Trails and the outdoors are important for our mental and physical health but we need to remain vigilant about reducing opportunities for the virus to spread.

Balancing Rock Trail is now open but there are special precautions for that special trail:

• Look ahead before entering boardwalks, stairs or other narrow sections of trail. Take turns and allow others to exit before entering.
• Handrails should be used with caution. Please practice good hygiene including - avoid touching your face; wash hands before and after using trail.
  

Here is some information to keep in mind generally while getting your dose of fresh air and soaking up the sunshine.

1. Trails in the Digby area are open, although this could change with very little notice.
2. If you are not feeling well, you should remain at home and rest.
3. Maintain physical distance of 2m ( 6 ft) from others at all times. If you’re running or cycling, and meet others, please slow down or stop so that everyone can safely pass. If you stop for a rest, please step off the trail to leave room for others to pass.
4. Only visit trails and open spaces for exercise and fresh air but not to socialize – only hangout with people in your household unit.
5. Avoid all playground equipment, benches, picnic tables or any surfaces that others might touch and leave the virus on. Please take your waste home with you.
6. If the trailhead, trail or open space is busy when you arrive, please consider leaving and coming back when there are less people around. Try to recreate in the quieter hours such as early morning or evening.
7. Wash those hands and disinfect surfaces you touch. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. Please do not spit.
8. Access outdoor spaces as near to your neighbourhood as possible. Limit driving as much as possible.
9. Minimize extreme-risk, high-consequence activities until our Emergency Rooms and First Responders have more capacity to handle your mistakes.
10. Please pay attention to guideline/signage that is posted at any trails or open spaces for special direction, advice or rules for that space.

 
Get your dose of fresh air and exercise and then please #staytheblazeshome.

The province is providing up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus .

The province has eased some restrictions around COVID-19 but we are still a far way from back to normal – and most directives around social distancing and social gathering remain in place.
Trails and the outdoors are important for our mental and physical health but we need to remain vigilant about reducing opportunities for the virus to spread.
 
Here is some information to keep in mind while getting that fresh air and soaking up the sunshine.

1. Trails in the Digby area are open, except for Balancing Rock which will remain closed until further notice.
2. If you are not feeling well, you should remain at home and rest.
3. Maintain physical distance of 2m ( 6 ft) from others at all times. If you’re running or cycling, and meet others, please slow down or stop so that everyone can safely pass. If you stop for a rest, please step off the trail to leave room for others to pass.
4. Only visit trails and open spaces for exercise and fresh air but not to socialize – only hangout with people in your household unit.
5. Avoid all playground equipment, benches, picnic tables or any surfaces that others might touch and leave the virus on. Please take your waste home with you.
6. If the trailhead, trail or open space is busy when you arrive, please consider leaving and coming back when there are less people around. Try to recreate in the quieter hours such as early morning or evening.
7. Wash those hands and disinfect surfaces you touch. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. Please do not spit.
8. Access outdoor spaces as near to your neighbourhood as possible. Limit driving as much as possible.
9. Minimize extreme-risk, high-consequence activities until our Emergency Rooms and First Responders have more capacity to handle your mistakes.
10. Please pay attention to guideline/signage that is posted at any trails or open spaces for special direction, advice or rules for that space.

 
Get your dose of fresh air and exercise and then please #staytheblazeshome.

The province is providing up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus .

Balancing Rock Trail is closed.
 ̶B̶r̶i̶e̶r̶ ̶I̶s̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶C̶o̶a̶s̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶T̶r̶a̶i̶l̶ ̶(̶N̶C̶C̶)̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶.̶
̶P̶r̶o̶v̶i̶n̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶(̶L̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶M̶I̶d̶w̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶C̶e̶n̶t̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶G̶r̶o̶v̶e̶)̶.̶

On March, 22, 2020, Premier McNeil officially declared a State of Emergency for the Province of Nova Scotia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  ̶A̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶v̶i̶n̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶.̶
The Premier clarified that provincial trails would remain open for the time being.
The Municipality of Digby supports the Province of Nova Scotia State of Emergency and will continue to align with the recommendation of health officials and orders under the Health Protection Act and the Emergency Management Act.
For now, trails in the Digby area will remain open. Trail users are advised to maintain social distancing of at least 2 metres between themselves and other trail users at all times. Do not gather in groups larger than 5 people.
Avoid using or touching benches or picnic tables. Wash your hands with soap and water often or use hand sanitizer. Cough into your sleeve or tissue. Do not touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.
You can find accurate, up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus .

Above Van Tassel Lake on the thread like trail to the summit, fir trees line the path, holding snow on every bough, until they sag and slouch under plump white pillows, looking for all the world like a tribe of snow trolls, large and small, squat and tall, wild and waiting.
Winter is quiet. Except when it’s not. January storms can be ferocious, windy, violent, loud. But when those storms pass, when they have dumped their heavy heaps, when they have painted every bush and limb and twig a sparkling white, when they have finished piling deep drifts along the meadow’s edge, when they slink away with a final swirling gust of snow and cold, then the silence of the wood falls deeper.
Above Van Tassel Lake, alone in the silence on that lonely trail, just me and the trolls and the snow, there is peace.
Share your winter photos and stories online with the hashtag #fundyflakes or email them to jriley@municipality.digby.ns.ca.

