GOIN' PLACES
day Trips
A Perfect Saturday in and Around the Beaver Valley
My perfect Saturday is a sunny day. Once the bed relinquishes me, I’ll be out in the sunshine looking for a croissant. A real croissant. You can tell a lot about a café by its croissants. Those served at the Kimberley Café & Social House, our first stop, are crispy on the teeth, with that warm, chewy softness inside. Buttery. We look for a place to sit down and enjoy our beverages, but it’s Saturday morning and the place is hopping. It’s an outsized café, and seems too big for the tiny town of Kimberley. And yet it’s full, with people spilling out onto the sleek patio. My croissant, paired with a strong, bold flat white, delivers a few minutes of bliss in the warm air. There’s a buzz all around us. People talking, catching up. Less than a year after opening, the Kimberley Café has become a meeting place, a manifestation of community in this welcoming blip of a town nestled in the Beaver Valley. Appetites temporarily sated, we set off up the eastern flank of the Valley for a hike on Old Baldy. This is a prominent dolomite cliff that climbers love to scale. We’re going to hike it. One thing I love about the Old Baldy Side Trail hike is that you’re already up the Escarpment when you begin. Yes, the trail goes up, but it’s a mild ascent. And if you want to keep it short, the minimum loop is all of 40 minutes, including the most magnificent views of the Valley you can get standing on terra firma. Today, we’re going to stretch our hike into a couple of hours. On our walk, knobs of limestone and roots dot the way, forcing us to pick our path. We wind through young growth and into the luminous green of a mature maple canopy. There’s a diminutive log bench and we sit, listening for a moment to the forest sounds. As a treat, an oriole looses its intricate, liquid-sounding trill. As we approach the edge of the Escarpment, I’m half expecting fairies or elvensong. The views are a more-thanadequate stand-in. Our next and final stop is Markdale, home to The Vault, a skinny bar on Main Street opened a year ago by Jordan DesRoches, a youthful Oliver & Bonacini veteran. We saunter along the two principal streets. We find classic vinyl, handcrafted lamps, assorted treasures, toys and games and a post office with used books in the window. The Vault serves local craft beer, a pretty nice selection of wines (bottle shop in the actual vault) and handcrafted cocktails. This place made it into our perfect Saturday because four nights a week, Markdale’s K8R Foods serves gourmet dinners in the bar to go with the drinks. Tonight it’s a black bean and garlic egg noodle stir-fry with morels, pheasant back mushrooms, wild leeks, asparagus and crispy pork belly. After a delicious spring fling cocktail, quite an exceptional charcuterie board and lots of chatter with local patrons, we tuck into dinner along with a glass of standout Rioja. Back outside in the warm evening air, all that’s left is to go home after a perfect day in the Beaver Valley. -Carl Michener TOP The Kimberley Cafe & Social House: You can tell a lot about a cafe by its croissants. MIDDLE On top of Old Baldy overlooking the Beaver Valley. BOTTOM The Vault on Markdale's Main Street boasts a bottle shop, handcrafted cocktails and exceptional charcuterie boards. MARK O’GRADY
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