Landowner Rights & Trail User Responsibilities

The Waskahegan Trail is a unique resource that exists only because of the generosity of landowners. Before you set foot on the trail:

  1. Know the landowner rights and the trail user responsibilities.
  2. Check the trail conditions

A Bridge Too Far….

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Low’s Bridge on the Battle River section of the trail was about to fall into the river. After much discussion and examining the possibilities it was decided it was too far gone and we would dismantle it as hiking around it was in place. With the generous help of the landowner Kelly Bradford using his equipment and our volunteers including Brad Jordan who used his heavy duty truck and trailer to haul it away in three trips, we managed this daunting task over the past two Mondays. First there is our bridge in sad decline.

It is hooked up to the caterpillar. Then cut from it’s moorings.The deck comes off, however not in one piece. We have to fish for the rest.And tow it piece by piece.We loaded the trailer and truck.And took it away.

Hike: A57 to Schnee Hill

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Battle RiverSeventeen hikers came out on this beautiful sunny day for the hike along the west part of Battle River. The air was brisk when we started, but soon we were shedding layers as the weather warmed up.

Early in the hike, we stopped to view the remnants of Low’s Bridge, a Waskahegan landmark structure put up by volunteers with donated materials (power poles, rail ties, and steel cable). For the last few years, the bridge was too dangerous to use…it seemed ready to fall in. Last week, trail maintenance and the landowner worked together to take the bridge out.

We stopped at the remnants, which will be removed next week. Then we walked further down to the riverbank to the spot where the bridge had existed for over 30 years. It is a relief to have the bridge removed, but we will still miss it.

You can view the photo albums of our bridge building and bridge repair adventures from the early 80s to 1993.

After some challenging slopes, we arrived on the plateau of Schnee Hill. We dropped our packs and nestled in on the soft, clean grasses to rest and eat our lunch.

Among the early fall colours, we found high bush cranberries, chokecherries, and an elderberry. We also spotted white-tailed deer and on the way back, a bald eagle soared above our heads.

Total distance was 12.5 km.

View more pictures on Flickr