Follow That Path

Got on the road at about 11 A.M. and headed to the Valley.....Annapolis Valley that is. It's about an hour drive.....100 kms. I drove up and it seemed the time went by very quickly and I kept within the speed limit. Guess we talked all the way there.


We planned to take Sophie for a walk at her one of her favourite places.....along the Gaspereaux Canal. But first we needed some sustenance. The place we like was open. Good food and nice ambiance. It is located in the little town of Wolfville. It is a university town (Acadia University) and the one in which Ron and I met when we were students. Lots of memories here. It is Ron's hometown. We both feel very close to this place and in fact lived here after graduation for a couple of years. More stories for a future blog. 


By this time Sophie was getting really pissed for making her wait in the car while WE ate. So, to the Canal we headed. 


The sun was trying it's damnedest to come out and the temperature was around 12 degrees C. Not bad for a walk. Sophie was in her element all the way down the Canal path. Into the water she flew after her ball...umpteen times.


When we got to the end we stopped and read a placque dedicated to a man who had spent his whole life devising ways to preserve the fish population in natural streams around Nova Scotia.


 We started to head back and Ron saw this path going down into the trees towards a river we could hear from the path. It was well trodden so we figured it would take us somewhere. We didn't know where.


Sophie thought this was super.....a new place to explore!!! Almost immediately when we were amongst the trees, we found this wonderful grove of hemlock trees growing along a river which turned out to be the Gaspereaux River. They were giants (at least by Nova Scotia standards) and probably 100+ years old. Some had fallen and were in a state of decomposition and still they looked huge laying on the ground. 

We walked out to the small river on rocks and pieces of wood. I love the sound   of a river.......constantly flowing.


Sophie thought all this was so good. She kept moving and sniffing everything in sight.

We got back on the path and headed towards where we thought we should be going. It was mucky in places and people had put logs across the more difficult sloppy places to get through without sinking into it.

After about a half hour we came to a clearing which we recognized actually but from a different view-plane. It was a farmer's field that we would normally see from the canal path which was way up a hill. We headed towards the path. For all the times we had walked this Canal, we didn't know that the Hemlock Ravine (which we are calling it ) was there. 

Sophie needed to swim in the Canal several times because she had found a dead something or other and began to rub all over it. Must be the lab in her (no offense lab owners). I threw the ball into the Canal and off she went after it. That should do it.

We were glad to have found this little jewel of a place and will return in the summer.


By the time we got back to the car the sun was out and it was getting warmer. Should be a good drive home for Ron.