I am excited to start inviting people to Digby’s first* trail race, but we have to wait just a few more days.
Early next week, we should be able to give you all the details, but here’s what we can say so far.
First off, mark April 25 on your calendars and start training for distances close to 2k, 5k and 10k.
April 25 is early – we know. Our hope is this will give some local runners a little push to start preparing for the summer season. And this shouldn’t conflict with any other races on the NS Trail Running series.
True, it’s hard to say what kind of weather we’ll have in late April and hard to say what the conditions will be like underfoot.
Suffice to say, you can do a chunk of your training on the treadmill, but you’re going to want to do at least a little outdoor work to get used to running in the cold weather – just in case. And you’re going to want to do some work on trails to get used to rocks and mud and maybe snow and ice underfoot too.
If you’re new to trail running, I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s a lot more walking than you might imagine. If things get too rocky, too rooty, too slippery, too steep – too whatever – then trail runners think nothing of slowing down or even walking. This lollygagging might feel strange if you’re used to hammering out a 5 or 10k on the roads.
Our course is perfect for beginners wanting a taste of the woods, or for experienced runners looking for a warm up race. It’s mostly flat with some small climbs, nothing too steep – but steep enough that many racers are going to walk a few sections.
Underfoot could be interesting depending on the weather and how much winter is hanging around – we will use a mix of gravel service roads and single track, mostly single track. You’ll start on access roads heading slightly downhill and then transition to a lovely stretch of narrow but grassy single track before diving into the woods and starting the climbs. The single track has roots and rocks galore, some muddy parts, some small streams, and did I mention rocks?
The course is a loop and you’ll do one lap for the 5k and two laps for the 10.
The 2k course is an out and back designed for those under 13 years old and for beginners. It’s a separate route on service roads and smooth double track and maybe a tiny bit of single track and beach.
We’re hoping to keep the entry fees super cheap, down in the range of $20 for adults and $10 for those under 13, hoping to have tee shirts and some cool swag and prizes.
Digby Area Recreation Commission is hosting the race with support from the Digby Lazy Bear Runners and a couple organizations we can’t name just yet.
We are also planning a five-week clinic to help beginners get used to trail running starting in March. Local, experienced trail runners will slowly introduce you to more complicated terrain, starting with railbed and adding a bit more challenge every week.  Before this clinic, you should feel comfortable running a super slow and easy 5k on roads. To be clear, this clinic isn’t about running fast or far – our focus will be on moving slow and developing confidence over rougher terrain.

So there you go: that’s all the basic information you need to start planning your preparation – and we’ll have some more information for you early next week.
Excited? Heading out for a run soon?
If you have any questions about trail running, training or trails in general, feel free ask or to let us know what you think of our race plans so far, by emailing me at jriley@municipality.digby.ns.ca.
 
 *Digby does already have some cool off-road races though they aren’t quite trail races. The Lobster Bash Mud Dash (July 4, 2020) is a muddy wet 3-km run on the ocean floor at low tide around the Racquette or small cove to the north of town. The Scallywag is another ocean-floor race; this one 8-km on a mix of road, railbed, dirt roads, sandy beach, rocky beach and mud flats starting and ending at the Smith’s Cove Fire Hall with the course leading you around Bear Island in the middle of the Annapolis Basin. Both races are tide dependent and the amount of water on the course can vary.

We don’t get the winters we used to – for some this is a reason to celebrate – but many of us miss winter, we miss the freedom that comes with a good long solid freeze.
It used to be that backcountry travel was avoided for a few weeks during freeze up and then again during break up – but  then for weeks and even month in the winter, you could count on the lakes and rivers freezing solid so you could travel everywhere.
These days freeze up never quite finishes before a quick thaw sets in – and then it starts freezing again and then thawing.
The same is true with the snow. It used to be November and April were muddy and had to be tolerated but you could count on layers and layers of beautiful white snow through January and February.
But now every month has alternating weeks of snow and mud. And you never get the good soft base that makes skiing and sledding so fun.
All this to say, we now get winter in quick, short doses and you have to be ready if you want to make the most of it.
If you’re not careful, you can miss a whole winter without sledding, without skiing or skating, without throwing a snowball or building a snow statue.
When it snows, you cannot hesitate. You must carpe skiem. If you’re dying to get sledding, you must get out sledding as soon as you can on the day the snow falls. The same with skiing. Even harder is outdoor skating, though with the constant freeze and thaw and freeze again, there are more, if quicker, chances to catch those moments of clear smooth black ice.
Because of winter’s ephemerality, I have the last few years used a winter fun list to make sure I got in the winter activities I love.
This shouldn’t be considered a to-do list but rather a fun list – a list of fun things to choose from.
Anyway, the list included here is my personal list – you should definitely adapt it, rewrite it for your tastes and then get out there and carpe skiem!

