SABLE ISLAND HIKING - HORSE TRAILS, BALD DUNE, FRESHWATER PONDS AND BEACHES

Hiking in Sable Island National Park Reserve is very different from going on hikes in popular national parks. There are no marked walking paths. No trail signs. No wooden steps or railings. And no maps of hiking trails with information about what to see and do.

This eyelash-shaped sandbar, which belongs to Nova Scotia, is Canada's furthest offshore island. Hikers who arrive by plane from Halifax may have to wait days or weeks until weather conditions allow safe landings.

No camping

Once on Sable Island, hikers can stay only for a day. Camping is not allowed. They won't find fire pits or places to buy food or souvenirs. What they carry in with backpacks, they must carry out.

Day hikers can walk around Main Station and the Environment Canada Weather Headquarters. They can also explore nearby dunes and beaches.

Guided hikes

Our Sable Island trip was on an Adventure Canada cruise, which allowed us to make multi-day Zodiac landings to different parts of the island. Because we were with a pre-arranged group, we had the luxury of guided walks accompanied by Parks Canada staff and experts in ecology, birds, horses, seals and photography.

To minimize impact on the fragile environment, our group of just over 100 was divided into smaller groups, based on interests and physical abilities. We could choose from short, medium or long hikes. All were interesting because of the guides, who stopped frequently to discuss Sable Island's geology, flora, fauna and history.

Climb up Bald Dune

We selected the two-hour loop hike up to Bald Dune and back. Located in the middle of Sable Island, it's the highest point of the island (height: 26 meters or 85 feet).

Climbing the big, tawny sand dune was not as easy as walking on hard, flat surfaces. Our feet sunk into the soft, dry sand with every step.

The hike wasn't difficult though, because we stopped frequently to observe Sable Island's gulls, terns and other birds. Even more fascinating was our first view of the wild horses—a frolicking foal running circles around its grazing mother.

Origin of Sable Island's sand

Why is there so much sand on Sable Island? (Even its name, sable, means sand in French.)

Dalhousie Professor Bill Freedman, who accompanied our group of hikers, explained that the sand was originally deposited by rivers from retreating glaciers during the Ice Age. "The sand is ground-up bedrock, silicate and other minerals transported by rivers under the glacier."

The 42-kilometer (26-mile) island refuses to stay in one place. Currents, waves and wind constantly shift the sand, especially the East and West Spits. Ripples, sculpted by the wind, made undulating patterns on the surface of the dunes.

View from Bald Dune

The panorama from the top of Bald Dune encompassed North Beach, where we had landed, as well as South Beach, the ridge of rolling, vegetated sand dunes along the length of the island and bands of wild horses grazing on the heath.

It was very windy, but the air was so clean that we savored each breath.

Dune blowouts

"Sable Island is very dynamic," said park manager Jonathan Sheppard, who walked with us. As we descended Bald Dune, he pointed out areas where the dunes were growing in places where they didn't exist a few years ago.

In other places, he showed us blowouts where the sea breached the dunes during storms and deposited the sand elsewhere. "The frequent erosion makes Sable Island seem fragile, but the rebuilding indicates the resilience of the larger system," he said.

Rules for hikers

When we reached the interior vegetated area, Sheppard instructed us to stay together as a group and to walk in a single file on the horse paths "to minimize our footprints." He reminded us of the park's no-interference policy with the horses that were grazing and walking around us.

We carefully followed him along the horse trails, stopping occasionally to take photos of plants and wildflowers.

Cycle of life

But there were also signs of death, as well as life, such as the remains of seals and horses. "If you go back years later to an area where you saw a carcass, you'll see lush growth around it as it becomes part of Sable Island life," explained Sheppard.

"Gulls also play an important role in scavaging carcasses and redepositing nutrients," he added. "In winter, when grey seals give birth and defecate all over the island, there is a huge nutrient influx into the environment. By grazing and defecating, the horses also influence nutrient flow."

According to Jonathan Sheppard, the history, ecology, remoteness and beauty of Sable Island make it a humbling place to work. "Although it looks fragile, the ability of the horses, seals, cranberries and other life to survive here is testimony to the resilience of the ecosystem."

Hike to freshwater ponds

Sable Island's freshwater ponds also have a life cycle, we discovered on another walk. Located in the western third of the island, the fresh water in these ponds floats over denser salt water below it.

As we walked around one of the ponds, Bill Freedman explained that the number of ponds are diminishing. Some are becoming inundated with seawater surges associated with storms. Others are becoming shallower due to sand infill.

