Waterfalls Turn to WaterFAILS. Phone Trouble, Too.

Canada travelog #13
Hamilton, ON · Mon, 25 Aug 2025. 4pm.

Our first day of waterfall hiking near Hamilton, Ontario got off to a pretty good start with Webster Falls, then Tew Falls, then Webster Falls again. It got cloudy and rainy at our first visit to Webster, which is why I went back again. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you have to make your own luck. Our luck really hit the skids after that, though. We had a string of three fails midday.

Borer's Falls Bust

First, we tried to hike Borer's Falls. It could've been a three-fer up on the hill in Dundas as it was close to Webster and Tew Falls. But first the directions were flaky, pointing us to a spot on the road where there was absolutely no parking. Then we found parking nearby but, as we double- and triple checked trail notes to be sure we were in the right place, found that the trail was poor and didn't really give a view of the falls. We tried looking for some other supposed trailheads but they, too, amounted to a wild goose chase. We decided to get lunch in town and replan.

Mobile Phone Fail

In town, our phones crapped out on us. They both went into "SOS" mode, unable to find signal. Understand, we weren't in a small town in the middle of nowhere. We're in the Hamilton metro area, a major manufacturing hub in Ontario, Canada. And we were on the campus of McMaster University, one of Canada's leading universities. Researchers and students all around us were enjoying lightning fast 5G; our phones were like, "Derrr, tHeRe'S nO sIgNaL!" 😡

We feared this would turn into a mess like when our phones crapped out in Panama. We dreaded having to throw away the rest of the day by hobbling back to our hotel with no maps and then sitting on wifi call with Verizon for three hours troubleshooting why our phones suddenly stopped working in a major city overseas.

We were in an area with lots of cheap restaurants (college campus) so we decided to park and get lunch while figuring out how to get our phones un-fucked. Multiple variations on "Turn it off, turn it on again" hadn't worked. We wondered if maybe adding "and wait 15 minutes" as Step 2 might work. Basically it did! And we enjoyed some good, cheap eats, too. 😅

Devil's Dust Bowl

Feeling like we were back on track we looked at what was next on our list. It was getting toward mid afternoon already, so we didn't want to pick a long hike. Devil's Punch Bowls was the next short hike on our list. It's basically a drive-to. Except it's all dried out.



Yeah, I'm glad we didn't hike more than 100 meters to see that. Or pay $22.50 to park. (We would have had to pay— except  our receipt from paying $22.50 earlier today got us out for free!)

Being up here on the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment did have one benefit, though. From up here we enjoyed a good view across Hamilton, Ontario.



Looking down from this gorge that drops into town reminds me a bit of Ithaca, New York, where I lived for 4 years while attending Cornell University. Hamilton is at least 10x bigger than Ithaca, though. Hamilton has a population of about 570,000 and a metro area of over 850,000. There's a lot of industry here as it's on the edge of Lake Ontario and not far across the border from the US for trade.

On the Shore of Lake Ontario

Canada travelog #14
Hamilton, ON · Mon, 25 Aug 2025. 4:30pm.

We're getting toward the end of the day, here. And it has been a busy one, including hits and misses. We decided to cap it off something mellow, a walk along the shores of Lake Ontario. We found on the map that Confederation Park in Hamilton looks like a good place for such a visit.

Confederation Park has huge parking lot and bath houses and a lot of other facilities... which, this afternoon, are all practically empty. Some of them even look closed for the season. It's still August! Of course here in Canada it's already kind of Autumn. The high temperature in this week's forecast range from the high 60s to low 70s (20-22° C). Not exactly beach weather.

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Fortunately I didn't come here wanting a beach today, just a mellow stroll along the lake. Confederation Park delivers. I was surprised to see off in the distance across the lake I could see the downtown Toronto skyline. (And I could tell it was Toronto and not Mississauga because of the CN Tower.)

Getting Settled for the Next 6 Days

Canada travelog #15
Burlington, ON · Mon, 25 Aug 2025. 6pm.

Late this afternoon we checked in to our hotel in Burlington, a bit outside of Hamilton, Ontario. It's where we'll be staying for the next six days as we enjoy hiking in the area.

Yes, six days. We're actually kinda staying put on this trip! I mean, we just switched to Burlington after 2 nights near the airport in Toronto, but that's because we shifted gears from one part of this trip to another. Us staying in any one place for 6 nights is practically unheard of.



So, what'll it be like staying in one place for the next 6 days? Well, it's not the Four Seasons, here, or even the Waldorf Astoria. It's the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington, an industrial area outside of Hamilton. Our room here is simple and comfortable, very much standard for the Hilton Garden Inn brand.

Ironically we stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn near the Toronto airport just before this— and here we've got the room with the same number, 401. This room is a bit smaller, though. That might make it feel a bit tight for 6 days. To help reduce clutter I've unpacked my suitcase and put my clothes in the bureau opposite the bed. It's more relaxing, too, not living literally out of a suitcase. I mean, it's not worth the effort to unpack and repack for 1-2 nights, but for trips of 3 or more nights I usually do. And this is six nights in one place. I have to think hard to remember the last time I stayed in any one hotel that long! (Answer: it was 2017!)