Dennis, Mike and I headed out late tonight to check out some ghost towns. We headed up north to Stirton first and while we found the general area that used to be the town, there weren’t any old buildings left. Just a few homes which probably sprung up in the past 20 years. Dennis had a book with him (published in 1999) and in it there was a picture of an old stone bridge which was still around but we damned well couldn’t find it. [Turns out it was destroyed in 2002]

From there we drove to Parker, Cumnock and Ponsonby. Turns out that when the book speaks of ghost towns, all it really means is small communities that used to exist but which slowly went away as everyone moved elsewhere for boring reasons. Even then, most of the places we went to have since had people move back and build new houses in the past few years.

In fact, the only somewhat interesting things we managed to see were an abandoned gas station (the remnants of which just look like a small residential garage) and a pioneer graveyard where whatever tombstones weren’t yet destroyed had been cemented together, flat on the ground.

After those failed attempts at night activities, we decided to check out some Geocaches in Guelph (which was now closer to us than Waterloo). Dennis brought us to the coordinates for “Neo-Gothic Architecture” (the metal bridge near the creepy church on the hill) and set us loose to find it. Mike eventually found it (crazy hiding job!) while I took photos of nearby stencils.

Next was “Hidden History” in Heritage Park but upon inspecting the best hiding spot in the park, we discovered a large pile of clothes looking very much like a person. Recovering our courage, we checked the space out but found nothing. If somebody did take up residence in there, they probably found and removed it. Damn.

To finish off, we headed to “Just Milling Around” where we found the remains of another old mill (now converted into a small outdoor theatre) and then actually found the cache in (under?) an old tree.

The rest of the day was… well not as interesting.

[Edit: Other pictures from the night can be found here]