A note on the photos

Most but not all of the pictures on this blog can be clicked though: if you click on them they will take you to a high resolution version on the
SmugMug site of one of the Sons. Use the back button to return to the blog.

Total Pageviews

Index To Posts

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Bluff Trail, Nova Scotia

After four weeks of academic travel, a tired son of the desert found himself in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after a meeting. He took a couple of days out to hike the Bluff Trail, a trail through some gorgeous granite country so close to the city that tyou can get a suburban bus to the trailhead, created by the Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organisation. WRWEO was founded by Dalhousie University philosophy professor Richmond Campbell, who was kind enough to take me out and show me the trail. Here he is with the dedication sign - that's his name at the bottom:

The trail starts out in mixed forest, with interesting fungi (STOP PRESS "they are in fact chlorophyll-free plants (actually they have chloroplasts, but the genes don't express). These ones are Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)")


Pretty soon, however, it emerges onto granite uplands, with a carpet of heath plants and lichens, and occassional, very slow-growing trees.


This is Zeke the labradoodle, who was finding his backpack a bit restrictive, having a good scratch.

About 13km brought us to a gorgeous lakeside campsite.

This is a zero-impact camping area, so we used a fire-bowl. This is a new idea for me, and worked really well.

This is my my idea of 'sleeping under a tarp':

I felt very soft when I saw Rich and Zeke's idea of what 'sleeping under a tarp' means:

Here's my beloved bivvy bag after I pulled the tarp down in the morning.

Rich and Zeke took a bee-line home through the woods, leaving me to complete the circuit on my own. I only met two other parties on the whole track - amazing for a warm summer weekend about 20 km from the city limits.

In the dips the track goes through swamps, with interesting vegetation, like this pitcher plant:

Rather than build boardwalks, WRWEO puts in granite stepping stones, which give the track a lovely, natural feel.

The contrast when you ascend only ten or twenty vertical metres is striking.

This is one of the higher points along the track:

From here there was a nice view back to the previous night's camp.

Some of the lakes are hard to access for swimming, because they are surrounded by swampy ground..

As I climbed up again, getting back towards the start of the trail, it was seriously hot.

This was the only man-made structure I encountered on the trail. I was told it is a nineteenth-century 'deer blind' for hunters.

By this stage I was more than ready for a swim, and very glad to find the perfect access point at one of the canoe portages - really a natural wharf made of granite.

No time was wasted getting gear off...

and into the water!

aaaah!

In the hope of avoiding the mosquitoes, I climbed back up the hill to camp, where I had a wonderful view of the lake, just beyond the first trail loop, where I expected, correctly, there would be Sunday morning runners to disturb me!

Then it only remained to cook dinner and settle down to enjoy the view.


Next morning I had a short walk out to catch the bus. Very sorry to leave - a lovely spot and a tribute to what a bit of local environmentalism can achieve.

Wilderness Symposium

One lucky son of the desert was able to join part of Wilderness Symposium 2.0, an occasional event combining philosophy talks and hiking organised by Jim Tabery, Carl Craver and friends. The first seminar was scheduled for the top of this rock in Zion Canyon, Utah

This is a highly visited park, and there are steps up the steepest section.

But it gets a little wilder up the top.



The views from the top are amazing.


We took a little break when we reached the seminar room.

Then we headed up to the summit for more views.



There were some voracious chipmunks on the summit, very used to tourists. That red water bottle is one of the very nice ones handed out at ISHPSSB, our real reason for being in Utah.


Suitably rested, we assembled in the seminar room for the first talk.

Deep in their handouts, the audience becomes oblivious to the scenery.

Question time.

Then we walked back down the mountain. Here's the view from the end of the trail. The rest of the symposists headed off for a multi-day walk and talk, but, unfortunately, I was unable to join them - maybe next time, in the Pyrenees!