Sixteen Mile Creek is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Halton Region The Regional Municipality of Halton, or Halton Region, is a regional municipality in Ontario, Canada, located in the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario. It comprises the city of Burlington and the towns of Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hil ...

in the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is in the

Great Lakes Basin The Great Lakes Basin consists of the Great Lakes and the surrounding lands of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the United States, and the province of Ontario in Canada, whose dir ...

, and flows from the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over ...

through the towns of

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

and Oakville to

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. The creek is named for the distance from the river's mouth to the western end of Lake Ontario. It was previously known to the

Mississauga Indians The Mississauga are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwe. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word ''Misi-zaagiing'', meaning " hos ...

in their language as ''Ne-sauga y-onk'' or ''niizhozaagiwan'' ("having two outlets") and to the French as ''Rivière de Gravois'' ("gravelly river"). Like many creeks draining into Lake Ontario, Sixteen Mile Creek has cut a deep valley that is home to a broad range of wildlife, including whitetail deer, raccoons, foxes, opossum, and squirrels. The forest contains tree species typical of the

Carolinian forest The Carolinian forest refers to a life zone in eastern North America characterized primarily by the predominance of deciduous (broad-leaf) forest. The term "Carolinian", which is most commonly used in Canada, refers to the deciduous forests which ...

habitat, although since this is close to the northern limit of this zone, some are poorly represented. The total area of the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

is . In Oakville, it also forms part of

Glen Abbey Golf Course Glen Abbey Golf Club is a privately-owned golf course in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. It is one of Canada's most famous golf courses and is home to the Golf Canada and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. It has hosted 30 Canadian Open Championships, ...

and is home to the Oakville Yacht Squadron. Sixteen Mile Creek Halton 1

Fishing

Conservation Halton
identifies Sixteen Mile Creek as an excellent fishing site in Oakville and

. The entire watershed provide numerous

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniqu ...

opportunities. According to Conservation Halton the west branch provides excellent coldwater habitat for

brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

. During their spawning runs, both in

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

and

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

can be seen in Sixteen Mile Creek. Stocked trout had been unsuccessfully introduced to The

Mill Pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the com ...

near downtown

. Although the pond does not provide suitable habitat to sustain trout populations it is a great location for fishing a number of

panfish The word panfish, also spelled pan-fish or pan fish, is an American English term describing any edible freshwater fish that usually do not outgrow the size of an average frying pan. It is also commonly used by recreational anglers to refer to any ...

and

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

. Both the middle and east branches provide opportunities for smallmouth bass fishing. In addition the lower reaches near

provide a migratory corridor for

fish. Oakville Harbour is a relaxing urban setting for angling

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

before they make their

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

voyage upward Sixteen Mile Creek. The rocky banks of the Oakville Harbour provide excellent

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

for smallmouth bass.

Hiking

According to Town of Oakville The Sixteen Mile Creek Trail runs through the centre of Oakville, on either side; the east and west bank of the Sixteen Mile Creek. Sixteen Mile Creek Trail is a part of 60 kilometers long Oakville Heritage Trail network. Trails network features information stations telling over eighty stories about land and its people, dating from 9000 BC to AD 2000. The trails link all areas of the community and reflect Oakville's natural, human and built heritage. Heritage trails were created as a Millennial project in partnership with the Oakville Community Foundation. In 2017, three new trail projects including a new heritage information station honouring indigenous heritage was completed in conjunction with Canada's 150th Birthday celebrations.

Moccasin Trail

Moccasin Trail forms the Inner Valley Trail portion of the Sixteen Mile Creek Trail, a 6.1 kilometer heavily trafficked loop suitable for all skill levels according to AllTrails. The Moccasin Trail starts at the sharp descend created by bluffs of

Queenston Queenston is a compact rural community and unincorporated place north of Niagara Falls in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Highway 405 to the south and the Niagara River to the east; its location at the eponymo ...

formation shale. making the trail impassable along the river bank. The rest of the Sixteen Mile Creek Trail snakes harmoniously along the picturesque west riverbank. The Inner Valley Trail cover almost half the distance between

Dundas Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...

bridge to the north at Lions Valley Park and Smith Triller Viaduct at the Glen Abby Golf Course to the south. Sixteen Mile Creek Moccasin Trail is one of the two similar trails honouring Oakville's rich Indigenous heritage. The other Moccasin Trail is located along the Bronte Creek Heritage Trail. The Moccasin Trail Heritage Information Kiosk is located near Rebecca Street and Mississauga Street on the

Bronte Creek Bronte Creek is a waterway in the Lake Ontario watershed of Ontario Canada. It runs through Hamilton and Halton Region, with its source near Morriston (south of the intersection of Highway 6 and Highway 401), passing Bronte Creek Provincial Park, o ...

Heritage Trail. The Moccasin Trails feature a series of 13 plaques containing Indigenous stories, verses and information relating to the land, water and sky, giving visitors a deeper understanding of

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

heritage.

Invasive Species

Giant hogweed ''Heracleum mantegazzianum'', commonly known as giant hogweed, is a monocarpic perennial herbaceous plant in the carrot family Apiaceae. ''H. mantegazzianum'' is also known as cartwheel-flower, giant cow parsley, giant cow parsnip, or hogsb ...

(Heracleum mantegazzianum) is a non-native invasive plant that is most widely distributed in Halton Region along Sixteen Mile Creek. Contact with this plant can cause serious burns to the skin and temporary or permanent blindness.

Wild parsnip Wild parsnip is a common name for several plants and may refer to: __NOTOC__ *Wild parsnip (''Pastinaca sativa''), is a Eurasian weed with edible root but toxic sap in the leaves and stems *Garden angelica (wild celery) *Giant hogweed ('' Heracleum ...

(''Pastinaca sativa''), also known as poison parsnip, is an invasive plant. Similar to that of giant hogweed the sap containing chemicals that can cause human skin to react to sunlight, resulting in intense burns, rashes or blisters. European settlers have brought them into North America for their edible roots. The plant subsequently has escaped from cultivations into wilderness. The Town of Oakville who owns and maintains the groomed trails around Sixteen Mile Creek runs several campaigns for residents to learn how to identify

invasive plants An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, to stay on

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

s and away from areas known to have invasive species, to inspect, clean and remove mud, seeds and plant parts from clothing, pets such as dogs and including horses, vehicles including bicycles and equipment such as mowers and tools and to avoid disturbing soil and removing plants from natural areas.

Notes

References

Sources

* *

External links

Information on the creek and valley
{{authority control Rivers of Ontario Landforms of the Regional Municipality of Halton Tributaries of Lake Ontario