I did the Cape Split hike earlier today to see how the wildflowers were doing. It was a wonderful day. I went all the way (using the blue trail) to the end of the trail. The wildflowers are getting close to their peak, and I think we’ll see quite a show on our field trip on Saturday. There were no black flies, and the temperature was just about perfect for the long hike. The blue trail is 6 km long and the yellow trail is almost 8 km long and a bit more challenging than the blue trail.
Only a very few Red Trilliums are in bloom, most of them only have buds and I suppose they’ll be in full bloom on Saturday.
We’ll meet at 10:00 am at the Cape Split Trailhead in Scots Bay. The trip to Scots Bay is about 1.5 hours from Halifax, so you might need to start your day at 8:30 am. Please email me the signed field trip waiver. You can find it on our website – just click on this link and you’ll see the links to the field trip waivers on the right side of the screen. Depending on the resolution of your screen, you might need to scroll down.
The first three kilometers of the trail is taking us through coniferous forest and not wildflowers can be seen there. But you might see some birds, hare, or other animals. The best flower show is between 3.5 and 5 km. Before you decide to hike all the way to the end of the trail, consider that you’ll need to hike back to your car after reaching the end of the trail. I got quite tired by the time I got back to the, car and it took six hours…
Please bring enough water with you, some snacks and of course your camera, memory card(s) and tripod. You might want to bring insect repellent as the black flies might come out by next weekend. We will have rain almost every day next week, so the trail will be still wet on Saturday and the sun will peek out from behind the clouds on Saturday only… the temperature will be between 5 and 12 degrees on Saturday, so please dress accordingly.
Do not bring a drone! When we reached the end of the trail, to my surprise, a guy was flying a drone not far above the nesting gulls. He was disturbing wildlife and other hikers and endangering them as well. He was flying the drone only a couple of meters from other hikers and it is illegal to fly drones within 30 meters from other people. He did bring down the drone (to about 3 meters from me) after I asked if he had permit for flying the drone there…
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Laszlo Podor
PGNS President