Great Bicycle Trails

Riding on Nova Scotia's
Cole Harbour Salt Marsh Trail

This is absolutely the most beautiful trail we've ever ridden. It's a short trail, the portion that runs through the salt marsh on an old Canadian National Railway causeway is only four miles long. We normally wouldn't even bother to find a trail this short; but when we read about this one in the Fall 2002 Rails to Trails magazine, we immediately added it to our "must ride" list. And how glad we are that we did!

The 2,507-acre salt marsh is completely under water at high tide but at low tide mudflats, sandbars and beds of eelgrass are exposed. We were there at high tide so we experienced what the magazine article author termed as the "all but walk on water" feel as we peddled through this water wonderland.

We called the area "God's fish hatchery" because we could see thousands of small fish in the water. Of course, this environment draws a multitude of ducks, geese, herons and bald eagles. A bald eagle splashed in the water and caught his lunch almost beside us on the trail. What a thrill to see! We are accustomed to seeing great blue herons when we are riding on trails around the USA, but we had never seen so many in one place; I think we counted six while we were standing on a bridge and had a panoramic view.

Disclaimer:
Please note that this webpage is our personal Cole Harbour Salt Marsh Trail Ride Report; we are not affiliated with the trail organization or it's management and cannot provide you with further information. The only thing we can tell you about how to find this trail is that we parked at the Lawrencetown Beach Provincial Park. The trail goes through the parking lot. For further information please refer to the official trail website: Cole Harbour Salt Marsh Trail

The following are a few of our photos and comments:


From here the trail actually looks as if it drops off in the water. Have no fear -- it does not.
This is is where we came out of the woods and caught our first site of the salt marsh. We were in awe.

There are four of these bridges that allow the tide flow into the salt marsh. Here we watched multiple thousands of small fish swimming against the current.

When we rounded this curve it was so beautiful that I wanted to park my bike and walk the trail. This is truly a place where no one should hurry. Walk or ride slowly -- make the trip last as long as possible.