Comment 112988

By Pxtl (registered) - website | Posted July 22, 2015 at 10:33:06

There is one additional mountain access that never gets talked about - I don't even know if it has a name.

map of john st mountain trail

It runs from the top of John St. to the top of the James St Stairs (at the Claremont) at Southam park.

john st mountain trail

After the discussion here, I noticed it on Google Maps and decided to go explore it. I should have taken pictures, in hindsight, it's quite a sight. I stopped when I reached the sidewalk next to the Claremont, so I didn't follow it to the end. If somebody wants to go exploring and do that and take some pictures, it's a fun little trip and quite short.

First off, the good: It has almost no stairs. Walking a bike up this trail is totally doable, and riding it down is as well (provided you're squeezing the brakes the whole way).

On the other hand, the bad:

  • It's poorly-maintained dirt path with large boulders, deep gouges from rivulets, and dog poop. It would suck after a storm.
  • It's unsigned - the entrance was marked with nothing but a traffic cone.
  • Holy crap Louisa is steep. I tried biking up to the trailhead and I thought I was going to strip chainring or something (my front derailleur is broken so I can't shift down low-enough). Normally I'm all about biking hills, but this is a rough one.
  • It's narrow in places
  • No illumination, and the only fence is to keep the graffiti off the Claremont supports (the fence honestly looks worse than the graffiti) and it's a pretty precarious drop on the side of the trail.
  • John St is unforgiving to cyclists, particularly as you approach the Jolley Cut and it drops down to 1 up-bound lane as it steepens. I think some drivers hate cyclists a little more now thanks to being stuck behind me. A James -> St Joe's Drive -> Mountainwood -> Lousia route might be better (the reverse is what I took back), but that's getting to some unlikely wayfinding.
  • The top end is an embarrassment. I'd never walke the James St stairs so I didn't know about this trainwreck:

top of james st stairs

Yes, that's a gap in the jersey barriers, closed off with highway guardrails, with a desire line leading up to it. I didn't see this in person (I had to get home so I'd turned back before that point) - I think there's a flowerbed there now - but still, that's pathetic.

The new endpoint of the James St stairs is a bit west of there and, of course, involves stairs.

Right now the city is asking for feedback about the City of Hamilton's trails as they relate to the Trails Master Plan.

https://www.hamilton.ca/city-planning/master-plans-class-eas/recreational-trails-master-plan

This route is identified as the "Chedoke Rail Trail Claremont Link (2-4)". I think this one could use some serious TLC and provide a great service to Hamilton's cyclists and hikers (and wheelchair-bound folks?). However, the master plan identifies it as "Phase 3" which means it's low priority. The one single mountain cut that has no stairs for pedestrians and cyclists. Well, almost no stairs, and only has no stairs because figuring out how to get people across the West 5th leg of the Claremont without stairs was too hard.

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