The trillium is the provincial flower of Ontario, and if you’ve been on a walk through the forest near Cave Springs recently you may have noticed that they are currently blooming!
Here are a few facts about trilliums:
They love sunlight!
They bloom in the spring when the trees don’t have leaves on them- their flowers disappear once the leaves block sunlight from reaching them.
Trilliums are very fragile.
If you pick one, no other flower will grow in its place and the plant itself will probably not be able to survive winter. They also grow extremely slowly- it takes 7-10 years for a trillium plant to flower. Picking a trillium is heavily discouraged- and it’s actually illegal to do so according to the Ontario Trillium Protection Act (2009).
Three is the magic number for trilliums.
They have three petals on their flower, three leaves, three green sepals, and a three-sectioned seed pod. This is why they’re called TRI-lliums.
White trilliums are the favourite food of the white-tailed deer.
Specifically white trilliums, deers don’t prefer the other trillium species.
Ants spread trillium seeds!
Ants are attracted to the protein-rich elaiosome on the seeds of trilliums, which they eat after carrying the entire seed back to their nests. The actual seeds are not harmed during this process, and are later discarded to grow a new plant. This dispersal method is known as Myrmecochory.
There are five native trillium species found in Ontario
They are: White Trillium, Red Trillium, Painted Trillium, Drooping Trillium, and Nodding Trillium.
There have been many stories and legends told at Cave Springs Camp. We describe a legend as a story that has been passed down from person to person, with some true parts and some false parts. Some of our legends are newer, and some are very, very old. The thing about legends is that they morph and change as time goes on, so how I might tell these stories may be different from how a counsellor would have told them in the past (even last summer!), but overall the concept remains the same. We have included “the real version” of some of these stories, especially when history is involved. Often it is just as interesting to know what actually happened, and usually, it is more important.
Lots of information found in this book is from the Cave Springs Farm: Fact and Fancy book that was written in 1952 by W.F. Rannie, as well as some community newspaper articles. The rest is general camp knowledge and stories that have been told and retold.
The Legend
Around two hundred years ago, there was a family who built a house on the top of the escarpment and lived off the land. There was a wife, a husband, and a little baby named Adam. The year Adam was born there was a big drought, and it was very hard for them to find food. The husband would often go on long hunting trips, and the wife tried her best to find berries and edible plants.
One day, while her husband was out hunting, the mother decided to climb down the escarpment wall to look for more food, as they had not eaten in days. She put Adam in a basket and used her other hand to scale down the rocks. Once on the ground, she found a huge bush of raspberries that she knew could feed her family for a long time. She filled her basket and stomach with as many berries as she could, and before she knew it the sun was setting. There were many creatures in the forest at night, and she didn’t want to meet them.
She got back to the wall of rock, and suddenly realized that she could not climb up with both Adam and the berries. She had to make a hard decision. If the mother left the berry basket, she was sure an animal would snatch it up and eat them all before she got back, because they too must be starving. However, she didn’t want to leave her baby alone in the forest either, but she knew she had to. The mother found a little space in the rocks, wrapped Adam up in blankets, and placed the sleeping baby there, constantly worried about her decision.
She scaled the wall and ran home as fast as she could to drop off the food. She then ran back to Adam. But when she got to the bottom of the rock wall, Adam was gone! Frantic, she looked everywhere, but he was nowhere near where she had left him. She retraced her steps back to the bush, but still did not find him. After hours of looking in the dark, she went home and found her husband, who started to help her search. The couple searched all night until the morning, when they enlisted help from the town at the bottom of the escarpment. Everyone searched for two days, but they concluded that he had disappeared.
Filled with guilt, Adam’s mother sat down on a rock at the top of the wall. She started crying for her lost son, and cried more than she ever had before. All of a sudden, it started thunderstorming, with the rain beating down on her. But she kept crying. She cried so hard that it felt like the earth was shaking underneath her, and the water from her tears and the rain rushed like a stream down the escarpment. When she opened her eyes, to her amazement a row of steps had developed along the side of the rock. And at the bottom of those steps was little baby Adam.
The Real Story
Adam’s Steps are a series of natural steps along the edge of the escarpment. Everyone knows them as “Adam’s Steps”, but no one knows why they are called this or where that name came from. At the bottom of them, there are many mysterious carvings, including the year “1871” and a series of initials and monograms. It has been hypothesized that these markings were created by explorers, although we do not know how they relate to the steps or the story we tell.
