Quilting and other Things

I went to hike the Devils pulpit trail (Hike number 14 in the list of 40 Great Hikes) on the Bruce Trail . The trail goes up 100m (300 ft) and starts off like this: Part way up there is a side trail that goes to the ruins of a Hoffman Kiln. This kiln was used to process a type of limestone that was fired to produce lime for construction and agriculture. There were multiple compartments and each could be fired separately. After looking at the kiln, the you go back to the main trail the way you came. The trail continues on up -- sometimes it was hard to pick out exactly where to go, some times it was pretty obvious This is the view from the top of the trail. Time to starting going back down here Usually this is the view I get of the Turkey Vultures -- soaring on air thermals This time I saw these two sitting on a tree branch. I took the photo on the longest telephoto then cropped it to get the close up. This is the Forks of the Credit river at the bottom of the trail

I went for a hike combining two of the great trail hikes from the Bruce Trail -- the first was Springdale Farm & Maureen Smith Side Trail (Hike # 12) and Silver Creek and Roberts Side Trail (Hike #13). It was a beautiful sunny day -- more like mid-summer than early spring. The fungus that grows on trees is fascinating. These are some of the examples I saw on this hike: I really liked the bell shaped one. There were a few flowers out... Despite the warm weather, there were still little bits of snow left. There was a ladder down to allow hikers to see the cliff face. I climbed down but couldn't find the trail down there so I climbed back up and continued on the side trail. Creeks and waterfalls and the lake where I sat on a dock and had my morning snack.

On the way to Forks of the Credit I passed a large turtle in the middle turn lane of Highway 10. Too much traffic to stop and take a photo. Hope he made it across the highway OK. The notes say that you need to pay for parking. Got there and discovered there was no attendant to take money -- only a machine that only took coins. Fortunately, a couple came that had an extra five dollars in coins and I was able to get a ticket after all. There was lots of milkweed and a few monarchs in the first part of the hike. At the top of the field, the path headed off through a wooded area. Part of the path went through private property with lots of quiet signs. This tree was growing something strange Later the path went past a water fall which was a little hard to photograph from the trail. The river looked nice and calm above the falls but the sign says it all for the downstream bit.... This is the lake at the beginning / end of the hike. I didn't go down to the la...