Rouge River - that sinking feeling
Well, I lost another camera! And it only took, what, 2 months? So for anyone out there who laughed at me for buying that cheap little ViviCam, I ask you who's laughing now? Well...not me. This is getting rather annoying actually. But at least this time it was merely a $40 annoyance, instead of a $400+ one.
Still, I have to confess that I had trepidations about this hike before I ever set out. In fact, I always do when considering any trip out to that vast green corner of the city's far northeast - and especially now, since I've taken on this mad quest to explore every ravine and waterway in Toronto. So many streams and creeks to cover! So remote and so out of the way! So much 'wilderness' - so little 'urban'...
But, one step at a time, as they say. And indeed, this trip served as a valuable lesson in watching where you take those steps! Many thrills and chills await in this installment, so let's get started by heading down Twyn Rivers Drive to pick up where I last left off on the raging Rouge:
My first bit of excitment started just by getting into the river valley. On the east bank a narrow path leads up a sheer cliff-face to dizzying heights. Only a razor-thin patch of dirt separates impenetrable bush from a straight fall of a few hundred feet. Not exactly the ideal terrain for a hiker wearing heavy, clumsy rubber boots - not to mention a slight fear of heights! But the views reward my misty mountain hopping:
Just as things are at their most precarious, the path mercifully heads back down into the safety of the forest:
The path continues on as the well-worn Vista Trail, into Rouge Park. But I have pledged to follow the river, no matter what the difficulty. Due to the previous day's rainfall, and the current foggy/dewy condition, after fighting my way through a long tract of undergrowth I'm already soaked from the knees up before I even reach the river! But, thanks to those clumsy boots, at least my feet are dry:
After another quick detour through the woods I come out into the upper reaches of the Gatineau hydro corridor:
Back through the woods to the river, where I encounter the first signs of frost for the season. Those damned mosquitos should be gone soon now:
From Meadowvale to Kirkhams Road:
Out now into the southern boundaries of the Toronto Zoo property:
Past the first of many disused and abandoned spans across the river:
The first section of the old
Toronto Zoo Domain Ride, aka monorail - which was not, contrary to popular folklore, constructed by
Lyle Lanley:
Seeing as how I was at the zoo (or just outside of it), I had intended on snapping as many shots of the local wildlife as possible. And there was, in fact, much wildlife to observe. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a couple more deer, as well as the fleeting splashes of a couple of frogs. There were herrons-a-plenty along the river's banks, and I even spied a pair of bison off in the distance (in the zoo itself, of course). Alas, they were always too quick, or too far off to be captured by my lens, and had to make do with a few invertebrates:
Pressing on through the vicinity of where the Rouge meets Morningside Creek:
The river turns north and the forgotton monorail loops back around again:
Past the barely visible swan pond at the western end of the zoo, and up to the last of the abandoned spans, as previously discovered and discussed by Lone Primate
here:
Here, where the river takes a final westward bend, just below Old Finch Ave, is where this journey comes to yet another tragic end:
As the river course tended to alternate between level, navigable shorelines and sheer rock walls (as pictured above) on either side, I had been making a habit if wading back and forth, from one side to the other, along the way. This had not been much trouble thusfar as the river had only varied from knee- to waist-height in depth, while my camera was safely tucked away in my shirt's breast pocket. However, in making this final pass I made a fatal mistake. It's common bush-sense not to wade into rushing water when you can't see the bottom of it - and, to be fair, I could see the bottom a few feet out from where I stood. The problem was the space in between. As I sent a probing foot out to locate the riverbed, my foot kept going down, and as I began to lose balance a current swept me full in and I found myself swimming to the other side!
I suppose I'm lucky I didn't drown. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my camera. I should have known something bad would happen here. The last time I was at the Toronto Zoo, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I was attacked by a goose! And now this! One bright spot, however, has to be the resiliency of my SD Card. Hat's off to A-Data for making memory cards that really take a lickin' and keep on tickin'! This was, in fact, the same card that was in my old Sanyo camera that I dropped in the Highland last year. I don't know what I would have done if I lost the record of this trip. It was, perhaps, the most arduous of my many hikes so far - over 5 hours of tough slogging through a mostly trail-less, and clearly hostile landscape - a hike I would not have wanted to take again.
Still, I think I'll take this as a sign to take a brief hiatus before purchasing my next martyr - err, camera, that is. The UofT book sale season is coming up, and I should be saving my money for that. Maybe I'll find some of the books mentioned here about Toronto's urban wilderness, and read about someone else's hikes for a change, in the dry comfort of my home...
