| CLIFFSIDE
AND TRANS-ISLAND TRAILS
The comments which follow are based upon my personal experience.
The average hiker would be able to cover twice the distance that I am limited
to because of my age and other physical limitations. The trails of Grand
Manan can be divided into two main groups: cliffside and trans-island.
All cliffside trails are well-marked and offer many spectacular
views. There is little or no danger of becoming lost. Because these trails
often run close to the cliff edge, it is important to avoid going too close
to the edges which can be undercut or unstable for other reasons.
My favorite cliffside trails include the western side of Whale
Cove to the Whistle and from thence south to Dark Harbour via Money Cove.
These trails are well-marked and include many spectacular “lookoffs.”
If you get personal satisfaction from finding your way through
an unmarked maze, then I recommend you try some of the trans-island trails!
The north and south crossings from Tatton’s Corner to Money Cove (blue
via Sydney Hill or yellow via Quigley Hill) used to be well-marked (and
badly need an adopter) but more recently a maze of ATV and lumber trails
have been superimposed, and getting lost is very easy. Another woods road
(usually shown on maps as tracks (see Legend on p.6 of the Trails Guide)
located a few yards past the road to Ohio Pond will also lead you to Money
Cove after you have passed two cabins. The final section is a primitive
trail and may be difficult to locate. There are no markings anywhere on
this trans-island crossing as it is not part of the trails system.
Another challenging option starts about 1/3 km south of the Beech
Hill trail. There are very few markings and many intersections with lumber
and ATV trails. This trail, actually just a woods road, joins the coastal
trail about half-way between Little Dark Harbour and Herring Cove.
Bring a compass, plenty of water, a whistle, and flashlight if
you are late starting. My first attempt on this trail took ten hours to
reach Dark Harbour. A younger hiker could do it in half the time.
The first attempt was a trip to remember. It was late in September
and the woods are quite dark as the sun goes down. A nervous wife alerted
the RCMP and I was “found” by the RCMP and Park Ranger between Little Dark
Harbour and Dark Harbour. I was not lost, just dehydrated and exhausted.
My rescuers deemed it wise to have an ATV carry me the rest of the way
and, believe me, roaring down that hill was the scariest part of the entire
day.
I really enjoy the challenge of finding my way on unmarked trails.
I use a compass and keep in touch with my wife via cell phone.
If you like this kind of a challenge then these trails are for
you.
Editor’s Note: We do not recommend getting off the marked trails
and do our best to maintain them.
TRAIL REVIEW BY JANE AND
ERIC HADLEY
Eric Hadley was one of the founders of Friends of Grand Manan
Trails at the inaugural meeting at the Water’s Edge restaurant in Seal
Cove in 1990. He is a trails planner with the New Brunswick Department
of Natural Resources and designed one section of the Fundy Footpath as
well as New Brunswick sections of the Trans Canada Trail.
Eric and his wife Jane, also somewhat of an expert through years
of hiking with Eric and their two sons, spent four days in mid-September
thoroughly reviewing trails: from Swallowtail to the Eddy Light the first
day, Eddy Light to Dark Harbour, and Dark Harbour to Sloop Cove and Seal
Cove subsequently. On the fourth day, they reviewed a possible rerouting
of a section of the trail in the Dark Harbour area. They also did much
maintenance work along the way.
Eric and Jane prepared and mapped detailed suggestions regarding
signage, cliff barriers, bridging, selective cutting to open vistas and
ways to promote use of the trails. Many of these can and will be implemented,
some by Jessie James and Anne Mitchell in time for the 2002 hiking season.
Eric commented that we have probably the most beautiful trails
he has encountered anywhere. Our footpaths are exactly right to give hikers
a chance to see the splendid scenery.
The Trails Executive is most grateful to the Hadleys for their
considered and most useful suggestions. We look forward to their next visit.
top
WE NEED TRAIL ADOPTERS!!!
Please consider whether you might adopt a trail. This involves doing
light maintenance several times during the summer season. (The heavy work
of removing blow-downs or building bridges is usually done by a “trail
blazer”.)
Starting, say in April before the bugs come out and the hikers arrive,
you walk your adopted trail, preferably with a partner. One of you, with
hand clippers, can cut away at the intrusive alders, hard-hack and brambles.
Your partner, meanwhile, repaints the tin-lid markers or nails up new lids
or signs - all supplied by Gene Gillies. Friends of Grand Manan trails
can help by saving tin can lids which will be painted by Gene and used
as trail markers. Cecilia Bowden also provides Trails Maintenance Guidelines
and lots of encouragement.
During the summer-fall season, you will need to check on your trail
to ensure that the way is clear, and the markers are visible in both directions.
Summer growth may obscure them or storms may necessitate remedial work.
And any litter should be carried out, perhaps in plastic garbage bags.
