Trail Tools
- Ant antennae (instructions)
- Third eye (magnifying lens)
- String tool (instructions)
- Flags for park activity (instructions)
- Adventure Journal
As one of seven trails at the Uniacke Estate Museum Park, the Drumlin Field Trail is wide and fairly level. It goes along the lakeshore, turns up into a spruce forest and leads over a hilltop (drumlin) with an excellent view. There are outhouses near the parking area. The trail is accessible year-round but the Uniacke House is open seasonally, typically from June to October (There is a small admission fee to enter the House).
This trail is accessible for a stroller with larger wheels. Stops six and seven would be challenging and is not recommended for most wheelchairs because there are significant slopes and it is a forest trail lacking cinders, though smooth. Activities occur on the edge of the trail. Wheelchairs could do the first five stops and then return back the same path, completing stops six and seven along the way.
Take Highway 101 from Lower Sackville 16 km to Exit 3 (Mount Uniacke). Turn right at the end of the ramp. At the first stop sign, turn left and travel 6.6 km on Route 1 to Mount Uniacke, where you turn left into the main entrance of the Uniacke Estate Museum Park. Travel 1 km on this dirt road to the parking lot. Pick up a trail brochure at the museum.
Walk across the lawn to the left of the main house and head straight down to the lake shore. Go to a large old stump on the shore and turn left on the gravel path. Walk 150 m to a white wooden bridge on the path. Walk 15 m past the bridge and stand in the grassy area between the two paths on the left.
Enter the world of small and become an ant. You are a worker ant sent here to scout out a place for a new ant city, called a colony. This is where many ants live and work together, just like in a human city. Explore different areas to see where you can meet your needs for food, shelter and recreation. Be ready to crawl to see things from an ant’s point of view. Put on your ant costume and become an ant. Since ants are very social insects, practice the ant greeting:
Stay in the grassy area on the left.
Explore this grassy area and look for ant friends already living here:
Ants have poor eyesight, so they use their antennas for feeling, smelling, picking up vibrations and taking air temperature.
Some ants make their colonies in the ground. Dig in the soil with your fingers. What is it like here?
Use a twig to make a small tunnel in the soil, big enough for an ant. Is this good soil for digging tunnels and rooms for the colony?
Continue along the lake shore for 80 m on the Drumlin Field Trail to some decayed logs and a stump on the left. Stop 10 m short of a large hemlock tree that has branches which form an archway over the trail. There is a big dead spruce tree growing horizontally over the lake at this point
You are a hungry ant. Get down on your hands and knees and search around the old stump and decaying logs to find ant food:
This is a good ant restaurant if you could find all of them.
Ants communicate using smells in addition to touch. They leave scent trails for other ants to follow and smells that warn other ants of danger. Try sniffing as an ant. As you walk down the trail, find six really neat smells. Here are three to start:
Share your favourite smell with another ant.
From the last spot, walk about 200 m and stop at a large mound of rocks on the left of the trail.
Discover some of your neighbours by looking beneath the rocks on the left. Rocks and logs are basement windows. When you lift the window up, you catch a glimpse of what is in the underworld of the forest. Make sure to immediately replace all the rocks because they are your neighbours’ homes!
There are many basement windows along the path ahead. As you walk to the next stop, have each person find and share one. Shut each window as soon as you are done!
You must be dirty after all that rooting around. Ants are very tidy creatures. They wash themselves using tiny combs on their front legs, paying special attention to their antennae. Clean yourself off like an ant before you arrive at the next stop.
From the last stop, walk 170 m along the trail and stop at a small opening to the lake with a large pine tree leaning out over the water. Below it is a long dead stump hanging out over the water.
Worker ants are very strong. An ant can lift up to 50 times its own weight. If an ant finds a piece of food too heavy to carry by itself, it gets help from others. How much can you lift? Try lifting someone on your own. Now try it with some help:
Ants and people accomplish a lot when they work together. Another part of an ant’s job is breaking down the forest’s waste materials (dead plants and animals) into new soil. They are recyclers. Can you find some other forest recyclers? Search for:
Share your discoveries with others.
Walk 150 m and stop at a trail junction where the left trail leads uphill.
Look for ant homes in the wood along the edges of the path on the left.
Take turns giving tours of your homes. Point out special features and explain what makes it a good home. Draw your home in your Adventure Journal at the end.
Search for other potential ant homes as you walk to the next stop. Use your third eye to discover their special features.
Turn left at the junction and go 10 m and then turn left again on the main Drumlin Field trail. Walk uphill 250 m. Stop when you reach a 15 m high dead tree trunk on the left side of the trail.
This old tree trunk is like an ant apartment building. See if you can find any ants on the outside or in some of the holes. The holes are due to creatures looking to gobble up some of the ants. Who do you think is making these holes?
Ants like to have fun, just like people. Parks are places that protect land for hiking and wildlife. Create a mini park for ants and other insects off the trail in this area:
When everyone is finished, tour the parks as a group:
Walk 200 m up the Drumlin Field Trail, staying to the left, until the trail enters a large field. Walk 50 m to the clump of trees. This is a great place for a snack.
Ants are tasty food for predators such as woodpeckers, bats, squirrels, shrews and other small mammals. Practice keeping away from these enemies. Play Ant-Shrew Tag:
Look on the tree trunks in the forest for ants. Move into the field nearby to see if you can find any of the ants in the grass.
Continue down the trail through the field for 230 m to the bottom of the hill where there is an interpretive sign. Turn left and head 20 m over to the white wooden bridge.
Try to decide as a group where the best home for your ant colony would be:
Which place did you choose? Why?
Before heading back, find the plaque hidden within 15 metres of this spot. Make a rubbing of the mystery creature on the plaque in your Adventure Journal with the side of your pencil.
The plaque symbol is:
Take a picture to upload of the spot you would pick for your ant home.
Congratulations, you have worked together to find a good home for your ant colony. Celebrate by singing the song “The Ants Went Marching One by One”. Continue left for about 50 metres until you reach the bridge where you started.