Near Main Station, a large freshwater pond complex has become brackish due to ocean overwash and dune erosion. The water no longer supports the biodiversity that we saw in the freshwater ponds.

The most extensive system of ponds was next to West Light and Sable Island's old Number 2 Life-Saving Station. They were breached and are now saline. Their rich biodiversity was also lost. On a positive note, some infilled ponds become cranberry bogs at the end of their lifespan.

Biodiversity hotspots

In the ponds, we saw ducks and leaches. "Two species of fish live in the ponds—killifish or mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) and sticklebacks," said Freedman. "They are species that can also survive in brackish and salt water."

The freshwater is replenished by rain and melting snow. "Sable Island receives about 1,300 mm (51 inches) of rain per year," he noted.

The ponds are important watering areas for horses. We saw only one horse drinking during our hike, but we observed many of their hoofprints beside the water, as well as tracks made by gulls.

North Beach walk

Shortly after our Zodiacs landed on North Beach, our guides handed us magnifying glasses to look at two creatures that they had collected in the ocean. We viewed a tiny Medusa jellyfish floating like an open umbrella in a plastic bag full of water and a translucent comb jellyfish, a favorite food of sea turtles, dangling in a water bottle.

The Atlantic Ocean along Sable Island's beaches looked inviting, but we didn't dare go swimming. Eighteen species of sharks patrol these waters, including great white sharks.

We walked between the water and the coastal dunes. Washouts and blowouts perforate the dunes and funnel wind and waves into the interior.

We were fascinated by the driftwood and marine flotsam tossed up on the beach by the currents. Beachcombers can find an impressive variety of items from around the world on Sable Island beaches—pop bottles, hard hats, a computer monitor, a marine buoy, rubber duckies and even the remnants of helium-filled balloons from Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Walking across Wallace Lake

With its crashing surf, South Beach looks very different from the steeply sloped North Beach, just 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across the island. A long, sandy plain resembling a desert, South Beach is surprising to see in the North Atlantic.

As we crossed the broad expanse, it felt as if we were hiking across the ocean floor when the tide was out. We were, in fact, walking along the sandy bottom of the former Lake Wallace.

You can see Lake Wallace in old maps of Sable Island. In the 1950s, pilots landed amphibious Canso planes in the water.

In just over two decades, it became infilled with wind-blown sand. The final remnants of Lake Wallace disappeared in 2011.

Sable Island airport

The eight-kilometer (five-mile) beach is now the Sable Island airport (code: YSA) runway. Before each plane lands, the Parks Canada operations coordinator (who is also the airport manager) ensures that the sand is firm enough to keep the plane's wheels from sinking.

After a rainfall, the sand firms up like tarmac. If too much rain falls during a storm, the beach can flood.

The airport manager (Daryll Mooney, during our visit) drives a truck up and down the sand so that the tire tracks demarcate the runway for the pilot. The truck (which weighs as much as the twin engine plane) is a mobile airport terminal with a windsock.

Walking out to the ocean, we saw grey seals hauled out on the beach just beyond the frothing surf from the big, rolling waves. We asked Bill Freedman about the tiny holes in the sand.

"They're made by a type of crustacean called an arthopod," he said. "When the water recedes, they dive into those holes."

Surf clams

He noted that it's still possible to find walrus tusks on the beach. "Walruses (Odobunus rosmarus) used to breed on Sable Island, but they were extirpated by excessive commercial hunting," explained Freedman.

"Walruses would survive here if they were ever reintroduced because Sable Island has lots of surf clams, one of their key foods. They grab them from the bottom with their mouths, suck out the contents and then toss the shell."

Hiking gear

With the strong wind blowing salt spray on us, we were happy to be wearing the gear that Adventurer Canada recommended for our trip. Their packing list advised us to bring lightweight waterproof hiking boots, warm socks, waterproof jackets, pants and gloves.

Sable Island has no mosquitoes, horseflies, blackflies or no-see-ums, so we didn't need DEET insect repellant. We did use sunscreen, sunglasses and broad-brimmed hats for the sunny days during our cruise and hiking trip.

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TRAVEL INFORMATION

Adventure Canada

Sable Island National Park Reserve

More things to see & do on Adventure Canada Sable Island cruises:

Gully Marine Protected Area - Habitats for Seabirds and Whales

Sable Island Plants - Flowers, Berries, Shrubs, Grasses and One Tree