There have been many stories and legends told at Cave Springs Camp. We describe a legend as a story that has been passed down from person to person, with some true parts and some false parts. Some of our legends are newer, and some are very, very old. The thing about legends is that they morph and change as time goes on, so how I might tell these stories may be different from how a counsellor would have told them in the past (even last summer!), but overall the concept remains the same. We have included “the real version” of some of these stories, especially when history is involved. Often it is just as interesting to know what actually happened, and usually, it is more important.
Lots of information found in this book is from the Cave Springs Farm: Fact and Fancy book that was written in 1952 by W.F. Rannie, as well as some community newspaper articles. The rest is general camp knowledge and stories that have been told and retold.
The Legend
There was a man who lived in Germany who wanted to be a farmer. At night, he would dream of the sheep, chickens and corn he would own, and during the day he would get lost in thoughts of hay bales and horses. Unfortunately, World War II had just begun, and he was not interested in being part of the war. So instead, he decided to pack up a suitcase and move to Canada, where he hoped he would eventually save up enough to start a farm.
He moved to the small town of Beamsville, where he bought a little house and started to learn about Canada and farming. The problem was, he didn’t know how to speak english at all, so he would have to learn. He learned english by listening to the radio and watching the TV, but he found that listening to other people speak worked the best. His favourite hobby was to sit at the local coffee shop and try to understand the conversations that were happening around him.
The problem was that Canada was fighting on a different side of the war than Germany, so the people of Beamsville thought that he was a German spy! They were worried he had been sent by Germany to listen to their secrets and report back. They were so afraid that he was a spy, that one night they had a town meeting and decided to chase the German man out of town. They made a plan to show up at his house later that night and scare him away forever.
Luckily, the German man had become friends with the coffee shop owner, who ran to his house and warned him of the oncoming mob. By the time the people of Beamsville got there, with their pitchforks and torches, he had already run up the escarpment. The people searched his house and everything around it, burning it to the ground when they could not find him. They ran up the escarpment looking for him. The german man was smart though, and he had found a secret tunnel through some rocks that went down the escarpment. As the crowd ran up, he went down through the hole. Then, when the people couldn’t find him on top of the escarpment and ran back down, he went up through the hole. This continued for a while until the people of Beamsville eventually decided that he had left for good, and they gave up and went home.
The man from Germany spent the next few years living out of the tunnel in the escarpment. He ate what he could find and lived in the forest, hiding whenever he heard anyone come up the path. After many years, the war with Germany ended and the people forgot about the German man. He came out of hiding and sued the town of Beamsville for burning down his house, and ended up getting $10, 000, which during the time was enough money to buy himself a farm like he always wanted. The man from Germany, who was not a spy, lived happily ever after with his sheep and his chickens.
The Real Story
During the first world war, there was a German man who lived on King St that was said to have been under investigation for spying. He was threatened out of town and eventually ended up in Germany, but there are no records of official charges or suspicions.
Many years later, two men from Illinois, USA, came to visit the ice caves and mentioned that their German father left some belongings in a hole on the escarpment during the first world war.
There was also an army base in Grimsby where similar instances of finding “German spies” occurred.
Some people reserve hiking for summer months, but we’re here to tell you to get out there and enjoy the whole different experience of winter hiking!!! Here are some tips to get you started:
Bundle up in layers
It is okay to be a bit chilly as you start out! As you move your body heat will increase. Starting with too many layers will produce excess sweat that will ultimately make you colder. The key is to select comfortable layers that will keep you cozy as you get moving. You can always pack extra layers in a backpack to add!
Wear shoes with good traction
Comfortable footwear is the key to a comfortable hike. In the winter it is important to consider both grip and water resistance. Save the Birkenstocks for summer!
Use walking poles to your advantage
It is especially advantageous to have an extra support in icy conditions. When trails are covered in snow a pole or stick can help you to brace against tripping hazards such as covered roots.
If you slip and fall, try not to brace yourself with your hands
This is a common cause of injuries in the winter. If you sense you’re going to fall, try your best to fight the urge to brace yourself with your hands forward and your wrists locked. Try to shift your fall to your backside where there is more cushioning .
Walking sideways can help you down a slippery hill
You can also try going down a hill in a zig-zag pattern rather than straight down.
A face mask/covering makes for excellent protection against the wind
Face masks conveniently both protect us from spreading germs but also from the wind! A buff or scarf are also great options!
Happy Hiking!
There are many lovely locations to explore around Cave Springs. Check back for future posts that highlight some of our favourite places to hike near camp. You can access our neck of the Bruce Trail via the Cave Springs Conservation Area – 3949 Cave Spring Rd.
