a few people out of office, I'd say, at the next municipal elections.
Photos © 2025 Blair Burgess, St. Catharines, Ont.
Wetland Ridge Trail offers spectacular, scenic hikes
along Bruce Trail in Niagara, Ont.
© 2025 by Blair Burgess, St. Catharines, Ont.
I'm still sweating from a two-hour hike over two linked trails starting at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus of Niagara College -- the Wetland Ridge Trail and the Woodend section of the Bruce Trail.
I parked at the east end of the lot behind the Niagara College greenhouses and walked the Wetland Ridge Trail with its magnificent views of lush, green wetlands (actually former sewage lagoons) teeming with wildlife including frogs, ducks, swans, muskrat, heron, jays, cardinals, robins and swallows.
I trudged onto the Woodend section of the Bruce Trail at the southeast corner of the wetland trail and was immediately dwarfed by the Carolinian trees, still mostly green (kinda weird for Oct. 31!).
It's a gorgeous hike but I was glad I had my rubber boots on because it was quite muddy on the trail ascending the Niagara Escarpment. There were a few spots where the leaves were actually turning colour, mainly banana yellow and lipstick red. Everything smelled a bit musty from the recent torrent of rain. As the trail elevated, there were a couple minutes of being in close proximity to the the noisy QEW and its steady flow of cars and transport trucks. But it wasn't long before the din abated as I climbed steep switchbacks toward Woodend with intermittent sunlight peeking through gaps in the forest crown -- perfect for taking photos. Once atop and into Woodend proper, I beelined for the old white house -- and recently built stone building beside it -- perched atop the escarpment with the old graves of dogs that roamed the family property successively for half a century.
At some point the property changed hands and it's now the local school board's Outdoor Education Centre.
Although students aren't usually around on weekends, hikers are asked to keep out.
Once past that property I was back on the trail, but this time along the cliffed edge of the escarpment. A quick peak downward rewarded me with the site of an ancient, rapidly deteriorating limestone kiln that used stone from a nearby quarry to produce building material. Why it's located on the downward slope of the escarpment is a mystery to me.
Then I hiked the sometimes rocky terrain westward, slowly descending to the bottom of the escarpment, and through a lush vineyard back to the wetland ridge trail and my vehicle. I was too tired to stop at the college's visitor centre to browse the student produced wines and brews. But it's a great idea for anyone who wants to make a day of it on a Saturday or Sunday.
©2025 Photos by Blair Burgess
The Magic of Cave Springs: A Bruce Trail Gem in Niagara
© 2025 by Blair Burgess, St. Catharines, Ont.
The last time I was at Cave Springs, tucked against the Niagara Escarpment between Beamsville and Vineland, Ont., I was there to interview the self-proclaimed witch of the place, for the local community newspaper.
Margaret Reed, her long grey hair gathered into a girly ponytail, claimed in her singsong English accent that she was 300 years old because she drank the magical water emanating from the property’s namesake local spring.
That was more than 30 years ago.
Her red barn-like house, surrounded to the rooftop by thick Carolinian forest, smelled moist and musky inside, even though it was neat and orderly, like her.
Her eyes sparkling with delight, Margaret talked for an hour or so about how she loved the forest life and giving tours of the magnificent, enchanted property to local schoolchildren and random visitors.
Apparently, one day she had driven down the QEW from Toronto, in an open-top sports car, her long hair whipping in the wind, and ended up as lifelong caretaker of the property known for its spring water, ice cave, mysterious rock carvings, and historic Indigenous camp site.
In the low light, it was not long before I was convinced Margaret really was an ageless witch, but of the friendly variety, like Glenda from the Wizard of Oz.
In her small, dimly lit kitchen in the middle of the woods, I believed we could have been conversing in any of the last three centuries. I felt an eerie bridge to the past. She smiled knowingly.
Margaret’s been dead since 2005 – I have no idea if she was 90 or 330 when she passed-- but the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority has kept the legacy of her beloved Cave Springs alive by turning it into a passive conservation area.
Margaret’s red house still stands, but it is boarded up.
There are some nice trails to walk on at the base of the escarpment, near Margaret’s old home, but the real fun is climbing up to the Bruce Trail above, which I did this past Saturday.
There are incredible vistas overlooking Lake Ontario atop the area’s steep cliffs. If you do venture upward, keep small children within reach: there are no fences to prevent falls.
It is a challenging hike full of rock, maple forest, wildflowers, alternating sun and shade, birds galore, and fresh wind of varying temperatures.
And if you hear a faint whisper in the wind, you will know it is the friendly witch watching over you and your loved ones.