This walking trail is situated in a small yet diverse forest that is surrounded by wetlands that drain into the Annapolis River just 200 m away. It is a stroller and wheelchair accessible, flat trail including a picnic park on a small grassy hill beside a pond. There is also exercise equipment along the trail that families may want to try.
Start just past the fence and between the 2 big pine trees on the path just beyond the parking lot.
As an alien explorer on a spaceship from the planet Hanwavel, your mission is to find life forms on other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. One solar system has a very lively planet called Earth that you are lucky enough to land on. Use this guide to discover new life forms here. The scientists on Hanwavel will be so excited to see the cool stuff you discover. Some folks say that Earth has creatures that carry their homes on their backs and creatures that breathe through their skin. Maybe you will see some of these cool creatures. Use your Adventure Journal to describe all the creatures you see and be the best planet explorers ever!
First, give yourself an alien name. Now raise up and turn on your alien antennae so you can detect life forms by wiggling your index fingers above your head. Practice the Hanwavel greeting in case you meet strange life forms:
Report to your ship’s galactic transporter to beam down to Earth:
Walk 25 m until you see the strange climbing structure to the left of the trail.
The Earthlings want to welcome you with this alien monument. Earthlings love strange things because they know that it takes all kinds of life forms to keep the planet working properly. Since Hanwavelians use all their senses to explore, climb on this monument to understand what it means to you.
Walk 15 m to where the trail widens and there is an exercise climber to the right.
Start small. Look at the forest floor in front of you with all the green things sticking out.
Do the Hanwavel greeting to these creatures.
When red-backed-sliders, which are called “salamanders” by some Earthlings, are threatened, they wiggle rapidly which startles a predator, causing them to be dropped so they can make a quick escape! When you walk along trail, do the Salamander Wiggle by moving your hips and arms side-to-side in opposite directions. When you hear a bird, freeze!
Look for red-backed salamanders under old logs all along the trail. Be sure to gently put them back and don’t handle them if you have bug spray or sunscreens on your hands. The best way to pick up creatures is in a leaf so that oils on your hands don’t affect their delicate skin.
This trail is a great spot to find salamanders because it is surrounded by wetland. They are born in water and then crawl out to live life on land as adults. Their skin is sensitive and although they have lungs, they also take oxygen in through their skin. This is why their skin needs to always be moist and chemicals can hurt them. The five kinds of salamanders living in Nova Scotia are the red-backed salamander, yellow-spotted salamander, red-spotted newt, four-toed salamander and blue-spotted salamander. Salamanders use sight and smell to find insects, worms, snails, spiders and slugs to eat.
Take the path to the left and walk 45 m to where there is a trail going off to the left.
Look at this old dead tree with the holes in it. It looks like some kind of communication tower for life forms.
Use it to create the Hanwavel “all is well” signal to send to your ship.
Standing dead trees are called snags. Does this snag still have life? Look closely around the old snag and maybe you can find signs of other life forms using this old tree as a place to live. Do the Hanwavel greeting to all the creatures you find.
Figure out the size of this old snag for your Adventure Journal report by using your hands to measure around the trunk. Line your hands and the hands of your companions side by side around the tree and note how many hands it takes to go around. Then, estimate the height of the tree using yourself as a measuring tool. If you were to stand on your own head, how many of you would it take to reach the top?
Back on the main trail, walk 45 m to where the trail widens and there is a chin up bar.
Wiggle your antennae around. You detect a storm coming and rain makes you hiccup uncomfortably. You and your companions need to work together to quickly make a shelter for yourselves! Use the dead materials you find on the ground to build a comfy place to rest for a few minutes and have a snack and drink. If you have time, make mini-shelters for small creatures to show you are an earthling friend.
Leave-No-Trace – Once you are finished playing with the shelters, put the forest materials back where you found them for others to find and use later. Pick up any trash and leave the forest looking even more natural than you found it.
Walk 60 m on the main trail to where there are 3 red pine trees lined up along the trail to the left, just past the step exerciser.
These three, tall, two-needle in a cluster plants lined up beside the path remind you of the tall plants back on your own planet. You can see the old rust coloured needles on the ground that they shed every year. Notice the plant’s red coloured protective covering that flakes off as odd, rounded shapes. Earthlings call them red pines.
