Continuing my series of scenic hiking spots in Southwestern Ontario, I again trekked east to Halton Region to visit the conservation area at Mount Nemo, just north of Burlington.
By this time, I had visited three of the other Halton parks on the Niagara Escarpment, and thought I had it all pretty well figured out, as far as what to expect. Mount Nemo proved that I had to dramatically revise my thinking on the difficulty of the different types of trails. One look at this trail picture, and you can see that we aren't talking about a quiet little amble through some nicely civilized countryside.
Some of the trickiest hiking spots in the Halton parks lie on trails close to the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, where the rock layers declare themselves and force you to go through a good deal of up-and-down in the process. This example, though, really takes the cake.
Check out this close-up of part of the above picture, and take note of [1] the people coming down at the top left corner, because those figures will give you a sense of just how steep this climb gets, and [2] the orange arrows pointing to the chain anchored around the huge rock outcropping, to help you keep your footing on the rather narrow, steep, and slippery rock surface.
What you can't see here, (just off the bottom edge of the photo) is the large ledge at the bottom which was just too high for me and my bad knees to try to climb onto. I doubt that I could have gotten up the next step to the chain either, so I had to turn around and backtrack instead. That was the first time I've had to retreat from a challenge in all of my hiking adventures.
Now, take a look at this stretch of trail:
That's a lot more innocuous and user-friendly, isn't it? Why am I showing this bit right here? Simply because this nice, easy footpath and the demonic rock stairs above, are both on trails rated by Halton Conservation as "number 2" level of difficulty. Here are the ratings used.
Despite the descriptions given here, it's pretty obvious (to me at least) that the rating system depends far more on the length of the trail than any of the other factors. I would urge that the degree of technical difficulty needs to be more strongly considered in devising these ratings. I'd encountered nothing remotely close to this in difficulty on any of the Level 2 trails which I had hiked in the other Halton parks. I'll be returning to this issue in my next post, which I hope to get online some time in the next few days.
The Halton Conservation website includes a comprehensive trail map for each park, and they are definitely helpful as well as easy to follow. Here's the map for Mount Nemo.
As you hike the trails, you'll find the numbered trail markers on posts at the side of the trail, and the posts also include coloured directional arrows (matching the colours on the map) for each of the trails. The purple "X" which I've added above shows the location of that steep, tricky rock climb on the North Loop Trail. The short little trail which I've marked on between MN07 and MN09 is so new that it does not appear on either the Halton Parks map or among the trails shown on Google Maps. Less than a minute long, this connector allows you to hike part of the North Loop while bypassing the most challenging spot if you have similar mobility issues to mine.
What's not mentioned specifically, either on the map or on the trail guide, is the most direct trail from the parking lot straight to the lookout point. This one is a former access road, and is both broad and reasonably smooth all the way -- a definite Level 1 by any sensible definition. It took me about 15 minutes to walk back this way from the lookout to the parking area.
The view from the lookout point gives a broad panorama from northeast to southeast. On any clear day, you can see multiple clusters of high rise buildings in Brampton, Mississauga, and even downtown Toronto -- easily picked out by the soaring profile of the CN Tower.
If you get the right kind of warm day, the turkey vultures will be up in the air, spreading out their broad wings (up to six feet wingspan) and riding on the rising thermal currents of the Escarpment. They're a majestic sight as they soar effortlessly past you.
The broad plateau in the distance is the Milton Outlier of the Niagara Escarpment, and its southeastern tip, which appears here below the bird, is the site of the Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area.
On the opposite extreme of scale, some of the shadier nooks of the forest floor host the springtime blossoms of the white trillium, the provincial flower of Ontario.
On my second visit, I went up the centre road/path to marker MN03, and then followed the South Loop Trail all around its entire length to the lookout. Taken as a whole, the South Loop is more consistently rugged than the North Loop as it follows the outer edge of the Escarpment, although it has no single spot as tough as the North Loop's rock staircase with the chain on it. Here are a couple of views of different parts of the South Loop, showing the frequently-irregular surface.
On both trails, you pass numerous spots where water erosion is opening up cracks, holes, and crevices in the porous rock. Some of these splits will ultimately widen enough to allow an entire rock mass to be separated from the main body and become a rock pinnacle or spire on its own.
As in all the other parks along the Escarpment, you encounter numerous examples of trees struggling to find and maintain a foothold in these soft and unstable rock formations along the edges of the Escarpment -- this being one of the most dramatic survivor trees which I've seen.
Despite my comments about the somewhat deceptive trail ratings, I did enjoy my two mornings spent hiking at Mount Nemo.
Here, as usual, is my locator map to show you the approximate location of Mount Nemo.
Note that, as with all of the Halton Conservation Parks, reservations are required during the pandemic in order to visit Mount Nemo. You can book your trip anytime up to the day of your visit, if space is available. You prepay your gate fee as you make your online reservation, and then the gate attendant simply verifies your licence plate and the number of people in the vehicle, and waves you through into the parking area. Here's the link for making reservations to any of the Halton Parks:
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