A Bridge and The Witch’s Hat

Throughout our outings on the trail over the summer, I had been looking forward to finally reaching the town of Uxbridge located about an hour’s drive northeast of Toronto.

Uxbridge is a pretty little town well-known for its miles and miles of trails for walking, cycling, and snowmobiling (obviously in winter).  Added to the promise of well-marked  trails was a write-up I’d read about a heritage trestle bridge.

No – this is not the trestle bridge, but it was a great day to be on the trail

This particular section of the Trans-Canada Trail was a former rail line and the old wooden trestle bridge was a promised feature.  However, if Helen hadn’t been paying attention and stopped to read a sign on the side of the trail, I would have missed the bridge completely.

I was acutely aware of the many shades of craziness than drove me to attempt climbing down the steep bank clinging to small trees, and at one point creeping into a crawl space underneath the short bridge to get a better view of the wooden beams.

 

This bridge looks so much longer than it really was.  It was short … really short.

Our journey through town produced some interesting surprises – like the old train station, built in 1904 by the Grand Trunk Railway.  Known as the Witch’s Hat, it is now a small railway museum which includes a rail yard full of old train cars.  I’m not a serious train enthusiast, but even I wandered around the cars with great interest.

I deviated from the trail to capture this photo.  This rail bed leads from the Witch’s Hat to the trestle bridge.  The Trans-Canada passes through town instead of following this rail bed.

I’m aware that an update on our progress is overdue.  Hopefully I will slow down long enough in the next few weeks to prepare a status of the journey to date.