Pedalling the Salt Marsh Trail

Well, here we are at Spry Bay, on the "Eastern Shore" of Nova Scotia, which is really the southeast coast.  We left Cape Breton Island and headed west, and we're about an hour away from Halifax, which is the area where we will stay beginning next week.

We plan a paddle here, but we've recently done that, so we searched for a bike trail, and were lucky enough to find one in nearby Cole Harbour.  We thought we would like a long, straight rails-to-trails out across the salt marsh!

As we drove, David was on the lookout for churches, lighthouses and decrepit or fancifully decorated buildings.  Just like vitamins, one a day of each of these can do no harm.  At least he found an unique church:

David got a bonus photo from the drive, when we encountered this giant Inuksuk perched out on a spit on a foggy harbor:

By the time we got to Cole Harbour, it was already lunchtime, so we found a highly rated Jamaican restaurant, Jamaican Vibes, where we ordered some curried chicken and mutton, with some cardamom-spiced rice.  That little lunch fueled our bike motors for the afternoon journey!

Here's David at the start of the Salt March Trail.  In fact, we pedalled 2 km to get to this point, from the top of Cole Harbour Heritage Park, along the Trans-Canada Trail as it passes through this area:

Within the first kilometer of our ride, we spotted a sight we've never seen before -- squirrel houses!

They were clearly designed for the furry-tailed little critters, because they had no front like a birdhouse.  We could only imagine that the little perches offer them sanctuary from the many puppies that walk along this trail.

It wasn't but another kilometer before we caught our first view of the salt marshes:

In one section of the estuary, we counted three great blue heron hunting in near proximity to each other and the trail.  This seems unusual to us, because these heron are such solitary creatures.  Maybe the food was so plentiful that they felt no competition.  Here's one of them --

-- and here another:

Summer is in full bloom here in Nova Scotia, and the primrose in particular are out in force.  These primrose bushes graced the edge of the trail.  The estuarial meadows were a brilliant, rich green:

Here's a look down the trail as it crossed the salt marsh:

The wide, open marshes were interspersed with boggy, more vegetated areas:

As we neared our turnaround point, the fog started rolling in, as it always does.  Our first day in our campground, the fog must have rolled in and through at least five different times.

We could have continued our bike ride miles further along the Atlantic View Trail, which connects with the Salt Marsh Trail and offers splendid views of the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and numerous barachois to the northwest on the other side of the trail.  But there were to be no views today with all the fog.  So we reluctantly turned around in favor of getting back to our campground in time to build a campfire.

It felt good to get out on our bicycles again after quite a hiatus.  We're hoping to find a few more good bike trails as we head across Nova Scotia.