Mount Uniacke Estate - Hiking in Nova Scotia
In this video, I will be hiking the easy trails within the Mount Uniacke Estate Museum grounds. I'm also hunting for a historical item from the past.
By hiking along the old post trail, you might find one of the few remaining items from the old stage coach days, where the mile marker 27 is etched into a stone.
There are 7 trails to explore, just by doing the easy ones as in the video, you will need to budget around 2 hours and expect the walk at least 6km.
We hiked along the following trails: Lake Martha Loop, Post Road, Drumlin Field & Hothouse Hill. There are some back country loop, but we did explore them today.
The grounds are open year-around, but expect regular seasonal hours to access the museum itself.
Some excerpts from the museum website:
Built as a summer home for Richard John Uniacke, a Nova Scotian Attorney-General, the estate was prominently located along the stage coach route from Halifax to Windsor, a testimony to Uniacke's wealth and personal achievement.
The family summered in the area as early as the 1790s, probably staying in a farmhouse on the original land grant. Construction of the new house and out-buildings began in 1813 and was completed three years later. Although he maintained a house in Halifax, Uniacke would spend most of his time living in semi-retirement at the estate until his death in 1830.
Nostalgic for his native Ireland, he modeled his property after the Irish country estates, or working farms, he had known as a child. His estate included a large family home, a number of barns, a coach house, guest house, wash house, baths, privy, hot house, caretaker's house and an ice house.
Museum website:
View the GPS track file of the hike
Suggested Reading
Nova Scotia's Lost Highways: The Early Roads that Shaped the Province by Joan Dawson
Music By
Pitx » Pentatonicing
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Snowshoeing in Oakfield Provincial Park - Hiking in Nova Scotia
After the February Blizzard of 2013, decided to grab my snow shoes and head out for a quick trek at Oakfield Provincial Park.
The park itself is a popular day-use location during the summer with its green picnic space, beach and boat launch. In the winter,the hiking trails and the gated road becomes part of a larger network where you can enjoy snow shoeing or cross country skiing.
We started off the journey at the gates, the blizzard dropped about 30cm of snow on the ground and the brisk winds blew the snow across the open areas. At first, the snow was hard, making the usage of snow shoes not necessary, but you'd run into spots where it was still soft.
I was wearing my first pair of snow shoes, it's been with me for over 20 years. I'm surprised that they had lasted this long.
Once we got past the main road and into the boat launch area, you start to see other people who ventured out before me. Several of snow shoes were breaking trail, making my job easier. Cross country skiers crossed the lake at the boat launch and onto the nearby fields where a number of people take their dogs off-leash.
But today, I had the park to myself and I continued along the trail where I finally was entering the part of the park where no one has been yet. Ironically it was also the part where the snow changed. The wasn't hard anymore, it was nice and fluffy, perfect for my snow shoes.
We hiked along Indian Point, breaking trail with every step. My trusty companion, Keji the black lab, was ahead sniffing around as I tried to catch up to him. We saw a number of rabbit tracks and wondered what other tracks we'd run into.
It wouldn't take long, but we spotted a lone track on the edge of the lake taking a long loop around. I couldn't figure out if it was a coyote or fox, but I'm pretty sure it was a coyote.
Once around the point, we got onto the cart (carriage) trail where the cross country ski tracks were present. We decided to walk along them, still enjoying the soft and fluffy snow. There is also a coastline trail but we will have to visit that in the summer. The cart trail is very nice, rows of hemlock trees towers above you as you walk along the trail. This area also sports many bird species. Don't be surprised if you see photographers just standing with their tripod. Expect to see larger birds like woodpeckers, eagles, falcons, geese and owls
Learn more about this park
Check out the Delorme Mapshare of this hike (Feb 23)
Music
Tristan Scroggins - Dipsomaniacal Dreams
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Avoiding Chores is a collection of interests from a group of guys who do everything possible NOT to do chores. This involves getting into a number of interests such as: hiking, camping, outdoors, bushcraft, running, beer reviews, live hangouts and long term projects like living off the grid or stone carving.
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Hiking Admiral Lake Loop, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia Canada
The Admiral Lake look is a 6ish km trail in Musquodoboit Harbour NS. There are two trailheads - located 1.7km and 2.4km North of the Parking lot up the Musquodoboit Trailway.
A short, but fairly rugged hike with great look-offs and a few steep ascents. One of the nicer trails I've walked in the province. While animals were scarce the tremendous variety of lichen and moss made up for the lack.
Pomquet Acadian Trails - Hiking in Nova Scotia
I decided to take the drive up to the Pomquet area, specifically to Monks Head to hike the local trails. We parked the car at Chez Deslauriers and checked out the trail map.