When you see that a trail sign is missing/required/faded etc., make a sketch
indicating in which direction the arrow should point. Then call Gene with
the details. Danger and Caution signs are now available to mark “impromptu
trails” and undercuts.
So you see the trail adopter’s job is not onerous - mainly brushing
out and painting. And you would be contributing to the safety and pleasure
of innumerable hikers. Our trail adopters are our single biggest asset.
Please contact Cecilia or Gene at 662-3868 to report trail conditions,
or if you would like to adopt a trail. top
FUTURE TRAILS GUIDES REVISIONS
Just as soon as a revision is published, we begin making more
changes.
It would be very helpful if each of our adopters would critically
re-read his / her trail description and examine its map.
If the text can be improved upon, it should be re-written and
forwarded to Bob Stone. If extensive changes are deemed necessary, we may
publish the changes in this newsletter ahead of a new Trails Guide revision.
Questions the adopters might answer include:
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Are the distances and times given realistic?
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Are any of our new civic signs useful in helping visitors find the trail
head?
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Are there fish farms or weirs overlooked by your trail which can be named?
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Any other points of interest?
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Is the first-time hiker adequately warned of the level of difficulty he
/ she will encounter, having in mind the range of ages and abilities our
hikers represent? top
GRAND MANAN TRAILS MAINTENANCE
GUIDELINES REVISED
First issued in April 1995, this eight page guide was given to
each of our trails adopters. It purpose was to suggest appropriate maintenance
procedures and to ensure a standardized approach island-wide.
The Second Edition was produced in August 1998 and is the version
most present volunteers have in hand.
The Third Edition is now available and can be acquired from Cecilia
Bowden. It outlines our policy of placing warning signs on potentially
hazardous positions on the trails.
NEW ADDITIONS TO OUR SIGNAGE
In recent times we have been increasing the number of signs drawing
attention to potentially difficult or dangerous spots.
Hikers who read the trails brochure see our discussion of potential
hazards in the Introduction but a number of hikers do not use the guide
as a reference.
To address this problem the New Brunswick Department of Natural
Resources and Energy is donating a quantity of bilingual small metal signs
which will be placed conspicuously near either end of the trails by our
volunteers.
The signs will read:
ATTENTION
These trails are rough, rocky and often
close to dangerous cliffs. Stay on the main trail. Side routes to
the cliff edge can be deadly. The trails are on private land; please be
respectful. Caution: the incoming tide quickly covers beaches. top
GRAND MANAN WEIRS
As many Grand Manan herring weirs are visible from the trails,
we thought it would be interesting to learn their names. With the help
of Burton Small and Junior Ingalls, two long-time Island fishermen, John
Belyea, our artist, prepared the map of active weirs.
Burton was able to recall the names of 84 weirs on the east side
of Grand Manan but today only 24 remain, including three of the newer floating
type.
Junior could name 73 weirs on the west and south-east sides but
only four remain today. Where have all the weirs gone?
Albion Leslie, a North Head weir fisherman, attributes the decrease
to several factors including the lack of demand for smoked herring, increased
government (sanitary) regulations, lack of market and the growth of salmon
acquaculture. It seems that herring avoid salmon, one of their predators
and may steer clear of weirs in the area of salmon cages. Salmon acquaculture
may thus be having a negative impact on the herring fishery.
The moral of this account is that we need to EAT MORE SARDINES,
they are tasty, good for you, and easy for hikers to carry. |
The number of weirs around the Island still fluctuates
as it has always done since the 1800s, depending on the market and the
run of herring. Weirs are a gamble and a challenge, some bringing handsome
dividends while others produce nothing. Around the turn of the century
when the herring fishery was the basic industry and provided most of the
employment, there were as many as a hundred of them. Now, even though there
are still about 28 active weirs, there is a feeling that it may be a fishery
in decline, and that a way of life could be disappearing forever. A number
of weir sites have been leased to salmon farmers which has taken them out
of production. And once upon a time there were many smokehouses and small
processing plants about, giving fishermen some choice for marketing their
fish; now Connors is the only buyer.
One of the most photographed of all weirs
is the Cora Belle in Pettes Cove, built in
the thirties by Perley Lambert, John Johnson
and Gerald McLaughlin (the McLaughlin family helped to finance, and therefore
had a share in, most of the weirs around the Island). It was named after
Perley Lambert’s daughter, and has always been a good producer. In the
old days, there were even strong runs of pollock into the weir; there was
one year when a million pounds had to be seined out. Burton Small and his
son, Bradley have owned it since 1975, and this year they put the net up
on the first of July and will probably take it down in the second week
of October. This has been its best year in a decade, seining twice a week
at 35 to 40 hogsheads a time, and by the end of the season it may have
caught up to seven hundred hogsheads.
