Messer Trail, Chalk River, Ontario

L to R:  Messer Trail, RR tracks, Highway 17, power transmission lines

2,588 miles

July 21 – Several lines run parallel to the highway here.  The Ottawa River has always been the main thoroughfare through the region, but there would have been trails through the forest, too.  A railroad track was built roughly parallel to the river, but much straighter for technological convenience.  And subsequent transport seems to have followed the railroad tracks pretty closely.  The Trans-Canada Highway.  Power transmission lines from the nuclear power plant and the hydro-electric generation dams to the cities. 

Next to the railroad tracks next to the highway is a trail that connects parts of the towns of Chalk River and Petawawa, called the Messer Trail.  Several hiking websites list all of the recreational trails in Ontario, but I haven’t been able to find out any information about this trail or the derivation of its name.  

Messer Trail borders on – or is part of – a military base, and the one mention of it that I found is a call for contractor bids to pave the trail and provide parking lots at the ends.  That plan sounds like it will become a civilian recreational trail (hiking & biking, not snowmobile).  No one in the town answered my inquiry. It remains a mystery to me.

The local area has several interesting road names (Totalize Road, Veritable Road).  The numerous “crossings” suggest a time when railroads or forest trails covered the region. 

Duke Crossing (Orange Road)

Stewart Crossing (Totalize Road, Black Bear Road)

Brindle Crossing (Veritable Road, Brindle Road)

Old Road Crossing

Midway Crossing