There are wonderful sights in our own backyards

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 My wife and I decided to get out of the house Saturday last. What to do? Go to the mall? Go for a drive? Well, partly.

Looking east
We packed a lunch and headed to Rogart Mountain which as you can see by the photos is not really a mountain. In fact nothing is really a mountain in Nova Scotia. We just have big hills, lots of big hills.

Rogart mountain (elev. 1125ft) is located about 40 minutes from our home and is in in Earltown, Colchester County. As far as I can tell the name came from a place called Rogart in Scotland.

Panorama of Rogart Mountain
It is a 6.2 kilometer wilderness loop trail. The trail was built by the Eco-Trails Society and is part of the Cape to Cape trailIt is indeed a wilderness trail and all that implies; wet, muddy, fallen branches, rocky, and steep in some sections.

Old stone wall
At the trail-head warns that it as "for those who are fit". Are we fit? We don't really think so, but what the heck, we did all 6.2 kilometers and it was fun though it took around 3 hours. Okay, some of it wasn't that much fun! We even stopped and ate lunch along the way. It was a glorious late summer day, the temperatures were in the mid twenties but there was a stiff warm wind at the top of the "mountain" which seemed kind of eerie. There weren't many folks hiking that day and that was okay with us.

New Portugal Brook
Throughout the trail we could see evidence that it was settled at certain points in history, some areas were settled as far back as 1819 and the latest homestead (no longer there) was built in the early part of the 19th century. Every so often, posted on a tree, the hiker could read important facts about the trail and its history (last photo).
Trail loop highlights

We have been in Nova Scotia for over 25 years and this was our first visit to this area. There are gems in your backyard folks!





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