Also give some thought to what actions you can take to enable our grandchildren to also enjoy winter!

We had been planning Winterfest for several weeks and people were excited. I was getting questions on Facebook, by email, through blog comments, people were dropping by my office and pulling me aside in the street.
It was to be a celebration of winter – of cool snowy weather. We had snowshoes to lend out and volunteers to help people strap them on. We were set up on a short level loop, we marked out a short but hilly adventure course and we planned a 5km walk through the woods. Snowshoeing for every level of ability and ambition.
We had wood split and piled for a bonfire, roasting sticks cut for hotdogs and marshmallows. We had cocao and milk for hot chocolate. We found celebrity judges for the snow sculpture contest and the photo contest. We had prizes for the contests and for Nature Bingo.
On Wednesday we got a lovely 15 cm of fresh snow.
Then Friday it rained. And Saturday’s forecast, the Winterfest forecast, was also wet.
At 4 p.m. Friday the forecast for the morning was “periods of rain” although only 2mm accumulation and +8C for a high.
 
What would you have done?

Normally, we, the Fundy Erratics hiking club, don’t cancel our hikes for a little rain. Sure less people show up when the forecast is wet, but a hardy core group of us almost always go. And in this case, we still held the hike and 30 people showed up.
But we cancelled the bonfire, hot dogs, marshmallows and hot chocolate… essentially the heart of Winterfest and we cancelled the snow sculpture contest.
I guess my thoughts were that standing around a fire in the rain was not going to be a lot of fun, that fewer people would turn up anyway, and those who did might go away with a bad experience.
 
Was this the right decision?
 
I believe part of this game of getting more people outside is showing people that we don’t need to be afraid of rain or cold. Part of me wonders how the day would have turned out if we had just gone ahead with all events. Would people have still showed up? Would they have had an okay experience?
 
Certainly the weather turned out okay – no rain to speak of. It was a damp, cold in your bones kind of day, mostly overcast misty and foggy up there, the snow was packy and good for snow sculptures….
 
We were more than warm enough while hiking – would it have been the same for people at the fire or making snow sculptures?
 
Now we’ll never know and I can’t help feeling like we missed an opportunity to demonstrate that these events can be fun if less than ideal.
 
On the bright side, with all the promo and excitement, we did get some people thinking about enjoying winter – instead of just tolerating it. And we did have a great hike with 30 people, lots of them new to the Acacia Valley Trails and to hiking with a group like ours.
 
Please let me know what you think, in the blog comments, by email jriley@municipality.digby.ns.ca or on the Fundy Erratics FB group.

Near the top of the Van Tassel Lake look off, the firs are buried in snow and bent over like a tribe of snow trolls. I love to walk quietly among them, tiptoeing with fake angst, pretending they could awake at any moment.
I guess it is gorgeous everywhere today but I speak from firsthand knowledge when I say the trails of Van Tassel Lake are amazing.
Snow everywhere, lying on everything – every tree, every branch outlined in white, every clearing and swamp a blanket of spotless satin, every hummock and rock covered in soft pillows – to my eye the fir trees are prettiest with their boughs holding so much snow.
I was up early today and snowshoed to the look off for a morning workout – and what a workout it was. On the first 400 or 500m someone had been over the trail yesterday with snowshoes so I was able to jog along pretty good in their wake.
This first stretch of trail is home to a family of ravens and the slap and crunch of my snowshoes must have woken them, surprised them on this quiet morning, as they took off over head croaking and cawing among the treetops.
Besides the startling beauty of the glimmering snow, it is the quiet calm of the woods on these snowy days that I love most. It is easy to imagine yourself the only one for miles and miles.

Soon yesterday’s snowshoer turned around – I think they might have been having trouble staying on the trail – and I continued on, breaking and marking trail for the next visitors.
It was and is a cool morning with a double-digit windchill but the effort of plowing through the deep fluffy stuff kept me more than warm enough. I had my mittens off most of the walk and sometimes my hat – I only kept it on for protection from the snow laden branches.
I crossed Shady Lane and continued on towards Rock Pile – Shady Lane would have been a nice walk too and if you only wanted a 2km walk it would be the answer today.
The higher I climbed, the deeper the snow and the lonelier the woods felt.
At Rock Pile I again considered turning down towards the lake and heading back but my goal was the Look Off. Let me just say, it is only 2.5km to the look off but today in all that snow it really felt like 5.
But it was worth it- every stretch of trail looked so different, so dressed up in elegant white finery.
My favourite stretch though is that high meadow near the top with all the snow trolls. Today the trail was a narrow narrow passageway among giants. I said “Excuse me” a few times as I threaded my way among them.
And then I was on top looking out over forest as far as the eye can see – the lower reservoir is more visible today because of the snow laying on its frozen surface.
I soaked in the view, took a couple deep breaths, the requisite selfie, and then it was time to head down.
I went back on the same trail (on the north side of the lake). I didn’t have the strength or time to break a trail around the lake. I’ll leave that for the next snowshoer….