Coyotes kill woman in Cape Breton

Something extremely rare in North America has happened in Nova Scotia: Coyotes have attacked and killed a hiker in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This happened on the popular Skyline Trail on October 27. Two coyotes were involved in the attack. One was killed shortly afterwards, and a search is being undertaken for the second.

In fact, coyote attacks of any kind are unusual, and most outdoor enthusiasts, myself included, have seen coyotes on dozens of occasions and have never felt threatened. The picture accompanying this article was taken be me in Arizona, and shows a typical western coyote. Eastern coyotes tend to be larger and darker, suggesting cross-breeding with eastern timber wolves. Coyotes only arrived in Nova Scotia in the 1970s, having spread across the continent from west to east.

There is considerable speculation on the reason for this nearly unprecedented attack, and further details about this story will be of interest to outdoor people as they become available. Additional information may be found at: Chronicle Herald.

October Hiking

For me, October is the best month for hiking around Ottawa. The stifling humidity of the summer is a distant memory, even the most hardy mosquitoes have succumbed to the cooler temperatures, and the days, while much shorter, crackle with a crisp freshness that invigorates both mind and body.

But best of all, by October the millions of hardwood trees that carpet the sheltered parks and interior of the HRM go through their annual transformation from the rich green of summer to the colourful quilt of yellow, orange, and red of fall. This natural tapestry generates wonder and curiousity from even those who never venture into the forest at any other time of the year, and local trails, especially in nearby Laurie and Oakfield parks, throng with walkers. So do not think of hiking as only a summer activity, but expand your range to include trips in October as well.

What is "Degree of Difficulty"

All the trails profiled in Trails of Halifax Regional Municipality are assigned a numerical rating from 1-3 that indicates my evaluation of their degree of difficulty. A trail with a rating of "1" indicates it as being suitable for all fitness and experience levels. A route listed as a "3" is recommended only for more experienced and fit outdoor people.

I assigned ratings based upon considerations of length, elevation change, condition of treadway, and signage. The base rating is founded on distance. Any trail up to 5-km is considered to be level "1", unless other characteristics, such as a steep climb, might increase its rating. Similarly, a trail from 5-10-km will be rated "2". No trail is rated "3" based only upon its length.

If the terrain over which the trail passes is rocky or difficult, or there is significant elevation change, the rating will be increased by one or even two levels. On the other hand, on level, paved or crushed stone covered routes such as rail-trails or municipal parks, the rating may be decreased by one level, even for longer routes.

Any hike rated as a "3" will include an indication of what qualifies them for this higher rating. And any route, regardless of distance, where more than basic navigation skills are required, will automatically receive a "3" rating.

Novices, or those wanting a family walk, should choose level "1" and "2" ranked hikes initially, and work up to higher rated routes as only they gain experience. This should ensure that the hiking experience you select is suitable for everyone.

Halifax/Dartmouth

When many think of hiking trails, they envisage remote wilderness trekking far from urban development. In fact, the most heavily used off-road walking routes may always be found in city parks. Residents in Halifax probably need only think about their last weekend visit to Point Pleasant Park to recognize the validity of this assertion. On a sunny summer day, the paths near the water have almost as much traffic as Quinpool Road during rush hour.

Some would even argue that paths in the city are even more important than wilderness routes, as they provide essential green preserves for nearby residents and safe walking/biking places for children and families.

So it should be no surprise that 1/3 of the routes profiled in "Trails of HRM", a book designed for visitors, families with children, and new walkers, are found within the urban core.

Many of these will be familiar to long-term residents: Point Pleasant Park, Sir Sanford Fleming, Hemlock Ravine, and Shubie. However, there are others, such as the Mainland Linear Path, the Dartmouth Multi-Use, and Cole Harbour Herritage Park, that might be less well-known.

In fact, there are a variety of great walks available either in areas surrounded by housing or at the fringe of the urban area. The fairly new trail from Shubie Park along the shore of Lake Charles, for example, is a thoroughly delightful route that should be enjoyable for everyone.

Wherever possible, I have provided an indication of the nearest Metro Transit stop to the trailhead. City routes, in particular, should be accessible by transit.

Eastern Shore

For the purposes of the book, I decided to consider the Halifax Regional Municipality in three distinct districts. I labelled these as Halifax/Dartmouth (although this includes several trails just outside the urban core), Central/South Shore (which includes Bedford/Sackville, everything toward Lunenburg County, Waverley and Grand Lake, and the Musquodoboit River Valley), and Eastern Shore (from Cole Harbour to Guysborough County). None of these areas provided better, or more challenging walking than the Eastern Shore.

Because of the superb beaches along this coastline, the province has created a number of provincial parks. Several of these, such as Clam Harbour, Lawrencetown, Martinique, and Taylor Head, are wonderful walking destinations. Some, particularly Martinique, provide a walk less along a developed trail than over long stretches of sandy beach, but are so scenic that few will be disappointed. Taylor Head, on the other hand, boasts an extensive trail system that should permit a full day's exploration for even the most experienced trekker.

With the creation of several wilderness protected areas among the rugged granite ridges of the eastern shore, and the supportive policies of the Department of Environment, the possibility was created for the development of new, outstanding hiking trail networks. Three of the the trails I selected for this book from this district, Crowbar Lake, Gibralter Hill, and the Admiral Lake Loop, fit this description. All developed by volunteers, these challenging routes are traditional narrow footpaths that work through the rugged, rocky slopes of the Atlantic interior. All three require fitness and determination to complete; all three will be among your favourites, as they are for me.

