PERFECT DAY ON A NEW LOOP:
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Message from Our New Prseident:
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Trail Director’s ReportREMINISCING BY A WARM FIREAs I write this note I can hear the soft patter of the rain against our windows. Actually it has been raining for daysand for weeks now I haven’t ventured very far into the woods. I am anxious to get back and I am not alone. In the mall I meet trail workers who are still anxious to getout in the woods one more time this year; volunteers phone me and ask to be added to my call list and e-mails from more volunteers ask the same thing. When can we get back in the woods? When is it going to stop raining?
Even though it is too wet to work in the forest,Sydenham’s rainy season is a great time to sit by a fireand to look back on and remember our year. What a year it was!
If you think about it – this is what the Bruce Trail is – a place to hike, to appreciate nature and to discover what wonders the escarpment has to offer. I would be remiss if I didn’t end this note by thanking all of Sydenham’s volunteers, Trail Captains and Trail workers alike, who helped make this year such a great success. ... Ron Savage, Sydenham Bruce Trail Director |
Landowner Relations and Land Securement ReportSUMMARY OF LAST YEAR’S EVENTS For those who missed our AGM at the end of October, this is a summary of the past year’sachievements in Land Securement. At the 2008 Sydenham BTC AGM, I reported that the previous fiscal year had been a record-breaking year, since the BTC had secured 15 properties, more than ever before in a single year. Well at this year’s AGM, I was very happy to report that we have beat that record – yes, in the 2008/09 fiscal year, the Bruce Trail Conservancy secured 17 properties, for a totalpurchase price of $1.24 million. (Most of that money was donations,as well as some Greenlands Program funding, from the Ontario Ministryof Natural Resources.) These properties allowed us to secure 7.3 km of Bruce Trail Optimum Route and conserve 547 acres of Escarpment land. I’d like to highlight that seven of those properties were donated by the landowners. We are very grateful to these landowners for generouslycontributing to our mission to protect the ecological integrity of the Niagara Escarpment. Five of the properties securedwere here in the Sydenham Club. That is the lion’s share of properties – five out of 17, here in our Club. We hiked across one of these properties at the AGM, the BeaverSprings Wetland. For anyone who hasn’t seen that yet, I encourage you to check it out – it’s a great little surprise, a lovely little wetland, in among all our rural agricultural land. Of course that exists mainly becauseof the beavers, and our Trail Director has made good use of the beaver dams, by building the side trail right on top of them, so we can get rightup close and personal with that wetland. We also secured the Ferndell property last year, which is aboutone concession west of the Beaver Springs area, plus the Pines property,at the east edge of Owen Sound. We also were donated an easement, in Woodford, just a tiny bit of trail, but a very vital link to connect downtown Woodford with the main trail heading east from there. So a big thank you to Mr. Rick Dunlopfor donating that easement to us. Our biggest acquisition last year, of course, was the Lindenwood property. This has been described in recent Hiker articles, but just toreiterate, acquisition of this property has secured 176 acres of Escarpment land. It enabled us to make a significant improvement to the maintrail, and add a complete new side trail with which to explore that whole property. These achievements were made possible by hard work and excellentteamwork, within our own Club (especially Ron Savage and Cliff Keeling working with our local landowners) and with the staff at Rasberry House, who are organizing the marketing and fundraisingcampaigns, and working successfully with many partner organizations, toprocure these properties. We have never achieved so much in a single year. Although ourdonations are slowing down with the current economic “tough times,” hopefully our successes will continue next year and beyond. In fact, in the current fiscal year, which started in July, we have alreadysecured two more properties here inSydenham Club – they’re adjacent to each other – we’re calling them the Palisades – they’re on the east sideof Owen Sound, looking down over Harrison Park. Look for more details in the current BTC magazine. And, at the present time, theSydenham Club has six more properties being actively pursued bythe BTC. These are still at the confidential negotiation stage, but ifwe secure them, they will result in more acres of precious Escarpment land protected forever, and more improvements to our main trail. