Rockwood Conservation Area Hidden Trail

The Eramosa cuts through Rockwood in a limestone ravine, past the ruins of the old woolen mill. Cedar on the rock, the river narrow and quick below.

Behind the boarded-up mill there’s a hidden trail if you look hard enough. Hidden well enough that at the far end of it someone dumped several loads of construction material and household waste.

Most of it is asphalt shingles, a lot of them, in layers, along with what looks like parts of a cathode-ray TV set. The rest is household — slippers that have been in the forest long enough to grow moss. The dump sits roughly 30 metres from the Eramosa, on the slope above it. Shingles don’t stay whole. They shed granules and fibres as they weather, and everything that comes off a pile on a slope goes downhill.

We were only expecting to find a few beer cans in the bush, which we also did. So we packed out what we could carry and left the rest for now. It needs a second trip and much bigger bags. If you want to help us haul it out, join the crew, and we’ll show you the hidden trail.