After years of effort by our club and the Bruce Trail Conservancy (BTC) land acquisition team, we were finally able to announce our purchase of the Eagle’s Summit Nature Reserve last October. Besides being a marvellous property from a conservation point of view, it also sparked a number of dreams from a trail development perspective.
In April 2025, Trail Development and Maintenance (TD&M) volunteer trail workers from the local Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club began the on-site work to realize those dreams. Now a mere five months later, those dreams have become a reality. All it took was innumerable hours of planning, new “handshake” agreements with a private landowner and the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority (GSCA), more than 30 work parties, over 500 volunteer hours from the club’s TD&M flying squads, and uncounted additional hours from our club’s sawyer, mower and whipper-snipper teams. And that’s not to mention all the individual trail workers who often snuck out on their own to complete tasks unfinished during the day.
We now have the pleasure of inviting hikers and neighbours to share with us:
- An example of the amazing contributions to the Bruce Trail and our Beaver Valley community that can be made by local volunteers with the co-operation of private landowners and the conservation authority
- A new destination hiking attraction that meets the needs of the full range of hikers: from resident or visiting individuals and families seeking a short foray into nature, to Bruce Trail hikers on their way from Niagara to Tobermory
- A major 2.4 kilometre reroute of the main Bruce Trail along the crest of the Niagara Escarpment that takes approximately 1.6 kilometres of the main trail off roadways and into forests and meadows that provide breathtaking panoramic views up, down and across the Beaver Valley
- Seven new side trails (8.2 kilometres total) above and below the Escarpment that provide hiker access to the many features of the new Eagle’s Summit Nature Reserve and GSCA properties, such as forests, meadows, equally spectacular views, rock faces, gorges and quiet ponds
- Highlighting of historical usages of the land, including previous routes of the Bruce Trail
- A trail network that preserves the precious ecology of the BTC-owned and -managed property, while providing safe, controlled access to residents and visitors
- Close access to much needed parking and washroom facilities
- A number of “loop trails” ranging in length from less than 0.4 kilometres to more than 4 kilometres. One of these less than one-hour loops is directly accessible to parking and displays many of the key features of the property, including rock faces, a river gorge and a 10-minute continuous display north, south and west along and across the Beaver Valley.
We look forward to seeing you on these new trails.
Bob Hann
