Nature's bounty on my doorstep

This weekend saw a long overdue visit with the wonderful, Aneesha. She came down by train, and Dave lent me the car for the day, so I was able to pick her up and chauffeur her around for some fun.

The weather was just perfect for some outdoor fun, so we decided on a hike. The car needs some work, so Dave wasn't keen on me taking it too far. Fortunately, I live in the most amazing place/There's a large escarpment that cuts the city in half east to west. Since it can't be built on, it means there's some amazing natural lands right in the middle of the city - and the Bruce Trail runs right along it.

 The closest access to the trail is over at Battlefield park, where I attended the War of 1812 re-enactment earlier in the summer. Before we headed for the trail, we checked out the war monument.

Despite all my years here, I've never checked it out up close. It's very tall and built on a hill so you can see it from miles around. But it's even cooler close up. I was hoping we'd be able to go inside, but it was locked up... something to check out another day. So, after that we headed across the old battlefield to the trails.

 We crossed through a beautiful meadow that was just full of butterflies and grasshoppers.

It was lined with gorgeous red sumacs...

Once we hit the escarpment, things were still pretty green.

The trail was easy at first, but the longer we walked, the higher we got, and the rougher the trail got.

But still breathtakingly beautiful. So hard to believe that there's a subdivision less than five-hundred feet beyond those trees.

We were headed to a place called the Devil's Punchbowl - a large rounded gorge with a couple of waterfalls.

We made it to the lower falls, but unfortunately, couldn't get much further.  A five foot chunk of the trail, which runs along a 20 foot drop, was washed away.  So we stopped to enjoy the view.

 

Including the look-out platform on the cliff above us. Had we been adventurous, we could have taken the another trail, but it was a much longer, harder hike than we were prepared for that day.

But there's always another weekend!