Views from Maple Brook Road

Given that the sun was breaking through the overcast, after the errand I had to run in Port Hawkesbury, I drove north by the back roads to Kingsville, where I decided to try to find the water fall on Maple Brook that I sought without success during my summer trip. The photos on this page were taken that afternoon. Photo #1 is an upstream view of Maple Brook from the bridge over Maple Brook on the Maple Brook Road. The deciduous trees are just beginning to turn; some orange colour can be seen on two of the trees. The grasses in the brook look frost-bitten, though the green grass under the trees would seem to belie that hypothesis.

Photo #2 is taken looking downstream from the other side of the road. The placid stream is a nearly perfect mirror of the clouds and small patches of blue in the sky. More vivid colours are visible on the hillside across the brook in the far distance. What a lovely country scene!

[continued below]

About 40 m/yds northeast of the bridge, one reaches the junction of the Maple Brook and Maccuish Roads; the pasture seen in photo #3 is on the north side of that junction. Lots of unchanged green deciduous trees are intermixed here with the evergreens, but other deciduous trees have turned, with two nice red trees on either side of the centre of the photo. The brown grasses in the field would indicate an autumnal scene even if the trees hadn’t changed. Again, what a lovely scene, even if the skies are grey!

I had failed to find the trail to the water fall while driving on my previous attempt to locate it, but the road is not in the best of shape in this area, so I assumed I had missed the flagging tape marking it as a result of having to pay close attention to the driving. Hiking wouldn’t have that problem and would allow me to scour the side of the road looking for the flagging tape. So, after photographing the field, I proceeded to hike along Maple Brook Road to the northeast. Along the way, I came across some bright red trees, one of which is seen in photo #4, illuminated by the sun filtering through a break in the clouds. I never did find any flagging tape, but about 980 m (0.6 mi) northeast of the junction with Maccuish Road (at GPS 45°48.510'N 61°17.891'W), I noticed a painted sign back off the road a bit bearing the words "Water Fall" and an arrow in red; that wasn’t what I had been told marked the trail and I felt better about not having located it previously. However, the trail to the water fall was way too wet for my hiking oxfords and I didn't have enough time before the evening’s concert to go back in my woods boots, so I didn't get to see the waterfall, but at least I now know where to find it next year and got some much-needed exercise in the process.

[continued below]

Upon returning to the car, I drove back as I had arrived instead of following the road I had hiked. Photo #5 was taken on the return trip, descending the hill on which Maple Brook Road runs down into the valley in Kingsville. At the far right is McIntyres Mountain; running to the left across the width of the photo, one can see the edge of the interior plateau that rises above the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105) from Kingsville to Port Hastings; that highway itself is not visible in this photo. At the far right of the photo, one can see a small portion of the Riverside Road about 500 m/yds from its junction with the Trans-Canada Highway, which is out of scope at the far right. This view is getting pretty close to the one I said I was wishing to find here, but one sees it only if one drives the Maple Brook Road from northeast to southwest, which I hadn’t done when I wrote that essay. I hope to get back here on a brighter day with bluer skies, but this is likely as good a vantage point for the southern part of the plateau as I’m going to locate. Fall colours are present in this photo, for example on the sides of McIntyres Mountain, but they are very subdued given the heavy overcast and the distance.