Hike to the Arden Canyon

Jule Koch Brison | Nov 03, 2011

Photo: Dennis Burr

On October 29, about 15 people undertook a hike to the Arden Canyon, a unique geologic feature that extends for several kilometres southeast of Arden. The hike was organized by the Friends of Arden and was led by Don Scott, a born and bred Ardenite who knows the area like the back of his hand. Don has visited the gorge many times since he was young, for hunting or just to have some quiet times.

Retired Queen’s geology professor, Dugald Carmichael, came on the hike and was able to explain some of the gorge’s unique features to the group. He explained that the high ground surrounding the canyon is granite, while the bedrock underneath the marshy valley of the canyon is marble, and so the canyon was formed by the erosion of the marble.

The idea for the hike originally came from Glen Matson, one of the Friends of Arden, who told the group about a beautiful canyon that a lot of people haven’t seen. In preparation for the trek, Friends members David Daski and Guenter Nitsche went ahead and did some trimming and clearing to make the path easier to follow.

The hike was about a 4 kilometre round trip, so while it was not especially long or steep, there were a number of challenging points where the group had to negotiate their way across beaver dams. No one fell in.

From the route’s wooded departure point off Pitt Road, the terrain changed quickly to beaver ponds and rocks, followed by a wide expanse of open rock over which there were few landmarks. No one strayed too far from the leader.

Wintergreen with its bright red berries, among many other plants, and numerous species of mosses and lichens captured the hikers’ interests, with the latter providing a soft place to rest for lunch on the edge of the canyon. Well – a few discreet feet from the edge, anyway.

The gorge is partly on Crown land and partly on township land, and the eventual goal of the Friends is to do some signing and grooming of the trail so that others can enjoy this beautiful feature of the area.

In the meantime, they will be planning more hikes for next year.

(Dugald Carmichael was one of the contributors to the book, “Lennox and Addington”, and for those who have the book, there is an aerial photo that includes the canyon on page 17, though it is a bit hard to pick it out in the photo)