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will also say, we’realways on the lookout for more properties along our Optimum Route, where we can get a handshake deal with the landowner to improve our main trail, as well as more properties which can be secured and conserved. So if any of you readers just happen to live on or near the trail, oryou know somebody who does, oryou know a landowner who might let us put the trail on their property, oryou’d like to learn a bit more about the possibilities of either donating some land, in exchange for a taxreceipt, or maybe severing a piece, or selling, or including something in your will – there are lots of options and possibilities for you, or yourneighbours, to help with our mission of conserving the Escarpment, please come and talk to us on the Landowner Relations Committee anytime! Thank you! ... Frank Schoenhoeffer |
TREES OF THE TRAILPhotography by Bob Hope How observant are you on the trail? Here are trees that you pass by on the Sydenham Trail and this is a test to see how many are familiar to you! |
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Sydenham Bruce Trail Executive
Back row, from left: Jim Coburn, E-Notes; Bob Hope, Land Stewardship; Sheila Gunby, Newsletter Editor; Doug Cumming, BTC Representative; Ron Savage, Trail Director. Front row, from left: Bruce Price, Treasurer; Frank Schoenhoeffer, President; Cliff Keeling, Past-president; and Debbie Durkee, Secretary. Absent: Joseph Nanni, Marketing Director; Pat Savage, Archivist; Del Bonham, Director at Large; Marj Odell, Hike Coordinator; Bob Watson, Membership; Ross McLean, Advisor to the Board |
RESCUED FROM THE DUST
In May of 1996 Jim Pappas donated an easement across his property just to the east of the Massie Forest. Jim attached the plaque recognizing his donation to a large boulder on the easement but the winter ice that year damaged and quickly removed it. Since then it has rested and gathered dust in his garage. This summer Krueger Custom Steel of Owen Sound generously offered to repair the plaque and donate a post to hold it. Ron Savage and Jim Pappas reinstalled the plaque along side the easement. On behalf of all hikers of the Bruce Trail we offer Jim our thanks for his generous donation of an easement across his beautiful property - thirteen years ago. |
THE ART OF STILE BUILDINGCliff Keeling demonstrates stile building to two of our younger volunteers: Duncan Clendinning (left) and Roger O’Dell (centre).
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EACH WALK IS DIFFERENT FROM THE DAY BEFORE . . . .Ah … the ritual of suiting up for theweather, temperature, and on myfavourite trail … mud, or at least lots of leafy, wet pools and puddles. Grey trees with bare branches and the crunch of leaves underfoot on the forest floor confirms this is November. I love observing how nature around me changes fromseason to season. It’s precisely these miracles that reassure and comfort me through my own transitions.
Thirty years ago the woods,rocks and water up at our familycottage were becoming too well known. So, at 16, my girlfriend and I braved the Bruce Trail from Blue Mountain north. We spent weeks planning and collecting our gear andsupplies and studying the Bruce Trail guide. A beautiful trip! Butalas, it was not perfect. We got lost.About day two we ditched some of the ‘absolutely necessary gear tolighten our loads. My friend caught poison ivy. I called my brother for more money. And one day we hitched a ride for a few kilometres. It was though, an amazing adventure and a very happy time of facing our fears and growing up. Today, hiking the trail for me is a great opportunity to spend time with my sons, to catch up with old friends or to meet new ones. But I also come to the trail for renewal and sometimes just to escape. The natural beauty always inspires me tothink beyond myself. And each walkis different from the day before. Last week I heard the searching scream ofa red-tailed hawk soaring above.Yesterday, three largish deer noisily escaped through the marsh. Thismorning I stood still for a sweet little chickadee jumping from branch to branch in the sunshine. There was also a glimpse of the Sound, today a rich deep blue and the determined gurgle of the creek all around the bumps and bends. The rock in this photograph isone that I think happens to look likea frog that sits and seems to wait for me. If I have to touch it every time I pass by, it’s not for good luck or as a memorial as important as those are,but rather as a simple, personal ritual, for me to connect with my yesterday, my today and mytomorrow. To ground me in real time to life. ... Marjorie Odell ---------- END --------- |