Energy for life needs to come from somewhere and stars like our Sun power everything on the planet, including you and all other life forms. We also suspect that stars are the universal energy producers for life on other planets in the Universe. Think about all of the star power (energy) there is in the universe! Radiation from the Sun is captured here by the forest plants and pond algae and they make it into food for herbivores to eat. These animals eat the plants and they in turn are eaten by larger animals. This process transfers the Sun’s energy along food webs to fuel all life on planet Earth, both in water and on land. It is called
Walk straight along the path for 60 m until you see 3 balance beams in front of you.
Everyone spread out with 2 meters between you and sit on the wooden beams facing the wet area. The flying creatures love this lush green wetland with its thick ferns and lots of bushy green plants. Use your alien spy scope or binoculars to search for feathered friends in the trees and bushes. Try calling some feathered flyers:
Feathered flyers have excellent hearing.
Feathered flyers also use special calls to find each other. Try it.
Do the Hanwavel greeting to all the feathered friends when you leave.
Walk 30 m to where there is a barrier in the path to the left and a tree in the middle of the trail. This activity is done along the trail for about 60 m and stops at the next trail going right.
Do you feel like you are being watched from above? Look up. Are these tall forms with wild branches the elders of the forest? They are ever present and silently growing from their tips while their lower branches die due to low light.
You have been gone a long time. Take out your alien face finding tool to see if you can find the faces of your friends and family in the forest. Hold it at arm’s length with both hands so you can see through it and find faces everywhere you turn. Look on tree bark, roots and in the branches to start.
From the spot where the last activity ended, where a side trail turns right, walk 40 m on the main trail and turn down the second trail that goes to the right, across from the balance ropes.
Practice your spotting skills by catching critters on the move! Keep on the look out for quick and noisy bushy-tailed climbers and striped-ground-burrowers. Greet them the Hanwavel way! Bushy-tails prefer to spend time in the trees scolding intruders and ground-burrowers scurry and chirp warning calls from piles of brush on the forest floor.
BONUS CHALLENGE – If you see a striped-ground-burrower, see how close you can get to it before it runs away. How do you need to act to get really close? Some folks report getting to within a metre!
Continue along this trail for 70 m and walk to the edge of the pond and turn left.
Walk along the edge of the pond towards the cattails. Look in the water for strange life forms. Some of these life forms have shells that they carry around on their backs and some can hop quite well and hold their breath for a long time. Do you know what they are? Write down all the life forms you see in and around the pond.
Try to take a picture of a hopping creature along the water’s edge. You will need to sneak very slowly and quietly to get close up.
Use your plastic container to scoop up water from the pond and find water creatures in the squelchy muck.
Not all of these creatures are from here. Some of them are also alien species, but they come from other places on Earth. Unlike you, they don’t plan on leaving. Some of these alien species are not good for wild places and can out-compete the native species and take over their habitat. Some alien animal species here are giant spiral-shells, golden-swimmers and shelled-red-ears. In your Adventure Journal, draw and write your own descriptions about the animals you see in and around the pond.
Invasive alien species are species that have been introduced from distant places. They can quickly spread and replace native species and take over habitats and ecosystems. Nova Scotia has a long history of species introductions. Up to a third of the plants in our province are exotic species introduced by humans, but only some are invasive and a problem for natural ecosystems. Here are some things you can do to slow the spread of invasive species…
• Learn what invasive species are in your area and keep a look out for them.
• Make sure you do not carry or spread seeds of invasive plants from place to place, or release pet creatures.
• Plant native species in gardens rather than exotic ones, especially exotics that spread easy.
• Tell others about invasive species in Nova Scotia.
Walk back along the pond to the gate between the edge of the pond and the parking lot.
There are old stories back on Hanwavel of a previous group of explorers coming to this place. They were called the ‘Earth Adventures Mission’ and they are said to have left a symbol of one of their favourite creature discoveries here on earth where few could find it. It is said to be somewhere very near the stone structure and gate, but it is attached to wood.
If you find it, make a rubbing of it in your Adventure Journal to prove you were here. Post the name of the creature on it below to get your creature sticker.
The plaque symbol is:
Please login if you would like to record your trail completion, provide feedback or upload photos to the trail gallery.
You may also want to upload a few of your favourite photos to the Photo Gallery.
Stay at the gate.
It is time to return to your ship. You can place your creature bark shape here as a gift to the Earthlings or you can keep it as a souvenir. Do the Hanwavel greeting once more, as it also means goodbye and thank you. Stand on the bridge before the gate and jump as high as you can through it to beam back up.
Congratulations, you have successfully completed your exploratory planet Earth mission. Have everyone compare their lists of Earth creatures when you return to your ship. How many did you find?
