CANADIAN TRAILS: On its Own Merritt
It may not offer much in the way of mountain views, but the Merritt Trail has something else going for it - history.
The Merritt Trail
St. Catharines, Ontario
Distance: 11K
Highlight: Mountain Lock Park
It may not offer much in the way of mountain views, but the Merritt Trail has something else going for it – history.
Though much of it is wedged between a four-lane highway and what appears to be an irrigation ditch, the Merritt Trail is actually an 11K-long museum. Located in the heart of post-industrial St. Catharines, the stone dust trail follows the route of the first and second Welland Canals – the 19th -century waterways that bypassed Niagara Falls and carried schooners and early steamboats up the 100-metre-high Niagara Escarpment.
While some sections of the canal have been buried under roads or diverted into culverts, 18 massive Queenston Limestone locks can still be seen from the path. The trail itself runs atop the old towpaths that teams of oxen and horses once followed as they dragged vessels from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The lock gates have been removed so that the canal now looks like a series of waterfalls, but walkways and footbridges offers good views of the stone masonry.
The most dramatic section of the trail is Mountain Lock Park in Thorold, Ont., where, in a single kilometre, seven locks rise like a staircase up the hill. Keep an eye out for remains of old barges and weirs, and massive propellers from steel bulk carriers that used to roam the canals.
The trail wends north from Mountain Lock Park all the way to Port Dalhousie, on the shore of Lake Ontario. Warning: the trail can be intermittent, so be sure to pick up a map. I spent 10 minutes searching for the trail along the edge of a Canadian Tire parking lot. Stick with it. You’ll be rewarded with sudden descents into dense Carolinian forest – ravines draped in willows, cherry birches and chestnut trees.
That said, the trail can, at times, seem a bit urban. A side-trip down the Twelve Trail offers a nice antidote. This single-lane footpath twists and turns as it follows the eastern bank of Twelve Mile Creek. This creek is actually an impressive river teeming with wildlife. Watch for muskrats, beavers, deer, groundhogs and all manner of birds.
The Twelve Trail connects with the Bruce Trail after 6K. If you follow the Bruce Trail east along the escarpment ridge, you’ll find yourself back at Mountain Lock Park, a 14K loop.
To get to the Merritt Trail
Start at Mountain Lock Park, at the corner of Bradley and Mountain streets.
Directions: Take the QEW to St. Catharines. Exit at #406. Head south 9K to Glendale Avenue. Exit left on Glendale (heading east) and follow for just under 500 metres. Turn right on Mountain Avenue (second street). Take the first left onto Bradley Street. Park.
43 degrees 08″ 03.32′ N
79 degrees 12″ 54.40′ W
To get to the Twelve Trail
Take the pedestrian footbridge over Highway 406 (you’ll find it where St. Paul Crescent meets McGuire Street).
43 degrees 09″ 15.30′Â N
79 degrees 14″ 39.50′ W
David Carroll, a regular contributor to Canadian Running, grew up in St. Catharines.
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