Very little of the Trans Canada Trail is complete in central Nova Scotia. Other than the Short Line rail to trail, essentially none of the TCT appears to exist yet, except the little stretch near Lucy's house that inspired this trek.
I'm actually not sure of that. The TCT website may be out of date (it was for New Brunswick) and I haven't had any replies to email to various Nova Scotia organizations (mostly governmental).
And then I'm not sure what I want. When hiking on busy monotonous roads, I decide to switch to wooded ATV trails. Penned in on viewless ATV trails, I look for the openness of roads. Back on the roads my sore feet beg for ATV trails. Stepping through puddles on ATV trails, I long for a well built road.
I look at the map. Following roughly the phantom TCT route, I have 233 miles to go. A direct roadwalk would be 134.
I study the ATV routes. The backbone ridge of Nova Scotia would make a great route, but I can't seem to piece together a continuous track, despite route 104 and many hiking trails in the Economy Wilderness.
I settle back to attempting the proposed TCT route to the north. I can get to the TCT Short Line rail with a mix of roads and snowmobile tracks, and follow it to Tatamagouche. Then I'll head due south on gravel roads and tracks to Truro, and thence to Halifax.
The Short Line turns out to be worth the extra miles. The maples and birches are changing color, the peasant and porcupine hide in the grass, four deer scamper by, and a muddy beaver trail crosses my path leading to his lodge.
The miles are easy but with the faster pace my legs are stiff and sore. They need to hold out just a little longer.
Sep 22 - 15.1 miles to East Leicester (half day, after side trip to Joggins Fossil Cliff) (24.3 km)
Sep 23 - 21.6 miles to Pugwash Junction (34.8 km)
No comments:
Post a Comment