This trail resembles a foot path in an English Village. The trail runs between
houses and backyards at some points and emerges into wooded areas just off of
the main roads. The trails are groomed and easy to walk but there are some
steeper inclines and stairs as you gradually wind your way uphill from the Town
of Wolfville.
From Halifax take Highway 101 west to the Annapolis Valley. Take Exit 10 to
merge onto the Number 1 Hwy toward Grand Pré/Wolfville. Drive 6km along the
Number 1 Hwy (Main Street) into Wolfville and turn left onto Willow Ave. Park
100m just past the Tourist Bureau on the left.
Start on the lawn just behind the building.
Kings Transit provides bus drop off on Main Street near the trail head for those
coming from other towns in Kings County. The schedule is
here <
https://www.kbus.ca/schedule-information/> .
Start at the bottom of the grassy hill 45 m behind the tourist bureau.
The animals of Wolfville want to invite you on an adventure into their world. The wild side of town! Can you survive as an animal in town? Can you outsmart the humans and avoid being seen? Use your animal senses to explore the paths ahead and try not to get caught!
Stay at bottom of the hill.
Raccoons live in this town and these furry nocturnal scavengers roam the streets at night, playing and searching for food. They can make quite a racket outside your window while you sleep. Let’s wake up the humans by being rowdy raccoons!
Now that you have had some raccoon fun, you are hungry. Watch out for humans and their dogs! If you see a human or dog, make the trilling noise to alert the other raccoons
Climb to the top of the hill, walk up the stairs and cross the road carefully. Pass to the right of the two parking spaces and follow the concrete path 25 m leading to the Rec Centre Building.
Turn right along the wooden fence just before the building. Continue 40 along the building and past two wooden sheds. Stop at the far edge of the 2nd shed.
There may be lots of young humans here at the playground so watch out. You don’t want to be seen or caught. They might pull your fur!
You are really hungry now! Dig around under leaves to find bugs and seeds to eat. How many different ones can you find?
Now it is time to get to the woods so you can find shelter for your daytime nap.
When it is safe and no humans are watching, run from tree to tree along the edge of the field until you see a red fire hydrant. Run to the lone tree close to the fire hydrant beside the road. Look at this tree. What is special about it?
From the tree, carefully walk diagonally across the road to the Millennium Trail sign on the left.
Walk up the trail 35 m just past the first bridge.
Does anybody smell something? Like raccoons, skunks are omnivores so they eat both meat and plants. Be skunks and make a smelly skunk stew.
On the way to the next stop, look under the leaves or dead wood for various insects a skunk would like to eat
Skunks are everywhere! They live all over North and South America, in rural areas, suburbs, and cities. You may not have seen a skunk in your neighbourhood, but you’ve probably smelled one. Their smelly spray, called musk, comes from two glands near the base of the skunk’s tail and can hit a target 3.7 meters away. Skunks are not dangerous and will only spray when they are scared. They will also give a warning before spraying. If threatened, skunks stamp their front feet, lift their tail, and growl.
When the smelly feast is finished, empty the stews off the trail for other skunks to enjoy. Stomp your feet like a skunk whenever you see humans to warn and scare them away.
Continue up the trail for 165 m to the fork in the path just before a pond. Turn left and walk 25 m across a bridge to a large hemlock tree in the middle of the trail.
Raccoons and skunks depend on the trees for places to hide. They realize that the trees have stories to share. Find a big hemlock tree on the other side of the bridge. How old do you think it is? What it might have seen here if it had eyes and ears? Look in and around it to find clues to its past, present and possible future.
Look at the other trees, dead and alive, in this woodland as you walk along. What are their stories?
We humans are connected to all of these creatures living around town. The wild areas behind the houses with all of their trees, shrubs, streams and wetlands work to filter polluted run-off water from driveways and roads. They are also home to so many creatures. The animals eat the plants and move seeds around to keep the forests regenerating; the wetland plants filter out toxins before the water reaches the Bay of Fundy, which protects marine life from getting sick. This is an example of our
I _ _ _ _ R _ _ _ _ _ _ N S _ _ _ _
with wild places. We can do our part for the environment by encouraging more wild spaces in our own communities and by enjoying nature.
