Bruce Trail | homegrownniagaramagazine

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.

The Magic of Cave Springs: A Bruce Trail Gem in Niagara

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.