I had an email from Roxanne who lives in Eastern Passage.  She says that down the road from the Cole Harbour Heritage Park (on Bissett Road) is another park. 

Here is what she said: "The trail that you are showing for Cole Harbour is nice but if you drive a little way farther down that road there is the Salt Marsh Trail (2 entrances) which goes along the old train tracks (no longer there) and you can go left or right. 

Left takes you to the Lawrencetown area if you go far enough.  The trail is 6.5 kms and is marked every kilometer with benches along the way. 

 If you go right, you can walk to the corner of Caldwell and Hines.  Even longer than the first trail but is all wooded.  If you haven't checked these out, the one going left is definitely worth the drive, your dog will love it.

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On Easter weekend 2003 I went to check it out. 

It's amazing how one wrong turn can change the whole experience! I didn't listen about the 2 entrances.  I went in through the first parking lot I came to. 

It had a nice gravelled path that seemed to end and a dirt path continued.  Little did I know that the nice gravel path had ended because I had come to the parking lot where the proper trail began! 

So I started walking on the dirt path.  It turns out that this is the "proposed route" for the link up through the Cole Harbour Heritage Park to the Trans Canada Trail (of which the Salt Marsh Trail is part of).  So I walked and walked and then the path seemed to end. 

I could see the ocean through the trees and thinking I had lost the correct trail walked toward the water through the bush hoping to find the correct trail.  I didn't.  I walked along the shore - which is actually a salt marsh for quite a while and got to see quite a bit of the shoreline, which actually had a lot of garbage on it. 

 But I did find a really neat shaped rock for my fish tank so the experience turned out to be totally worthwhile.  I eventually found my way back to the original path I was on and went back down to the 2nd parking lot where I found the proper entrance for the trail and had a good laugh. 

The actual Salt Marsh trail looks like it's a place where dogs need to be on leash though, so I'm glad I went the way I did. 

I will try it again at some point in the future.  I don't think the dogs noticed I was lost in the woods for 2 hours.  They just know they had a really long fun run in the woods!

If you want to find out how to get to the REAL Salt Marsh trail - go to http://www.halifax.ca/rec/documents/SaltMarshTrail.pdf  and http://www.halifax.ca/rec/TrailsColeHarbour.html

Update to the story -----------------  I have since been emailed about this page by a couple people over the years, because I've had this website since 2002 (I'm updating this page in 2009) - and I've been severely chastised for falling off the path that day in 2003 and allowing my dogs to let their feet wander off the gravel path.  One email I got said that "even a foot print (off the path) is enough to cause damage." and that the rock I took for my fish tank? - "You took home a rock from a shore line, again against the law to remove shore line material or items from a park."

I find things like these - when I receive emails like this - kind of hilarious - because the thing is - directly across the street, there are huge subdivisions being built.  Places like the Salt Marsh Trail exist in an urban environment - and for better or worse - are not representations of true wild nature - just like Long Lake Park over in Halifax.  People cannot install moving sidewalks in these places and expect people to stand on them and just move through the parks move through them oohing and aahing at the virgin forests and bears and raccoons that are there.

There is enough space here in the HRM and Nova Scotia for all of us - even WITH all the subdivisions and houses being built.   And I think there's also enough rocks to go around too.

Is your dog a dog friendly dog?  Click here and find out!  This link also has a link to the HRM's website about "responsible dog ownership"