Go into the woods to the right and walk 15 m down to the edge of the pond.
What is going on in this murky pond? Raccoons use this pond and you might be able to see their tracks in the mud around it. Their feet are like our hands, only smaller. See if you can find raccoon tracks around the pond. The pond water is brown because there are a lot of mud particles floating in it. This is due to large amounts of stormwater flowing into it when it rains. Is there anything living in the pond for the raccoon to eat? Let’s look and see.
Here are some things you can do to help keep ponds and other bodies of water safe for wildlife:
Conserve water at home by using low flow appliances and turning taps off when brushing teeth.
Use sand instead of salt on driveways and walkways in winter. Road salt hurts ponds and streams.
Don’t use pesticides and herbicides around your home and garden. Frogs, salamanders and fish can be hurt by these chemicals.
Join groups like the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) to learn more about protecting wetlands and wildlife.
From the edge of the pond, walk left up into the trees 40 m to the top of the hill above the pond
Raccoons and skunks are busy at night but there are lots of town animals out in the day as well. Can you see or hear any rodents like squirrels and chipmunks scurrying about this forest? Look on the ground to see signs of Rodent Restaurants. Look for nuts, seeds, berries and insects.
Take a bit of rodent ration (your own snack and drink) from your backpack, sit down in the restaurant and feast with the rodents
These hemlock woods are home to red squirrels and grey squirrels and chipmunks. They are living here successfully together since they have different shelter needs. Red squirrels are about half the size of grey squirrels and chipmunks are a bit smaller than red squirrels and have stripes down their back. Grey squirrels are usually the silent, calm ones but red squirrels are very feisty and loud; scolding anyone who comes close to their food stashes. You will hear chipmunks by their loud chirping from the ground as they signal an alarm call when you get too close.
Squirrels eat cones on raised areas so they can watch for predators or other squirrels. The squirrels eat only the seeds attached inside to each leaf of the cone, and the leftover cone pieces pile up. The pile is called a “midden”.
Continue to walk through the wooded area 40 m with a stream down to your right. Descend 15 m and meet the main trail, turning right across a bridge.15 m after the bridge turn left at the Y in the path. Walk 20 m until you come to another bridge.
The birds love this little wetland with its thick ferny understory and lots of berry bushes and fruit trees. Use your scope to search for birds in the trees and bushes.
Try calling some birds to you:
Birds use special calls to find each other.
How many bird calls can you hear?
Can you convince the others that you are a bird?
Using your spy scopes, continue to look and listen for birds on the trails ahead.
Spotted Touch-Me Not, also known as Jewel Weed, is a plant that is everywhere in this wetland Hummingbirds love their dangly, orange-spotted flowers. In August, the seed pods form and are really fun to play with since they explode when touched. Despite the name, this plant wants you to touch them so their seeds disperse far away from the parent plant. Try them
Continue along the path 50 m to a set of steps.
At the top of these stairs is a road hazard. Animals don’t need or want roads. They are very dangerous places since roads cross animal territories and habitats creating obstacles to them getting the things they need to survive, like food and water.
Phew! We are safe across the road and down the stairs
This upper part of this trail looks out over what were once the great salt marshes of the Minas Basin, which were later transformed by the Acadians through dyking to enable rich agricultural land. These marshes covered more than 1000 hectares and were a rich source of food for the Mi’kmaq— fish, birds, shellfish and sea mammals. There are at least 60 archeological sites in this part of Kings County providing evidence of Mi’kmaw presence. When the French missionaries and fur traders arrived in the late 1500s, they quickly became allies with the Mi’kmaq and a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship developed between the cultures. It is noteworthy that the Acadians transformed an enormous acreage with their dykes but there is no evidence of conflict over this with the Mi’kmaq. They had social exchanges and intermarriages. Some Mi’kmaq hid Acadians during their Expulsion by the British. Today many Mi’kmaq and Acadians celebrate this relationship, one example being shared cultural festivities at the Site Grand Pré National Historic Learn more about Grand Pré and visit a unique UNESCO world heritage site
Read the instructions below at the bottom of the stairs on the far side of the road. Then leap along the trail for 90 m until the trail turns left at a large knobby tree trunk on the left and flattens out. Stop here.
