There are 12 articles with a tag of exploring.
I hadn’t been for a hike in far too long and I was feeling very guilty about having four days off over the Easter weekend and not having any plans. So I looked up a trail I hadn’t done before, topped up the car’s gas tank — yikes! — and headed north out of the city towards Truro.
After a long pandemic and life-related hiatus from hiking I thought it was about time to get back on the trail. After not having been out on a trail for so long I had to choose carefully: something challenging but not too challenging. After a quick look around I landed on the Admiral Lake Loop, part of the very good Musqudoboit Trailways Association. I’ve done a couple of their longer, more challenging trails, the South Granite Ridge and North Granite Ridge trails but knew I couldn’t handle either of them at the moment.
It’s been about three years or so since the Wil-Bo-Wil cabin was built in Kejimkujik’s backcountry, and even though I’ve passed it many times on hikes destined for elsewhere in the park I’ve never actually stayed there. I decided to remedy that situation by booking it for a couple of nights and doing a little luxurious late summer camping in one of my favourite places.
I decided to switch it up this weekend and leave the hiking boots at home and do something I’ve been meaning to do since I moved to Halifax. I’ve always wanted to walk the entire length of the peninsula but for one reason or another I’ve just not gotten to it. As I’m trying to add some distance to my hikes, I thought this would be perfect as it’s around 18 kilometres to walk the loop.
The Black Rock Community Trails are a set of trails located in the small community of Black Rock, NS, a short drive north of Berwick, off exit 15 of Highway 101 close to the Bay of Fundy. A friend and I decided to make the drive from the city and try out the longest of the trails. It was a sunny morning as we left the city and got on the highway toward the valley.
I don’t know what happened this summer, but I didn’t get out hiking as much as I wanted to. The weather was perfect this year, so the opportunities were there. I think it was poor planning on my part and not prioritizing properly.
After finding out there were two yurts in the backcountry at Kejimkujik National Park available for winter camping, I couldn’t help but want to get into one for a couple of nights. Winter camping can be a good time if you’re prepared, it can be even better when you have a ready-made shelter and wood stove ready for you when you arrive. A few stories in the local media made these two yurts a hot commodity so they weren’t easy to reserve on or near the weekends. I had some spare time come up unexpectedly so I decided to book a couple of nights in the middle of the week when they were open and I could convice a friend to come along with me.
This summer had been a bit of a write-off weather-wise so I didn’t do nearly as much hiking as I’d hoped to. I got to do more bike riding for some strange reason but hiking is my first love when it comes to being outdoors so I was a little down about my lack of fun on the trail. So when a friend of mine suggested we hit Cape Breton for a couple of days of hiking over the Thanksgiving long weekend, I jumped at the chance. There’d also be a cottage for us to use so no camping required. Because if camping was involved there’d definitely would have been some sort of freak rain storm.
Since moving to the east coast, I’ve been trying my best to do as much hiking as I did when I lived in central British Columbia. One of the trails that caught my eye was the Cape Chignecto trail, a 50km loop around Chignecto Head, in the Bay of Fundy. It intrigued me because not only was the scenery beautiful, it was also a decent length and had challenging terrain. I’ve been thinking about doing the trail for a few years, and this year I finally convinced another crazy person to come with me.
For the second year in a row, a couple of friends and I canoed into Kejimkujik National Park to spend four days in the wilderness of the park. It was a little more special this year as Parks Canada is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Congratulations! So on a chilly Friday we set out in our canoes toward backcountry site 26, on a small peninsula between Mountain and Cobrielle Lakes. It’s a great spot, we had a pair of loons to keep us company, but that was about it. We only saw a couple of other people the whole four days.
This winter has been decent weather-wise in Nova Scotia. It has snowed fairly regularly and has remained cold enough for it to stay. All this means an opportunity to get outside. This year is the first year Kejimkujik National Park has had a trail grooming program for their cross-country ski trails. If my trip there was any indication, it was a fantastic idea. Since this is the first year, it looks like not too many people know about it. There were only a few other people on this trail during this visit. The weather was perfect, clear blue skies, not a breath of wind and a temperature around freezing. It doesn’t get any better than that if you like to be outside in the winter.
I haven’t been writing much and I visit so many interesting places in Nova Scotia I thought I’d try my hand at putting down some thoughts on a little trip I took.
I don’t write too often anymore, but when I do, this is where you’ll find it.
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