The Place
Photo Credit: Irwin BarrettBlue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes is a magnificent wilderness located on the edge of Metro Halifax, near the communities of Rockingham, Fairview, Clayton Park, Wedgewood, and Timberlea. It’s two thousand hectares in size and contains over a dozen inter-connected lakes popular for swimming and canoeing in the summer, and skiing and skating in the winter. The area also boasts tremendous backcountry hiking opportunities, including a trail to the highest point of land on the Chebucto Peninsula at Blue Mountain Hill.
Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes also contains many ecologically-significant features, including wetlands that purify and clean the water, headwaters that help protect and recharge the groundwater table, rare plant species such as the mountain sandwort, habitat for Nova Scotia’s endangered mainland moose, and pockets of old-growth forest, including exceptional stands of red spruce, white pine, and red oak. Over 150 different species of birds have also been documented in the Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes wilderness, including ospreys, loons, eagles, and pileated woodpeckers.
Shooting 'Cabin Run' on Upper Nine Mile River, upstream of Maple Lake. (Photo Credit: Dusan Soudek)