Deer are swift and can leap and outrun most predators such as coyotes. You are thirsty now and we have a long trail ahead to get to the watering hole.
Work together as a herd to avoid predators on your way up the trail. Deer are really good at avoiding predators with their keen sense of hearing and smell. Cup your hands up to your ears and listen. When you see or hear a threat make a distress call to warn the others and freeze.
Leap like a deer along the trail to a large knobby tree trunk on the left where the trail flattens out
At the rotten log where the trail bends left
You did well but the coyotes are after you. Here’s what to do.
1) One of you is a deer and they go up the trail no more than 25 m while the rest of the group, who are now coyotes, looks away.
2) The deer hides no more than 5 m off the trail.
3) The coyotes count to 30 and then come up the trail and try to find the deer.
4) Rotate the roles once the deer is found and continue further up the trail for 150 m.
At playing the deer hiding game described below for 150 m, stop at a large pine tree on the left edge of the trail which as a stacked wall of stones on the left
The coyotes see you. Can they sneak up on you and pounce. How alert is the deer standing near the pine tree?
How many deer survived the stalking?
Learn how to munch below and then head up the trail 125 m to a large park map sign on the right
The deer have survived, and the coyotes have headed off looking for mice and rabbits which are easier to catch. The deer are hungry… so you need to look for good food.
Deer love to munch on leaves, some are tastier than others.
As you walk up the trail collect 7 different kinds of leaves that you would like to eat.
Pick leaves that look interesting to you (don’t actually taste them).
When you arrive at the sign, form a small circle and share why you would like to munch the leaves as a deer.
From the sign, turn north and you look out over the Minas Basin tidal zone. Over 70 years, beginning in the 1600s, the Acadians transformed this enormous expanse of salt marsh meadow (Grand Pré translates as ‘great or large meadow’) into rich farmland by dyking the edges.33 The enormous earthen mounds, or dykes, were built slowly by hand to block the entry of salt water onto the marshes. A sluiceway was dug under the dyke along the path of the original brook or stream such that the water draining off the land flowed under the dyke mounds at low tide. When the tides rose, the sluiceway was closed to prevent the salt water from intruding onto the farmland. The Acadians used marsh grass to cover the earthen mounds because it was tough and able to prevent erosion by the powerful tides. Over a couple of years, rain washed the salt from the soils, leaving rich farmland with soils composed of thousands of years of decomposed organic marsh material. These dykes are still in use today, though they are under threat by the rising sea levels due to climate change.
From the map sign, go up the stairs ahead and turn left and go 30 m around the edge of the pond.
Now you that have experienced avoiding humans and predators, finding food and having fun, the animals have a final challenge for you.
This will help you get to know each other better.
1) Moving along the trail, everyone find a comfortable spot on the bank of the pond, 5 or so meters from the each other.
2) Sit so you can be comfortable and still for 10 minutes.
3) Close your eyes and listen quietly.
4) Imagine that the animals in the forest are as curious about you as you are about them.
5) They will come close and observe you if you are still and quiet.
6) The longer you are still, the closer they will come.
Afterwards, as a group, share what you saw, heard and felt as you sat silently.
Time to return home back down the trail. As you return, try to find the mystery plaque and creature. Hint: It is back just to the right of the map sign on something that produces food for animals. Make a rubbing of the mystery creature on the plaque in your Adventure Journal with the side of your pencil.
The plaque symbol is a… ___. ___. ___. ___. ___
There are other great nature trails to explore in Wolfville. The Reservoir Park has walking and bike trails that go into a steep ravine while Acadia University has lovely Botanical Gardens and Woodland Trails.
