Today Gail picked me up and we went for a drive in Caledon and Halton Hills. When I checked the weather on Monday evening, Tuesday was forecast to be rainy and today was forecast to be clear and sunny, a perfect day for a drive and photo shoot. Unfortunately, the day dawned overcast and misty, but we made the best of it.
We drove north or Torbram Road to Boston Mills Road and then over to the Cheltenham Badlands. The Badlands are a small area of rolling hills almost completely devoid of vegetation. The surface, made of Queenston shale, erodes easily, and becomes very slippery when wet. The area has become a major tourist attractive and erosion has accelerated due to all the foot traffic. Old Base Line Road is hazardous, especially on weekends in the fall, due to huge numbers of people visiting. Even on this misty weekday morning there were several groups of people visiting.
The Region of Peel has a funded plan to build a parking lot and viewing platform in 2015. The sides of the road will be blocked off to prevent parking other than in the parking lot. People are currently encouraged to stay off the Badlands, but generally do not. It is hoped that the viewing platform will aid in preventing further erosion from foot traffic.
We then drove on to Scotsdale Farm, a working farm of over 500 acres. It has some lovely old buildings and hiking trails, including the Bruce Trail and the Bennett Trail. It was bequeathed to the Ontario Heritage Trust by Stewart and Violet Bennett in 1982. Bennett had developed Scotsdale into an internationally renowned breeding farm for his Arabian horses and shorthorn beef cattle.
The Badlands are also owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the province’s heritage agency, which “is dedicated to identifying, protecting, renewing and promoting Ontario’s rich and diverse built, cultural and natural heritage that has influenced and continues to shape our society for the benefit of present and future generations”.
We finished up with a drive along Forks of the Credit Road.
I have posted additional pictures on flickr.
When I broke my wrist I was unable to fold laundry so I got Trystan and Owen involved in sorting and folding their own. Megan and Alun had already taken on that task of their own volition in the past. Even though I am no longer hampered by that injury I figured it was a good habit to continue.
This evening we continued our stair climbing practice at the hospital. We have four more training sessions and then the actual climb. We all climbed up and down 17 times (except Jason who did 20) which means we are ready to climb the 1776 steps of the CN Tower on October 18.
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