Around mid-July, I happened to be in St. Andrews for our first family vacation of the summer. By this time, I had already visited all of the Nature Trust preserves in the immediate St. Andrews area, but had yet to visit the two that were closest to St. Stephen along the St. Croix River. My dad and I decided to check these out early on a Friday morning. We had brought a very rough map with us and we were also pressed for time due to family commitments later that same morning. Regardless, we were fairly confident that we could at least find the start of the main trail through Clark's Point Nature Preserve. Sure enough...we found it easily! However, we decided that we were most curious about whether or not we could find King Brook Lake on the McNichol-Orser Land Easement. After walking a few steps within Clark's Point, we chose instead to turn back and head out in search of King Brook Lake. |
We reached Macmahon Road and found a place to park the car. Then we set out...following a complete guess as to which trail might lead us to the lake. Maybe it was the massive clouds of mosquitos, the short window of time, or lack of confidence in our map...but we found ourselves turning around after about 45 minutes of searching. We didn't happen across any wetland whatsoever! But we still enjoyed having scouted out the area and the experience provided us more information for a return visit. Sure enough, when we were able to check satellite images upon our return, we concluded that the trail system we had followed was just shy of the lake (see above image). We also shared some laughs about the severity of the mosquitoes. Over the 10 seconds it took to pause and take this shot of my dad, it must have cost me several bites from the little vampires! You can see them circling over my dad in the photo. Funny enough...this was the only photo I ended up taking on this initial exploration! |
Later in August, I was once again in St. Andrews. This time, it was to deliver an evening art workshop at Sunbury Shores Art & Nature Centre. I stayed the night and decided to get up in the wee hours to make a second attempt at finding King Brook Lake. This time, having looked at some online maps and aerial photos, I was pretty sure I knew where to look for the correct trail. St. Andrews was very foggy that morning, and I wondered if it would be the same around MacNichol-Orser. The higher elevation brought me above most of the fog, but there was still a good amount of mist in the area. This time, after a short 30-40 minute trek, I came across King Brook. And just beyond that was the lake!
It was extremely serene when I stepped out into the clearing surrounding the lake. A few ducks stirred, but other than that it was incredibly silent. The lake itself is surrounded by swampy peat land. I very slowly and cautiously tip toed further into the clearing. After awhile I found that each step was sinking more and more into the spongy surface to the point where I could literally see about a 4 foot radius around me drop slightly with each step. I chose not to venture too far for this reason. As I watched each step, I also became aware of an abundance of what I believe were carnivorous pitcher plants. Their beautiful magenta colours contrasted with the many greens around them. I also enjoyed the lingering mist surrounding the lake.