If you think you feel good after spending time on a trail, you may not know the half of it. Words :: Ned Morgan.
What comes to mind when you think of the Bruce Trail? A conservation corridor that protects greenspace throughout southern Ontario, the country’s most populous region? A place where the biodiversity of the Niagara Escarpment is accessible to everyone? What if we added “chronic disease treatment” to the list of the Trail’s benefits—would you believe it?
If you think you feel good after spending time on the Bruce (or any) trail, you may not know the half of it. Recent research cites frequent exposure to nature as a proven catalyst for better physical and mental health. But what if hiking could accomplish even more—what if it could provide therapy for those suffering from chronic disease? According to Bruce Trail member Karen Kowalchuk, the Trail does exactly that.
Kowalchuk suffers from Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and hiking is more than just a pastime she refused to give up after her diagnosis. It is integral to her ongoing resilience. “The Bruce Trail helped me discover more about PD and how it works with me—what I can do and what I can’t do,” she says. “With PD it’s critical to stay safe. You don’t want to fall. But contrary to what you might think, hiking on uneven and unpredictable surfaces is actually easier for me than walking in a straight line or on a street.”
Parkinson’s Disease impairs the body’s ability to tackle automatic activities such as walking over flat surfaces—something most of us do without thinking twice. So why exactly is hiking over roots and rocks easier than walking on pavement? Kowalchuk explains: “I asked my doctor, ‘Why do I have trouble walking on the road, but not as much trouble walking in the bush?’ It turns out that walking on uneven surfaces requires a kind of constant vigilance and a conscious analysis of sensory input, like surface texture, colour, gradient, etc. When your body processes all this input in this conscious way, it utilizes a different neural pathway—one that isn’t as compromised by PD.”
So it seems that the simple act of walking the Bruce Trail may spur the body to ‘outwit’ the effects of chronic disease. “Hiking increases my body’s ability to cope and compensate,” Kowalchuk adds. “You’ve probably heard the term neuroplasticity; a lot of PD research is around how the body can find another way to do the same thing when the normal route isn’t working. Hiking on the Bruce Trail with its varied and changing landscapes provides a different physical challenge every time, depending on the part of the trail you’re hiking. Although my motor ability is impaired by PD, perhaps I am utilizing some new kind of strategy that allows me to remain surprisingly able to navigate any terrain.”
Kowalchuk is aware that others may not agree that someone with PD should hike the Trail. In fact, she doesn’t know anyone else with PD who hikes. (For extra safety she always hikes with trekking poles and sturdy boots, and as part of a group.)
“Although my motor ability is impaired by PD, perhaps I am utilizing some new kind of strategy that allows me to remain surprisingly able to navigate any terrain.”
“I participate in a lot of clinical studies. For many people with PD that I know, their exercise is walking or on a machine at home or in the gym—safe activities. Most people don’t want to put themselves out there. But I feel that they’d be surprised at how good it would make them feel to be outside combining exercise and challenge with the beauty and delight that the Trail offers.”
This final sentence could apply to all of us.
Improvements Come to Hogg’s Falls
In 2008, a new 28 km extension of the Bruce Trail took the footpath deep into the upper Beaver Valley. For more than five years, volunteers door-knocked and cold-called landowners, scrambled through tough terrain and built boardwalks, stairs and footbridges to secure what became known as the Falling Water Trail.
Besides adding a significant length of what the Bruce Trail Conservancy (BTC) refers to as “Optimum Route”—the trail’s ideal path, as close as possible to the natural features of the Niagara Escarpment—at its southern limit, the extension brought hikers within a stone’s throw of Hogg’s Falls. Not nearly as high as nearby Eugenia Falls, Hogg’s is a nonetheless impressive cascade on the Boyne River, easily accessible from the road (and a short drive from the town of Flesherton).
Hogg’s Falls was always a popular sightseeing stop and the extension made it more so. As a result, the provincial Crown land surrounding the falls was beginning to show signs of overuse. The trail captain for the Hogg’s section, John Burton, alerted Bob Hann (the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club’s director of trail development and maintenance) to the deteriorating state.
Related content from ML:
“People were randomly making their own trails near the falls,” says Hann. Some were also leaving garbage behind and making impromptu scrap-wood bridges through the wetland—all of which posed a major threat to the nearby land and river environment.
