Wolfville Reservoir Trail
When Ryan Lindh messaged me offering to give us a guided tour of Wolfville Reservoir Park, we jumped at the chance.
Although, I am not sure if he realized what he was in for – we showed up with 6 kids, 3 adults, 1 dog, and were planning on taking the kids snowshoeing for (most of) their first time!
We were looking for an adventure, and we found a great one at the Wolfville Reservoir Trail!
Ryan and his partner Michelle own a company called Trail Flow Outdoor Adventures.
Based out of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, TrailFlow provides services in sustainable trail design, construction, mountain bike guiding, events and more.
And, Ryan is a lot of fun, with a great sense of adventure – of course!
The Wolfville Reservoir Park is Ryan’s baby. Over the past few years he has helped to develop and build the trails. He also designed and built the bike course at Burgher Hill in Kentville.
Because he knows the trail system so well, he hand-picked a route that would best suit our needs and the attention span of the kids.
About the Trail
The entrance to the park is located at the corner of Sherwood and Pleasant streets in Wolfville. See Map.
However, a series of trails, starting downtown at Willow Avenue will lead you up to the Wolfville Reservoir Park. Follow the trail printed on the map. This is called the Millenium Trail. At the top, there are beautiful views of the Minas Basin and look-off points with benches.
Once in the park, there are approximately 4 kilometres of trails, of which the majority travel around two former reservoir ponds.
In the summer, you can go swimming in the reservoir or stay for a picnic.
In the winter, it is fairly easy to figure out where you are going, because you can just follow the trails left by other.
The path is well tamped down, making it easy to walk on. There is a basic map at the trail’s entrance; however, this map, and the map on the Town of Wolfville’s site does not cover all the newly built (by Trail Flow) trails and loops. New signage will be coming in the spring.
Knowing how much I love and appreciate maps, Ryan did give me a copy of the “sneak peak” map, and I can tell you it’s amazing.
Snowshoeing
To go hiking we decided it would be easier to go snowshoeing so we wouldn’t sink so much in the snow.
I borrowed pairs for all the kids and one adult from Kentville Recreation – for free! This is a great service offered by many local recreation departments.
Lean more
Most of the kids had never tried snowshoeing before, so it added to the excitement of the adventure. The shoes seemed to slip “around” a lot, and we constantly had to readjust them for the kids – but that could be because they were constantly running and jumping in them!
Our Hike
Ryan patched together a series of trails for us, so we could see all parts of the park. We walked along narrow paths, down hills, saw an eagles nest and ended up in a bike park.
Again, built by Trail Flow, there are a series of biking challenges – bridges, ramps, etc – to try out. All the challenges are labelled according to their level of difficulty. Green circles are the easiest, followed by blue squares and then black diamonds.
But, we had to take his word for this as most of it was covered in the snow!
We’ll definitely be back in the spring with our bikes!
Overall
We had a wonderful afternoon, and Ryan was a perfect tour guide and the kids loved him!
We will definitely go back to explore more of the Wolfville Reservoir Park on our own, and certainly in all seasons!
Trail Flow Workshops
Keep an eye out on Trail Flow’s website or Facebook page as they offer a series of workshops on many different outdoor activities from snowshoeing to clinics on how to bike the trail at Burgher Hill and the course at the Reservoir Park. These are for many different age groups from young children to adult.
I know we’ll be keeping an eye out, because the kids can’t wait for their next adventure with Ryan.
Next time you need an afternoon activity for the family, head to the Wolfville Reservoir Park!