Whale Cove was once a thriving fishing community
with storage sheds, boat sheds and smokehouses strung along the beach.
The average smokehouse could hold up to sixty thousand herring, smoking
them for six weeks. Still standing in the Cove are the Jubilee, built in
the 50th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, Star, Winner and Mystery. Mystery
was built in 1938 by Lowell Brown, and according to his son, Floyd, got
its name because “they said it was some mystery how we could build it where
we did, and another how we’d pay for it.” After being fished by several
generations of the Brown family, it is now owned by Neil Morse.
Connors Bros. owns two weirs along the back
of the Island, the Gully and Bradford’s Cove; both have been making good
catches this year.
Down at the southern end is Pat’s Cove,
named for Pat McDonald who used to live there. The weir was built in 1919
by Fred Ellingwood, the McLaughlin brothers, Maybury Russell, Andrew Nelson
(who was later lost at sea), and Edgar Russell. In 1953, Junior Ingalls
started working on it, scaling and pumping herring, and fifteen years later
was able to get a share in it. He says that it used to be good, but hasn’t
been paying for about twenty years. Two years ago he did not seine it once
all season. But still he builds it up every year, sometimes twice a year
because it is very vulnerable to southerly storms. Last year a big one
took down half of it, and the Ground Hog Gale in 1976 tore it all to pieces.
About twenty years ago there were so many herring in the weir that the
gulls were picking the back of them, and they got seven hundred hogsheads
in one seining. And he remembers when there were so many herring and silver
hake in the breakers at Deep Cove that you could pick them up in your hands.
Now people ask him why he keeps building
up the weir when it does so poorly. He says it’s because it is something
to do, he has done it for fifty years, it is a way of life.
Thanks for information from Burton Small and Junior
Ingalls, and Brown’s Weir by
Gwendolyn and Wayland Drew, Oberon Press, 1983.
top
WINTER WORK ON GRAND MANAN
TRAILS
Last fall, a group of Friends of Grand
Manan Trails met with Charles Jensen, Executive Director of the Boys’ and
Girls’ Club, Helen Johnson, Career Assistance Officer, and Rick Van Horne,
Town Manager for the Village of Grand Manan, to work out details for a
grant application to Youth Services Canada, in order to fund a crew of
young people who would improve the existing trails and construct a cross-country
trail behind the community school. The application was successful, and
a sum of $70,000 was granted to us to hire a crew foreman, and 10 young
people for the period of December to May.
Tim Sears was hired as foreman, and 10 youth
were subsequently signed on. The crew has completed its work, and has been
very helpful in clearing and improving trails, and placing more signs.
Unfortunately, almost as soon as they started, the snows came, and remained
with us until the middle of March. There was even a large snowstorm mid-April.
Consequently, they were not able to spend as much time on the back trails
as they would have liked, because the snow was too deep for them to work.
We had hoped to replace some old, and build
some new bridges, but that proved to be impossible because of the heavy
snow. All of the trails were cleared of deadfall by the beginning of the
new year, but very strong winds brought down many more trees, so that deadfall
clearing took place again toward the end of the project. After the difficult
winter and wild windstorms, we would have been hard-pressed to have the
trails in good condition this spring without the continued work done during
the winter.
An added feature, as far as the youth were
concerned, was that several were able to find permanent employment because
of their involvement in the project, one of the purposes of the joint venture.
In addition, our trails budget did not have the usual $1500 expense for
trails maintenance.
If you are hiking and find some deadfall
which needs to be removed, or find places where you feel the signs are
inadequate, please let us know by contacting Don Baldwin (662-8801), Ce
Bowden (662-3868) or Bob Stone (662-8987). top
TRAIL MAINTENANCE
Three newcomers to Grand Manan volunteered
their time to tidying up some trails last spring. Pete Sesplankis of Shorecrest
Lodge took some time from his various other duties to take a chainsaw and
clear the Hole in the Wall trail and parts of Seven Days Work. Anne Mitchell
and her husband, Jessie James, tackled the southern end of the Island clearing
the Flock of Sheep Trail and they worked along with Gene Gillies and Cecilia
Bowden to clear and mark the Bradford Cove/Hay Point Trail. After that
they were hired to clear and mark from the Whistle to Dark Harbour - a
hard day’s work.
Anne and Jessie will be working on trails
when they arrive next April to spend the summer at their home which is
a work in progress.
Ginny and George Riseborough, late of Pennsylvania,
now year-round residents of Seal Cove, are new Friends of the Trails and
eager to get out and work next year. top
SECOND ANNUAL TRAILS DINNER
The dinner was held at The Inn at Whale
Cove on October 15, 2000. Don Baldwin reported briefly as follows:
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For 2001, we need a new coordinator, a new
treasurer and a person to head up a revision of the Trails Guide. We are
also looking for more trails adopters. The present state of our finances
is healthy for Spring 2001 trails work.