The BTC has a small army of volunteers, but building new trails and fixing the issues associated with a high-traffic area owned by the province was clearly outside their normal mandate. “The fact that this was also a wetland and any changes would require approvals from multiple public agencies meant trail building was much harder—and more costly,” says Hann.
In 2018 he spoke to Craig Todd, resource management coordinator at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), who acknowledged the problem and admitted his agency didn’t have any funds to fix it, but suggested that an organization of volunteers could make progress.
This led to the formation of the Hogg’s Falls Stewardship Group, comprised of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Ontario Parks, The Bruce Trail Conservancy, Grey County, the Municipality of Grey Highlands, Niagara Escarpment Commission, Grey Sauble Conservation Authority and RTO7 (the Regional Tourism Organization). The Stewardship Group supported the Beaver Valley Club’s work on what became the Hogg’s Falls Trail Network Improvement Project (TNIP).
The group’s first task was to formulate a project design that both better protected the environment and created a more enjoyable visitor experience for residents, hikers and tourists. That design—a year in the making—envisaged complex reroutes of the Bruce Trail off the nearby roadway to create shorter loop trails, all of which would require bridges, multiple staircases and more than 200 metres of raised boardwalk through a wetland. The design also proposed more user-friendly signage throughout the trail network and an enhanced information kiosk in the Hogg’s Falls parking lot.
The next step was to acquire permits—and find the considerable funds necessary to implement such an ambitious undertaking.
With the support of the Stewardship Group, Hann (a former management consultant), Cliff Kachaluba (a fellow volunteer, newly retired from the construction industry) and BTC staff joined forces to apply for a federal government grant—but were rejected.
“When we had more time to realize the insanity of what we were promising to try to do, there was a considerable amount of relief on our part,” says Hann. “But those feelings were replaced by a mixture of elation and fear in early 2022 when we learned we were successful in the second round.” The TNIP received a sizable federal grant with an equally sizable name: the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario Canada Community Revitalization Fund. The BTC, Grey County and the Municipality of Grey Highlands kicked in more funds.
“The good news was, we got the funding,” Hann adds. “The bad news was, we had to do the project.” Because the work was happening on environmentally sensitive land, the use of machines had to be kept to a minimum, so human power alone transported most materials to the riverside or wetland worksites. The 15-metre galvanized steel bridge trusses (three per bridge) weighed a tonne and a half each. A revolving team of volunteers, often working amid clouds of bugs, hauled and winched the lumber and steel down ravines steep enough to give a hardened hiker pause.
I was there in May 2023 when volunteers lowered one of the trusses just downriver of Hogg’s Falls. The winch system on display—a network of ratchet straps crisscrossing the forest—was doubly impressive due to the presence of tree protectors. And when the truss was in place, you’d never know a work party had suffered, cursed and sweated here, apart from some churned-up leaf litter.
“We kept the salamanders happy,” says Hann.
In July 2023 when the TNIP officially opened—thanks to more than 2,800 hours of their labour—the Beaver Valley Club volunteers were perhaps the happiest of all. The presence of numerous dignitaries at the opening ceremony in the Hogg’s Falls parking lot, including the federal Conservative MP, suggested this accomplishment has a broad, nonpartisan appeal.
Hann adds, “I think the project shows that the BTC can accomplish things over and above its mandate. The volunteers who made this happen were working for more than just the trail. They came out because they’re also residents in the community.” –Ned Morgan
October 6 is Bruce Trail Day, an annual celebration hosted by the Bruce Trail Conservancy at each of its nine Clubs.
The Beaver Valley section of the Bruce Trail stretches from the Blue Mountains to Blantyre with over 120 km of trail and 2662 acres of land being conserved, restored and maintained by Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club volunteers. The Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club is partnering with Grey Sauble Conservation Authority to host Bruce Trail Day activities at Eugenia Falls on Sunday, October 6, 2024.
Representatives from the Club and the Conservation Authority will be on site from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with information and family-friendly activities. Parking fees for Eugenia Falls Conservation area will be waived for Bruce Trail Day. Donations to BVBTC or GSCA in lieu of parking fees will be gratefully accepted.
For those looking for a more in-depth exploration of the Bruce Trail, free guided hikes depart at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm – with a special family-friendly hike at 1pm. Pre-registration for the hikes is encouraged but not necessary. For more information or to pre-register, click here.
Check the ML Podcast!