Two of the trails selected, Salt Marsh and Shearwater Flyer, have been created along the abandoned rail-line that extends from Dartmouth to Middle Musquodoboit. (You also walk portions of this in Lawrencetown, Admiral Lake, and Gibralter Hill). These are wider, level, and far gentler experiences than those in the wilderness protected areas, but no less scenic. Indeed, the Salt Marsh Trail has become an icon of the shoreline scenery of the province, and was the first trail outside the US featured by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in their magazine.

Finally, there is the short backcountry trail at Abrahams Lake, deep in the wooded interior of the Liscomb Game Sanctuary near Sheet Harbour. This is one of the oldest privately managed routes in the province, having been developed by a forest-industry company in the early 1970s. Abrahams Lake is also almost the only managed trail in this corner of the HRM.

These ten locations will all be profiled in the upcoming edition of "Trails of HRM". Most will be featured in their entirety. Others, such as Taylor Head and Crowbar Lake, will only outline a route that remains within the 10-km limit of the book. Taken together, these are an excellent mix of experiences, coastal and interior, easy or challenging. I hope that you are able to try them all.

How Were the Profiled Trails Selected?

There are remarkably few managed trails within the Halifax Regional Municipality. The book will profile 30, but you might wonder how did I decide what to include, and what to leave out?

The first criteria that I used was to decide to include entries from every part of the municipality. That was a challenge, because although it would be fairly simple to profile all 30 trails close to the Halifax-Dartmouth urban core, the HRM is quite a bit more than the urban core and extends into areas, such as the Musqudoboit River Valley, that are a long drive from the "city". To be fair, I thought that an attempt needed to be made to include options everywhere in the municipality, even if the quality of experience for some of the listing might not be the best.

Fortunately, there has been tremendous work done in recent years, most often by volunteer community associations, to develop a network of walking/cycling paths in the HRM. As a result, the municipality actually contains some of the finest examples of wilderness hiking trails in the entire province. Add these to the beach walks available, the provincial parks, usually situated near lakes, and the municipal parks and trail systems, and there is actually a quite exciting range of options available.

To capture that diversity, I divided the municipality into three regions: Halifax-Dartmouth, Eastern Shore, and Central/South. In each of these regions I selected 10 listings, ensuring that there would be a trail found wherever you might live or visit.

Naturally, I was also concerned with what type of experience would be enjoyed by the hiker. I did not want every trail in the book to be the same. Ideally, I would want to have some routes that included climbs while having others that stayed mostly level. Winding forest footpaths are what I enjoy most, but I recognize that beginner hikers and groups of friends might like the wide corridors of rail trails. If possible, I wanted a loop route, but, as we know, many trails are only an "out-and-back" walk. And, of course, if a trail can take you to a lake, a waterfall, a look-off, or a good picnic site, that would ranked high on the list of what I wanted to include.

So essentially, the trails profiled in Trails of HRM were selected first for geographic location, but most importantly for the variety of experiences they provided.

And if you think that was easy, don't forget that in order to evaluate what trails would be included, I would need to walk every one of them, and many others that did not "make the cut". Of course, that hiking could be quite enjoyable as well, as you might discover when you try the trails that made it into the book..

Great New Trails!

Hikers in the HRM should be pleased with the excellent new trails that have been developed in the past few years. There are two, in particular, that deserve special mention.

The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail is a supurb stacked loop system that delves deeply into the remote interior of the Chebucto peninsula. This provides rugged trekking, a slender footpath winding through the thick vegetation and rocky ridges of the peninsula's fire barrens. Trails of HRM will profile the Pot Lake loop, the first of four loops in the system, but a full 10-km of challenge.

The Crowbar Lake trail system, traversing the raised granite uplands around Porter's Lake, also offers single-track hiking that negotiates its way up and down rocky ridges and past pristine, undisturbed lakes. It has laso been designed as a stacked loop system, although requiring a much longer approach march to the first loop. In Trails of HRM, I will profile the trail as far a Granite Lake, which is a linear 9.5-km grunt.

These two trails systems, added to the excellent Grante Ridge and Admiral Lake loop trails in Musquodoboit Harbour, provide the HRM with some of the finest and most demanding hiking routes available in the entire province.

Big Changes in HRM Trails

It will probably be no surprise to anyone that the greatest change I have noticed to the trails in the HRM is the damage caused by Hurricane Juan and Tropical Storm Noel. The first time that I rewalked Point Pleasant Park, Oakfield Provincial Park, Hemlock Ravine, and several others I was shocked - that is not too strong a word - by the extensive and transformative destruction of their forests.

In most cases it has been 10 years since I have hiked these areas, and because of the increasing interest in walking and hiking I had expected to see trail conditions improved from that time. Instead, many sections of trails in provincial parks still remain closed, six years after Juan, and on many of the trails that are open they pass through extensive areas of truly devastated landscape.

My compliments to the trail managers who have surmounted those challenges to reopen their trails. It may never look the same in our lifetime, but viewing the storm-ravaged woodlands cannot help but remind us of the power of natural forces.

Gibralter Hill Trail

A new addition to Trails of HRM will be the short but challenging Gibralter Hill Trail. Located at the north end of the Musquodoboit Rail Trail, this 2.5-km loop features a steep climb up a rugged granite slope to a scenic viewing sight.

You might need to rest more than once during the ascent from the parking area, but the view from the top is worth your effort.

Updated Edition in Development

A revised and updated edition of "Trails of Halifax Regional Municipality" has been scheduled for a spring 2010 publication and launch. While the exact date has not been established, it is currently planned for April.

Details on the precise date and location for the book launch will be published when available. If you are interested in attending the launch, please provide me with your name and e-mail address.

If you have suggestions for trails that you think should be included, I would be delighted to hear about them.