Third Bridge

The Third Bridge refers to the bridge from my Lower Duchesnay Falls post of a few weeks ago.  At that time, John and I were trying to get to the third bridge on the satelite photo after exploring the first two.  However, on that day, we both broke through the ice and had to postpone the attempt.  Today was different.

I got a call from Chris Beatty at about 12:10 pm--he was looking for an adventure.  I suggested a snow shoe hike.

We started with a trip to the local Canadian Tire store to pick up some shoes for Chris.

I like this hike because it is so conveniently close.  It is just of Main St. West within the city limits.  Within 20 metres of putting on your shoes--you're in beautiful wilderness.

Our trip started at point A on the map.  We crossed the beaver dam at point B.  The third bridge is point C and also the point where we both slid down the embankment.   D is the pump house we found on the bank of the river.  Point E is the easy access up out of the valley to the high ground.  Point F is the entrance to the factory, and Point G is the point where we descended back down to the creek and ended at A--where we started.

The snow was deep and there was a light snow fall at the beginning of the trip.  It was a mild day--about -3.

This is a beautiful area.  The terrain is rugged and the early part of the hike is steep and tricky.  We selected a beaver dam as the safest place to cross the water.

There was evidence throught the hike of an very active beaver.

After crossing the beaver dam we gradually climbed higher and eventually had do slide down to the creek bed to discover the Third Bridge.

The bridge has been unused for at least 25 - 30 years.  The fibre board factory which used the rail line has been closed since the mid 80's.

This line pole appears to have been installed in 1959--they don't put them up like this anymore--with the steps still on them.

As we crossed the bottom of the creek, we passed a pump house that probably fed the factory.

We climbed a gentle slope out of the valley and saw the factory from a distance.

As we walked towards the factory there was evidence of steel drums and old transformers on the ground.  Hard to believe that this has not been cleaned-up.  The photos speak for themselves.

I'm not sure what this machine (below) is, or what it did--but it had a warning sign I couldn't resist reading and recording.

The final leg of the hike took us back near the road, and we descended back down to water level and under the original two bridges near Lake Nipissing.

The hike took us about 2 hours.  Just long enough to need a coffee and a debrief at Twiggs.