For the last two days we slogged in the hot muggy day preparing the base for the bridge we will be building at the Canadian Dry Stone Festival at Landon Bay. Landon Bay is on the 1000 Islands Parkway near Rockport Ontario. It is a biosphere reserve run by Parks Canada and part of a bigger geologically and ecologically diverse area called the Frontenac Arch. A few months ago we built a special arch outside the Biosphere Reserve Center just down the parkway. Now we are looking forward to adding a bridge.
We had to dig with shovels and then with our hands in the mud until we found bedrock by removing all the loose sediment. Then we wrestled a number of huge stones around to be able to start building the two piers for the 12 foot span bridge we plan to complete on the 4 days of Rocktoberfest coming up on Oct 8, 9,10,11 on the Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend. We are using a sandstone material that has been stored on the Landon bay property for many years.
The bridge will span a small creek which is a tributary of Halstead creek which flows into the St Lawrence. The bridge is to replace an old wooden bridge which we first had to take down and carry off the trail. The new dry stone bridge will be built by a team of wallers from all over Canada. It will connect a hiking trail that runs along the west side of the park and is part of a network of interesting nature trails throughout the park.
John Macleod who works at the park, and is involved organizing the many outdoor nature programs at Landon Bay is excited about the new bridge which will hopefully be a stunning addition to the park. People will be able to see it being built from higher up on Cross Cemetery Road which runs parallel to the forrest and the stream just west of where the new 'festival bridge' will be built.
Photoshop rendering of how the new dry stone bridge will look from the road.
While we were having lunch John told us enthusiastically " The view from the road presents an excellent vantage point for people to appreciate how the bridge is built, especially elderly people who might not normally walk such a long setion of trail to be able to see it."
