Nova Scotia is committing $6.4 million for a rugged hiking trail in northern Cape Breton
The Nova Scotia government is pouring $6.4 million into a wilderness trail in northern Cape Breton that has been in the planning stages for 15 years.
The proposed Seawall Trail spans nearly 30 miles of rugged terrain and passes through sensitive ecological areas that overlook the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cabot Strait.
Funding will go toward designing trail markings, building several cabins along the way for hikers to use overnight and parking areas, and a shuttle service from Meat Cove to the trailhead at Pleasant Bay.
The Seawall Trail Society took serious community consultations, including local residents who hunt elk in the area and the Mi’kmaq, who have hunted in the area for thousands of years, said society president Ray Fraser.
“For anything in life to be successful, the residents of an area, the user of a product, are the ones who need to be consulted and those are the local residents,” he said. “But the Mi’kmaq were here first and it’s their land and their expertise and they have a voice that was silenced and not listened to, so we need to listen to that voice.”
The association has Mi’kmaw representatives on its board, who recently named the trail Jajiktek (pronounced jaw-jick-deck), meaning a difficult trail or path along the water.
At an announcement of funding in Meat Cove on Monday afternoon, Elder Ernest Johnson said it wasn’t easy coming up with a name, but the trails in the area have long been used by the Mi’kmaq and by the animals of the forest .
“[The name] means it follows the ways of those who [were] there for us,” he said.
No tents
Officially opening the trail to hikers will help share the land and provide educational opportunities, Johnson said.
Tents are not allowed, but the huts allow hikers to spend the night, while reducing the impact on plants and animals.
“You would fit more people in small cabins than in tents scattered all over the place and our goal is to protect the environment as much as possible,” Fraser said.
“It’s a wilderness area. It’s a sacred place and we have to respect that area.”
Inverness MLA and Deputy Prime Minister Allan MacMaster said the government believes the project will attract more tourists to northern Cape Breton.
“It’s been here for a long time, but it will now take shape in something more formal and it will be here forever,” he said.
The design work will start this year and the trail is expected to be ready for visitors in three years.
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