canoeing Big Five Bridge Lake (Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, HRM)

[Dusan Soudek]

Earlier this week I paddled over to and camped on a sandy beach at Big Five Bridge Lake (BFBL). I wanted to check  out some campsites, real and potential ones, and to visit Prices Lake, which is separated from BFBL by a very narrow channel. I started and finished at the Flake Brook put-in at the end of Hubley Big Lake Road. Crossing Hubley Big Lake, Upper Five Bridge Lake, and Middle Five Bridge Lake against a stiff headwind gave me a workout, as did the three longish portages between these bodies of water. Luckily the carries are in reasonably good shape, if slightly overgrown with ground vegetation. 

 

At BFBL I checked a few campsites, including a former one at the site of the old Pioneer Village hostel, now badly overgrown. Another campsite, at the narrows separating BFBL and Prices Lake, is blocked by a large fallen tree. A potential campsite just inland of the beach where I ended up camping had been taken over by deer hunters. About the only other camping options are at sites near the inlet of the Five Mile Pond stream close to the Old St. Margaret’s Bay Road where local anglers keep their motor boats.

 

Interestingly, the shoreline of BFBL and its downstream twin Moores Lake is entirely owned by the province and by HRM. The latter inherited its parcel from the old Halifax Water Commission, which in the 80’s planned to dam the lakes and to use them to supply water to the city. I am not sure whether this land had been acquired through purchase or through expropriation. But this plan was shelved and Halifax now gets its water from Pockwock Lake.

 

Dusan Soudek