Hockley Valley

5-7 September:  We headed south, generally following the Niagara Escarpment, to Ontario’s Headwaters region, where the Nottawasaga River (Lake Huron drainage), the Grand River (Lake Erie drainage), and the Credit River (Lake Ontario drainage) originate.  We stopped to bike a section of the Elora Cataract rail trail on our way to visit long-time friends Bob and Paula, who have lived in the Hockley Valley for over 40 years.  An advantage of their house being just a few steps from the Nottawasaga River is that they can look down from their bedroom window to see salmon swimming upriver from Lake Huron to spawn.  A disadvantage is that in unusually wet springs the river can overflow its banks and the rising water table can infiltrate their basement (which happened this year).

Their son Matthew, a philosophy professor who has been teaching at a university in Egypt for the last few years, was home on an extended visit.  We hadn’t seen him since he was in high school, and he told us the happy news that he is engaged to be married.  Bob and Paula’s next door neighbor Fred took us on a very pleasant bike ride along the valley and on the Vicki Barron Lakeside Trail through the Island Lake Conservation Area and around the Orangeville Reservoir.  Fred has been active, both as a volunteer and as an elected town official, in habitat restoration projects on the town conservation land we were riding through.

On a shopping trip into town, Bob and Paula introduced us to a distinctive tradition that Orangeville has embraced.  Instead of completely removing the trees that die along the town streets, a tall stump is left in place and carved into a work of art.  Since 2003, the number of tree sculptures has grown to 55, created by 19 artists plus the Headwaters Carving Club.