Although the weather was questionable today, nothing stopped us from another favorite hike on the River & Ruin trail.
This hike was especially memorable as we were blessed with the presence of Sawyer's uncle & aunt (AKA Mrs & Mrs O) and his cousin, Guinness or Guin, for short. Considering the two dogs had only just met, they got along famously. Guin is a beautiful rescue dog from Louisiana, being part Catahoula Leopard (Louisiana State Dog) & Australian Sheppard. He made his grand appearance sporting a colourful bandanna. Guin had boundless energy, and enjoyed exploring off-trail, chasing local critters, and keeping Sawyer in check!
(Guinness)
(Mr. O & Guinness)
(W & Sawyer)
River & Ruin is one of our favorite walks, affording hikers & canine friends varied terrain, views, and a beautiful river to wade in.
Sometime ago, I received an email from surfer_chic who filled me in on some the ruin's history. The "ruin" was in fact, a farmhouse adorned with a wrap-around porch facing the river below. Apparently, the lower fields, below the blue side-trail, was a horse pasture, while the upper portions were used for crops.
To this day, many apples and pear trees remain in the area. The side-trail was in fact, their dirt road leading them by horse & buggy to Guelph Line, where they ran errands at the General Store (now The Bistro in Lowville, ON). I would love to see a photograph of the original house.
Sawyer and family did enjoy their morning and look forward to many more hikes with Cousin Guin!
The ruins are of Squire Cleaver's house. He built also built the mill ( now a private residence )in Lowville on the Guelph Line. The driveway from the ruins use to lead out to the village and the mill pond. I've never heard of a photograph but there might be one in the mill... The story goes that in the 20's it became a hunt club for some Americans and it shortly burned down there after... fill in with your own imagination what happened that night.
ReplyDeleteThank you crzycrzy for the amusing information on the "ruins" . If only the walls could speak! I'll try to dig up more information on the Cleaver family, out of interest sake.
ReplyDeleteHere you go! http://www.riverview-terrace.com/plewes/documents/JamesCleaverHistory.pdf
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