The general area was settled by George Monk in 1784, the home that sits on top of the hill was moved to its current location sometime after the 1860's.
Since then the area has become a source of local development by the local community which includes tea room, interpretive centre and outdoor stage.
But today I arrived with my partner, Keji the black lab, to focus on the trail on this late November day.
6km of coastal trails are part of adventure, you can add several more if you consider the adjacent Pomquet Provincial Beach Park.
The trail system, developed in 2005 offers a linear and a couple loop trail around Chez Deslauriers, which is within the Monks Head Provincial Park Reserve. We decided to do the linear trail to check out the coastal views.
We start out walking across the open fields from Chez Deslauriers and start going downhill to the main trailhead. We pass through a softwood forest until we hit the Barachois pond and the water. Nearby cranberry bushes offer a nice contrast to the coastline.
The trail passes fairly close to the cliff to a few viewpoints. We encountered a few benches which would make a great spot for a quick bite to eat.
Not a lot of wildlife tracks, deer and smaller animals were noted.
Check out my trackfile by viewing it via Delorme MapShare (Nov 3)
Load up this adventure onto your Garmin GPS
More about the trails in Monks Head:
Music: Super_Sigil » Crystal Skeletons
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Avoiding Chores is a collection of interests from a group of guys who do everything possible NOT to do chores. This involves getting into a number of interests such as: hiking, camping, outdoors, bushcraft, running, beer reviews, live hangouts and long term projects like living off the grid or stone carving.
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Duncan's Cove Hiking Trail - Halifax Nova Scotia Canada
A very beautiful and very popular short hiking trail near Halifax in the small coastal town of Duncan's Cove. This is an non-maintained, unmarked trail that is very well established due to the number of people who hike the trail. I'm a bit chattier on this video than I usually am for some reason.
The most commonly used trail head is at a gated private driveway with a posted no-trespassing sign. The driveway leads up to the Whalesback house where the overland trail begins. If that makes you uncomfortable there are some other trails through the nature reserve (we enter the trail on one of them.)
Duncan's Cove Nature Reserve:
Real estate ad in the NYT for the Whalesback house:
Town history and some info on the WWII ruins:
Stats:
York Redoubt - Hiking in Nova Scotia
Starting in 1793, York Redoubt was an important defensive piece of the British during its various conflicts with France.
With straight line of sight to both the Halifax Citadel and Fort McNab, York Redoubt was the first line of defence as you approached the Halifax Harbour.
Constantly being upgraded, it was used as a loading zone for infantry heading off to Europe during WWI, It was also the tactical command hub for all harbour defences, even during WWII where an anti-submarine net ran across the harbour to Fort McNab.
Today, this historic site is open year-round with 6kms of hiking trails & exploration within the 75 acre property. Many of the ruins have been conserved and some interpretation signs can give you an idea of the military life during it's operation. Did you know that the site was active until 1956?
Within the walls, you can walk up and view the WWII command tower, given the season you can enter a number of sites and even tunnels towards the shore.
York Shore Battery is a closed area of the site due to the stability of the structures, however you can hike the trails and take a look at the views for sea level.
A little more exploration will lead you towards a number of WWI era structures and command posts. Some older structures now have currently plywood covering. Take a peek inside to see original pillars.
A number of smaller footpaths are visible, take caution as they are not official trails. During the walk down a footpath, you might run into granite stone markers.
A popular site for walkers and dog owners to enjoy.
Check out the track and try out this hike
I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew
is licensed under a Creative Commons license:
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Thanks to our supporters
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Avoiding Chores is a collection of interests from a group of guys who do everything possible NOT to do chores. This involves getting into a number of interests such as: hiking, camping, outdoors, bushcraft, running, beer reviews, live hangouts and long term projects like living off the grid or stone carving.
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Smileys Park July 2013
Smileys Park near Windsor, N.S.
River with beautiful clear water for swimming.
VIA#15 6406 6419 11 Ren Tweedsmuir Park Rocky Lake Bedford 13 April 2014
VIA's westbound Ocean (train#15) with F40PH-3s 6406 & 6419, 11 Renaissance cars and Tweedsmuir Park is reflected in Rocky Lake as it passes Bedford Quarry on 13 April 2014.
Winter Storm Janus hits Nova Scotia - Jan 22 2014
Winter Storm Janus hits Nova Scotia - Jan 22 2014 - filmed in Meteghan, Digby County in Nova Scotia Canada. All rolling footage is from a commercial vehicle equipped with dashboard mounted cameras. Never attempt to film yourself driving.
Boating on Grand Lake Nova Scotia September 29th / 2013
A beautiful day for boating in Grand Lake Nova Scotia September 29th / 2013....