Fifty Walks: 9

Burlington to Hamilton, Ontario
Hot and sweaty, but I wonder why I’ve never done this walk before.  It’s a nice one, around the western tip of Lake Ontario, the end of Burlington Bay. The best thing about walking is that you can take routes that you can’t drive, like through cemeteries - there are several on the way - or down to Carroll's Bay and across the rattling old one-lane bridge which has been blocked off to cars for years now.  It’s peaceful down there, quiet in the summer heat. People are fishing, paddleboarding, birdwatching, enjoying the last days of summer. It's very green, and swans and goldenrod are everywhere.

There’s a waterfront trail once you cross highway 403 and the bridge into Hamilton, smelly but nice for its waterbirds, historical signage, and lack of traffic.  I took the trail all the way downtown, coming up onto James St. N., which was closed to traffic for September’s Art Supercrawl. Live bands, food trucks, art, so much street life. I stopped for an iced latte with my cousins. Walking back along the streets, past Dundurn Castle, back across the bridge at the mouth of Cootes Paradise, then down into the Royal Botanical Garden’s shady valleys, along trails and wetland boardwalks, and finally back home to Aldershot.

Location: Aldershot, Burlington to downtown Hamilton, and back
Length: 18 km
Companions: none
Date: 16 September, 2018