Walking the K&P Trail North from McIvor Road

Locally, lovingly remembered as the Kingston & Pembroke, CP's route south from Renfrew to gain waterfront access at Kingston was not always an easy one. We walked the trackless but much-used K&P Trail from McIvor Road to the intersection of Bur Brook and Cordukes Roads. Earlier treks included the Binnington Court to Sydenham Road section in 2021, the starting segment of the trail in 2019, and the Wellington Street to John Counter Boulevard in 2018. Although we'd walked this particular section before, that walk was sans camera, as was another walk from Bur Brook and Cordukes Roads to Unity Road. The smartphone makes hiking and photography easy! We parked at McIvor Road, then ventured slightly south to find the next parking lot - Creekford Road just west of Gardiners Road. This took us under Highway 401 through this imposing culvert:

The view reminded me of a similar, though less imposing one photographed 65 years ago, in June 1957, taken from the tail-end car by George Lilley during one of the last runs of the CP mixed train. (Queen's University Archives, George Lilley Fonds, V25.5-38-29x computer monitor view)

Through the pastoral scenery we trekked, by swamp and pasture, through the Jackson Mills millrace and road realignment (a separate blog post in itself!) and passed this poured concrete garage at 1902 Jackson Mills Road (below and top photo):

A trailside graphic detailed an outcropping of igneous rock just to our west:

We really began to feel the ascending grade up and over 'Gibson's Hill' and I could only imagine a little CPR D-4 hauling 5-10 cars through rain and autumn leaves slickening the track! Up and around the hillside, the grade hoped to make the run north easier though less direct!

The pastureland along McIvor Road falls away to the west as we go higher:

Looking back from whence we came:

A few faces of exposed limestone beside the grade:

The pastureland is now far below us, though the grade is not finished with our calf muscles just yet. We had more to fear from descending cyclists than we did from any runaway train!

Another trailhead, of which all we encountered were more than full with cars. One at Jackson's Mills would be a good idea, to lessen parking along the side of the road!

Our trek at an end, we returned to McIvor Road, with these two swans having moved from the background, on our way up, to the foreground, on our way back down!

Here's an April 16, 1979 view at McIvor Road (below). My Dad and I had watched the CP train into Kingston do its switching, from our vantage point at Rigney Street. Knowing the train was about to depart north, we drove up to McIvor Road to await its speedy, smoky passage as it prepared to lift its short train up this same grade, past that now swan-swum swale! My photos are in this post and these numbered images of my Dad's are in this post.