-
A larger-than-ever-before-number of people
shared the work load this year. This is a very desirable state of affairs.
In particular, we would like to thank:
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Sue Lambert for handling correspondence from the
Business Centre, the production of a proper mailing list and the newsletter
production and mailing labels.
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Cecilia Bowden and Gene Gillies for work with our
volunteer adopters and the sale of our new pins which topped $400.
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Sheldon Cook for his supervision of our paid workers
in the Spring.
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Ann Chudleigh and Frances Hodge for this year’s newsletter.
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Ann again with Bob and Judy Stone for promoting this
evening’s dinner.
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Laurie Murison for her work in securing the $600
grant awarded us by the Fundy Community Foundation this spring.
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John Belyea for raising the visual level of our newsletter
with his illustrations for the second year in a row.
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Tom Wetzel for monitoring the activities of the New
Brunswick Trails Council on our behalf.
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John Cunningham for maintaining our power tool free
of charge.
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Grand Manan Tourism Association members who sold
our pins without profit.
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And last, but so very much appreciated, Laura Buckley
for providing our dinner on a cost only basis. Our thanks also to Richard
Rice for providing the bread, to Diane Jaillet for donating the hamburger
for the lasagna, and to Dale Russell for other ingredients.
The dinner plus donations made that evening
contributed approximately $460 to our bank account. top
TRAIL PINS - ONE SOURCE OF
REVENUE
Grand Mananers and visitors to the Island
continue to help maintain the trails by purchasing the Grand Manan Trail
pin. The pins again sold well. Island Arts, Harrington Cove Cottages, The
Grand Manan Museum and Whale Cove Inn led the way in sales. The total amount
raised was over $700.00 as of September 15, 2001.
WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL TO OUR
DONORS, WHO INCLUDE:
Heather Trim, Gene Brewer, Peter and Marilyn Cronk,
Nancy Erskine, Kirk Graham Dutchman Construction, Beulah Griffin,
Maureen Hall, Sydney and Barbara Guptill
Frances Hodge, Maude Hunter, Edith and Dick Liebowitz,
Robin Kenny, Cathy Mabie Donna and Allan McMillen, Mary Majka,
Nancy Sears, Mary Anne and Clyde Flaherty
Peter McParland, Patricia Tripp, Bob and Judy
Stone, Ralph Smith, Malcolm Bull
John and Sue Stevens, Joel Frantzman, Anne and
Steve Green, Helen and George Logan
Jane Zocchi and Murray Lebowitz, Henry Biedrzycki
and Valerie Evans
Total Donations received: $2669.75 top
BENCH TO BE DEDICATED ON
SEVEN DAYS WORK
Recently a generous donation was received
from Marilyn and Peter Cronk, for the purpose of placing a bench “somewhere
on the hiking trail near North Head,” a memorial to their two sons, Ryan
and Haydn. We are pleased to say that the bench is under construction,
and will be placed at one of the scenic lookouts on top of Seven Days Work.
We extend much appreciation to the Cronk family for their kind donation,
and to Steven Harvey and Junior Green at the Anchorage Park for their assistance
in the design, construction and placement of the bench.
PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A
DONATION
The trails are maintained by adopters who
volunteer their labour because they love hiking. But heavy work clearing
blowdowns, dealing with wet areas and undercuts and rerouting trails etc.
is best done by paid help. For this, we need donations; in fact, we rely
on you the trail users and Friends of Grand Manan trails.
Jessie James, who hails from the island
of Nevis, is a whiz with a cutlass and he and Anne Mitchell, who carries
the chainsaw and does the brushing, have agreed to whip the trails into
shape next spring.
Please support their hard work and lend
a vote of confidence to all the adopters with a financial donation. Your
cheque made out to Grand Manan Trails should be mailed to the address on
the back cover. top
GRAND MANAN TOURISM ASSOCIATION
TRAILS COMMITTEE
Don & Maureen Baldwin - Cecilia
Bowden & Eugene Gillies
John & Diane Cunningham - Sidney
& Barbara Guptill - Maude Hunter
Bob & Judy Stone - Ginny &
George Riseborough
Anne Mitchell & Jessie James
Trails Newsletter: Ann Chudleigh
Past Trails Newsletters can be found on the Grand
Manan Tourism Website:
Http://grandmananNB.com
Correspondence should be addressed to:
Grand Manan Tourism Association
Trails Committee
130 Route 776
Grand Manan, NB
E5G 4K9
Email: info@grandmananNB.com
Note: Susian Lambert prepared the paper version
of the newsletter including typesetting, scanning graphics and photocopying.
Laurie Murison prepared the newsletter for the
web site version. top
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