Map 9 Glen Morris  (3.9 km by bike and 12.8 km hike)

Black Walnut and Pinnacle Sections Completed

Click here for a map of the complete Grand Valley Trail.

Yet another scorching hot day on the trail.  We started on bicycle in the tiny village of Glen Morris.  After crossing the Grand River on Glen Morris Rd W, we left the river behind for the rest of the day.  We abandoned our bikes on Brant Waterloo Rd where the trail entered a woodlot.  From here, we were in open woodlots with lots of shade and a cooling breeze–and only a few mosquitoes.  We crossed both the Sudden Tract (maintained by the Region of Waterloo) and the Dryden Tract (managed by the Grand River Conservation Authority).  The trail mainly follows old logging roads, up and down steep-sided moraines.  At one point, it takes a long boardwalk over a swampy area.

These beautiful forests are refuges for native plants and wildlife.  The ponds were alive with leopard frogs and flowering arrowhead.  A wild bee foraged on a thistle plant.

Between Sudden Tract and Dryden Tract, the trail takes a short jog along Greenfield Rd past some beautiful old stone farmhouses, typical of the local area.

Unfortunately from Alps Rd to Cedar Creek Rd, the former trail is now a gravel pit, so the trail diverts onto narrow busy roads frequented by large trucks.   From Cedar Creek the trail jogs through another small woodlot and a farmer’s field back to Dumfries Rd.

We are half way to our goal of hiking and biking the Grand Valley Trail from Alton to Lake Erie, having completed 145 km of the approximately 284 km trail.