July 13th, 2006
wards falls
There’s a steady rain coming down, so we’re indoors taking a break and doing a bit of reading, writing and catching up on things. Tomorrow, we should be back into sunny weather, so we’ll be able to carry on with our hiking and explorations. Today, I’ll do some catching up on photo uploading and posting a few things here. I’m pretty sure that we’ll be without a net connection for the next couple of days, so today’s posts might be the last until after the weekend.
Tuesday, we spent part of the day hiking up to Wards Falls. When traveling from Parrsboro towards Cape Chignecto, the trailhead turn-off is marked with a small sign on the right side of the road just as the sign for the village of Diligent River comes into view. A narrow dirt road leads up to a small parking lot surrounded by alder bushes. The trailhead sign states that the trail to the falls is 3.5 km. in length. We reckon that it took us around an hour to hike up to the falls — that’s at an easy pace with several stops to shoot photos. The trail is on lands belonging to the C. E. Harrison & Sons Ltd, a building supply company located near Parrsboro, that built the trail in memory of its founder.
The first section of trail leads through a low area bordered by alders, blackberry, and other dense vegetation. As the path began to rise to a drier area, we found ourselves surrounded by many Fritillary butterflies that were nectaring on blackberry flowers in a small clearing. I’m not great at butterfly IDs, but I think all that I photographed were Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria cybele cybele) such as the above example which looks to be a male of that species (click on image for larger view). Here are two additional photos — the first is of the underside of the above butterfly’s wings, and the second is of what I take to be a female of that species. A swallowtail butterfly was also seen nectaring on the blackberry flowers. Its wings were quite worn and damaged, but by the wider, darker markings it looks to be the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) and not the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that we see in our area of Ontario. Please feel free to post a comment if you think those IDs are incorrect.
The remainder of the trail is alongside a branch of the Diligent River that flows through a narrow forested gorge. For much of the way, it’s an easy trail that rises gradually. The path crosses the stream many times before reaching the falls. We’re pretty sure there are 15 bridges in all. At this time, all seemed to be in good condition and much like the one that Sabrina is crossing in this photo The forest is mixed conifers and hardoods, with a few good-sized trees, especially at the upper end near the falls.
The final approach to the falls is the steepest part of the trail, first crossing a footbridge that is several feet above a boulder-strewn riverbed, and then up a hillside that terminates at a massive wall of rock. The falls aren’t high, perhaps 12 or 15 feet, but the surrounding rock formation through which they flow is quite spectacular. Over time, water has carved through the rock, creating a cave-like slot in the formation (click on image to left to see a vertical panorama photo – it’s quite tall so you’ll have to scroll to see the whole image).
The cave area can be accessed by climbing a tall wooden ladder and then scaling down a rock using a rope. Satisfied with the view from across the stream, we didn’t go up, but four young people who arrived shortly after us clambered up to take a look around and said it was “pretty cool in there.”
Leaving the falls, we returned along the trail, stopping several times to enjoy watching the very clear water running over the colourful stone streambed. On the way down, I spotted a small wolf spider struggling to carry a very large egg sac across the trail.
Hiking notes: Trail is about 7 km. return (approx. 4 miles). Footing is fairly good all the way, although there are a few parts with tree exposed tree roots to step around. The lower end might be a bit mucky in springtime. Footbridges are all quite good. Final approach to falls is a bit steep and could be slippery in wet weather.