THE BRUCE TRAIL CONSERVANCY

Bill Baker Environmental Hike

Bruce Trail Conservancy Environment Committee

Environment Committee

This year’s Bill Baker Environmental Hike took place in the Limehouse Conservation Area and included the Limehouse Kiln Area near to Limehouse and Georgetown.

 

Don Williams of the Environment Committee and Todd Bardes of the Toronto Club led the environmental hike through the existing and restored artifacts of the kiln area to interpret the industrial history of the community. In the Credit Valley Conservation land we were able to see the reconstructed “powder house” which housed the explosives to loosen the dolomite to be quarried and then transferred to the “pot” and “draw” kilns, also still in evidence, to be cooked into powdered LIME. This lime was used in the making of cement, mortar and paint, an early industry of Limehouse. At the Black

Sept 2008

Creek bridge, we were able to understand the power generation at the area’s mill site by viewing the dolomite foundation and the well photographed dolomite block bridge.

 

The three hour  hike concluded on the Bruce main trail scampering through the rock crevasses on the escarpment and up the two ladders of the Hole in the Wall to end at our parking spot.

 

This hike can be found on the “Speyside Toronto Club Map 12” in the Bruce Trail Hike Guidebook.

 

For further interest in the industrial history of Limehouse as part of the legacy of the Niagara Escarpment we wish to protect, go to the Limehouse Kiln Society Web Site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don cutting open a golden rod gall to show its contained grub.

Don Williams led a group along the Humber River Heritage Trail, stopping frequently to interpret various features of the river valley and the rich riparian vegetation.

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On the banks of the Humber River discussing water quality.

Sept 2006

Darci Lombard