The return to McKinnon Bridge

Back in May of 2009, P-Doug and I took this trek into the Minesing Wetlands with our ultimate goal being to glimpse a bridge apparently out in the middle of nowhere across the Nottawasaga River. That trek was apparently a second attempt all on its own.

Since that time, we've made two subsequent attempts at it that failed. Once was in August a few years ago, when the grasses had simply become positively Amazonian and they turned us back. Another attempt was earlier in the year, sometime in May again, but it was a wet May and the foliage turned us back again.

We decided to take another crack at it, and Wednesday afternoon just past, we finally succeeded in making our second expedition to the iron bridge on old abandoned McKinnon Road.

The whole thing has a bit of a personal significance to me. You might notice my handle is "barefoot hiker". Well, that's a real thing. I like to take the trails that way, if I can. It's called "grounding", and it's got a bit of a following here in North America. It's considerably more popular in Europe, especially Germany. I mention this because that first successful trek to McKinnon bridge, way back in May, 2009, wasn't the first time I ever hiked barefoot; not by a long shot... but it was the first time I ever dared to do it leaving my sandals behind. "Sydney or the bush!", as Charles M. Schulz used to have the kids say in Peanuts; all or nothing. So, of course, I absolutely had to take this trek the same way, no matter what. And I did. Somewhat challenging in places; especially over the dry cellulose of last year's dead reed grass; but I came through it just fine. At the end of it all, I measured the hike on Google Maps and was pleased to discovered we'd gone 4.3 km, or roughly 2 2/3 miles.

So here is the route. Today...

And in 1954.

So without further ado, here's a condensed digest of our trek to the bridge.

Here we are at the bridge itself.

And on the way back, we stopped to have a look at the old ruins beside the river.