Winter River Hike

The Winter River Trails at Suffolk showed a very different side from when we snowshoed there five months ago. On Sunday it was 27c with very little wind and insect life was in full swing. The complete route is 6.4kms and the elevation change around one hundred feet, so plenty of uphill slogs and downhill slithers during our two hours and ten minutes of hiking. But that is to get ahead of myself.

In the gravel parking lot at the trailhead we paused to slather on sunscreen and insect repellant.

 

"Are you walking like that?" Susan asked, pointing to my face. I glanced in the car door mirror and saw I had unabsorbed sunscreen spread on my nose and cheeks and a good part of my glasses frames. A quick rub and a final primp in the mirror and I was good to go!

 

The Spring melt has uncovered exposed tree roots and fallen branches. Nonetheless the path was not difficult for us seasoned walkers! We saw very few people, and none when we reached there remote northern loop. That was where we had our nicest surprise of the day.

 

There was a mighty clattering in the high branches above us followed by the airy thumping of huge wings. To judge by the colour I first thought this was an osprey however when the bird soared out over the river we could see it was a juvenile bald eagle. We stood quietly on the river bank and watched and listened. A number of young eagles were squawking for food and we saw them chasing the parent birds looking for handouts on the wing.

 

In all we counted around twelve American Bald Eagles with at least seven perched together in the upper branches of a single tree. Watching them fish in the Winter River was a truly exciting spectacle as they swooped down and raced across the water, dipping in briefly to grab their prey.

 

After this personal demonstration we were pleased to find four large feathers, each at least a foot long, which the girls will be happy to add to their collections.

 

 

Strathgartney Provincial Park and Port-la-Joye

 

 

The last time we were here the trails were under a foot or two of snow and ice and our feet went numb snowshoeing. Today was a balmy spring day, dry underfoot and a cloudless sky above. We decided to follow the same route as in January to compare times. In snowshoes the 8.6kms had taken us two and a half hours whereas today we hiked it in two hours ten minutes.

 

Very few people were about despite it being the first really decent weekend of the year. Several newly felled trees lay tossed in the undergrowth to keep the path clear. We saw lots of evidence of melt water run-off.

 

After crossing the four-lane Trans-Canada Highway, we walked on an access road which petered out into grass with a narrow, central paved strip. Double yellow lines gave the game away. This had been the former route of the Highway before several recent rounds of straightening and re-routing. The landmark radio mast at the top of the hill shows definite signs of a list to the north. At about five hundred feet tall it is held by numerous guy ropes and a fall seems unlikely

 

On returning to the car we sat and pondered activities for the rest of our day. It was too early to head for home so I suggested a drive to Rocky Point, a small peninsular on the western side of the entrance to Charlottetown Harbour.

 

Fifteen minutes later we parked and wandered into the tiny Fort Amherst Provincial Park at Port-la Joye. This was declared the seat of government for early settlers to PEI in the 1700s. A sensible decision at the time as its natural port location and elevated position made strategic sense for defending the harbour entrance. Nowadays the buildings’ former positions are only revealed by grassed-over earthworks and the city of Charlottetown, on the land side of the harbour, looks much better positioned, with no threat of invasion, for distribution, transport links and control of the island.