You can see this sign on the Inlet Road on the hill half a kilometre beyond the Hill and Gully Riders Snowmobile Club. You may wonder why it is so named.  It was the original road on this hill that was named the Gully Bridge Hill.  At the bottom of the hill, the current road passes a small pond and continues almost straight up the hill.  However, the original road was on the opposite side of the pond and included several sharp turns as it wound up the hill. There was a ten foot deep gully that was bridged to allow the excess rain water on the side hill to flow through.

Today the snowmobile trail runs on the portion of the old road that contained the bridge. The snowmobile trail includes the sharp turns of the original car road.  I’m sure that the older residents that still snowmobile get a bit nostalgic as they climb this hill

The new road was originally built in the late 1940s. About the same time (1949), the Inlet road was the first road in Mulgrave to be plowed in the winter time.  On Christmas Eve 1950 the six members of my family and the six members of Ralph and Emma Yank’s family were travelling by sleigh since the Smallian Road was NOT plowed to the Lutheran Church at Inlet. The twelve of us were in a bobsleigh enclosed on all sides by two foot high sides. We had hay covered by blankets on the floor of the sleigh. We were part way up this hill when a car with glaring lights quickly overtook and passed us. I was only four and a half years old, but I still remember seeing those car lights catching up to us. As the car passed, we recognized Harry Berndt who was hurrying home to celebrate Christmas with his family.

This sleigh ride was over two hours long. When we left home the temperature was above freezing. After attending church, we went to my grandparent’s place for the evening.  Around 10:00 PM we left to return home, but the temperature had dropped to about minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-34 degrees centigrade).  To keep warm we sat on the hay and covered ourselves with the blankets.