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Northeastern Ontario is as much a region of water as it is of land, something that only by hiking it (or seeing it from the air) are you able to truly appreciate. With tens of thousands of lakes, and every size and shape of creek or river feeding and emptying them, it’s little wonder that waterfalls are almost as plentiful as the lakes and rivers themselves.
Yet there’s something magnetic about waterfalls that makes them different from lakes or rivers. Whether it’s the sound or the beauty of the cascading water, the power being released in its rushing downhill descent, or just the fact that no two waterfalls are alike, there’s something about waterfalls that draws people to them.
Take Duchesnay Falls, only minutes outside of North Bay, Ontario. It drew me north to explore not only its multiple cascades, but the pretty hiking trails on either side of them.
Duchesnay Falls is one of Northeastern Ontario’s most popular waterfalls, no doubt due in part to the fact that it is so accessible: the largest cascade is literally a few minutes’ walk off Highway 17, within easy view and earshot of the road. But starting at the end of these falls is literally just the beginning.
This is the beauty of Duchesnay, in fact. Just when you think you’ve “seen the falls,” you hike a few dozen yards upstream and find another one. And another. And so on and so on.
Each piece of the river system offers something a little different: some of the drops in height are dramatic and steep, like the western cascade that tumbles the final 8 – 10 metres to the bottom and where logs that have been swept downstream in the spring rush of high water litter the base.
Higher upstream, water flows over a flatter “staircase”10 to 20 metres long, eventually spilling over a steeper edge to collect in a pool before continuing downstream. It’s easy to see how on a hot day, that pool would look temptingly refreshing but be aware that swimming is strictly forbidden here (at least that’s what the sign says!).
For hikers who are adventurous and sure-footed, it’s possible in low-water season [like when I visited in October] to walk across the flat rocks farther upstream before the water drops into the pool. It’s a very different story in the spring, however, when the water volume is high, and the river divides into two streams, one course rushing down to the steeper western cascade and the other fork taking a slightly flatter descent to the east.
