Hamilton Waterfalls Hunt Pt. 2

Devil's Punchbowl.

After our morning hike to Albion Falls we decided to grab a bite to eat. We checked the web and found a restaurant in nearby Stoney Creek called The Powerhouse. So that's where we headed.

Along the way we passed a Wild Wings restaurant. Sharon and Kenneth were in the lead car and we were following them. In our minds we thought, that would be a good place to go. It turns out Sharon and Kenneth had the same idea. Five minutes later they pulled over in Wendy's/Tim Hortons parking lot and we decided to turn back and go there.

The Wild Wings was in a newly developed strip mall across from a recently built subdivision. We pulled into the parking lot and drove up to the restaurant. That's when we noticed the windows were covered by paper. Sharon got our of their car and went up and read the notice on the door. They had been locked out for not paying their rent. Back to our original plan.

We turned around and drove back across Mud Street to Upper Centennial Parkway and headed north to King Street (right by Dr. Langer's office where we deliver hot towels).

The Powerhouse is located off King Street East in Stoney Creek by the Town Square Parkette. When we arrived in the parking lot we noticed some people in suits and nice dresses walking into the restaurant. When we walked in we discovered why. They were holding a wedding reception there. Time for plan "C".

Since I deliver in the area I knew there were some restaurants along Centennial Parkway north of Queenston Road. So we drove up that way. We found a Jack Astor's by the LCBO in Eastgate Mall. It was open and there were no wedding banquets being held there so we went in.

Peter had wings, Gabe and I had burgers and the kids split an order of poutine. We shared a pitcher of beer between us. Refreshing.

After lunch we drove to see the Devil's Punchbowl. It's relatively close to Jack Astor's. You just head back south along Centennial Parkway and turn onto Ridge Road. The parking lot is located on the north side of the road. It's paid parking. $2/hour or $14/day I believe.

The trailhead is right off the parking lot. It starts off going downhill then flattens out. You still have to go through a few ups and downs before coming to the lower "punchbowl" at the end.

It's pretty impressive looking at 37 metres tall. The bowl is rather large all the way around. Though the actual falls are only supposed to be 3 metres across. I say "supposed to be 3 metres across" because, again, we didn't see any water falling from the falls. Like the Oak Knoll Waterfall it was dry.

This walk was 2 kilometres in length with an elevation change of 50 feet/15 metres. Afterwards we parted ways with Sharon and Kenneth. Peter drove Gabe and I back to Gabe's place where I had parked and we said our good-byes.

Hamilton Waterfalls Hunt Pt. 1

Albion Falls along Mountain Brow Boulevard, Hamilton.

Gabe, Peter, his niece, Sharon, and her boyfriend, Kenneth and I went to Hamilton on the second Saturday of August to check out some of their waterfalls. They wanted to meet out there at 10:00 in the morning to hike.

Since I'm a late riser I decided to meet Peter and Gabe at the Yonge/Sheppard Eggsmart at 8:30 instead of joining them earlier for breakfast. I just had a bowl of cereal after taking the extra time to sleep in.

Peter drove us out there in his sporty M3. Along with the in-car GPS, Gabe helped navigate with his the map on his smartphone. It didn't help. We got lost anyway. Part of it was our fault. We didn't follow the prescribed route which we thought was incorrect. It turns out it wasn't.

Nevertheless we ended up arriving first shortly after 10:00. We parked at the Oak Knoll Park parking lot off Mountain Brow Boulevard. Since we were there earlier we scouted out part of the trail while waiting for Sharon and Kenneth. We were looking for access down into the valley where we thought we could view the waterfalls from the bottom. We couldn't find any routes down though.

Sharon and Kenneth arrived shortly after. We hooked up with them and followed the path beside the road towards our first waterfall, Oak Knoll Falls. It was dry.

I wouldn't really classify Oak Knolls Falls as a waterfall. It's really small. Pretty much a wee hole running underneath Mountain Brow Boulevard leading to a drop off on the east side. Maybe you'd see some water going over it after a heavy rainstorm. But that would be about the only time. We continued on.

The next waterfall we hit was Albion Falls. It's about half a kilometre down the road from Oak Knolls. It's about 8 metres across at the top; 18 metres across at the bottom; and 19 metres tall. Being late summer there was some water coming down it, but not a significant amount. Its source is the Red Hill Creek.

There were a number of people here looking around and taking pictures. Our group was no different. We stayed about half an hour before continuing on. I believe were were on a combination of the East Mountain Trail Loop and the Red Hill Valley Trail.

We followed the trail adjacent to the creek in King's Forest Park looking for away to cut west across the valley back to where our cars were parked along Mountain Brow Boulevard. We made it as far north as the King's Forest Golf Course which we inadvertently strayed upon. That was a mistake. There were golfers there. Bad golfers. Stray golf balls whizzed over our heads and around us. These guys sucked. We hurried back the way we had come.

Along the trail back we saw what may have been a female, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (woodpecker). That's the closest thing I could find that looked like it on the internet. That was in addition to what looked to be a Great Blue Heron we saw earlier in the creek beside the golf course. Pretty neat.

By the time we made it back to the cars we had walked a total of 7 kilometres. Not bad. The trails were fine. Perhaps not as scenic as some of the others we've had the pleasure to hike. Still, it was a nice way to spend the morning. Now it was time for lunch.