The Morrison Hall trail, aka: Little Bromont, Noile’s Nightmare, is a single track trail in the Western Crown (former Bowater) Lands. The trail is located southwest of Sandy Lake off of Tote Rd.
The trail was constructed sometime before 2001, although the entrance has been rerouted since then. This trail was formerly used by Bicycle Nova Scotia for the Noile’s Nightmare XC race. The current primary trail users are mountain bikers and trail runners. This trail sees less dirt bike traffic than the other Bowater trails and doesn’t have the same erosion problems, but the motorized traffic has increased since the highway overpass improved access to the area. The land this trail sits on is crown land, but it falls outside of the proposed Island Lake Wilderness Area, so it currently lacks any protection from logging or development. My goal is to change that.
The name Morrison Hall was given to the trail by a group of local trail runners in memory of Christopher Morrison. There is a plaque dedicated to him located on a large granite boulder halfway up the trail.
Over the past year myself and some other like minded riders have been doing some much needed maintenance on the trail. Hurricane Fiona hit the forest around Morrison Hall pretty hard, blowing down many old trees and even tearing up the entire tread of the trail in several places. The blowdowns have been cleared and work continues on repairing the tread.
My goal is to work with the Dept. of Natural Resources and Renewables to have this trail sanctioned under the Trails Act, either on my own or in co-operation with the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association. A previous attempt to form a trail association out here failed due to a lack of interest. I’ve contacted to NR&R to discuss if it’s possible to sanction this trail and what that process will look like.
If anyone has any information or old photos that would help in preparing the proposal. I have a copy of @tossedsalad 's trail guide from 2001 with a map and description of the trail. I’ll take whatever else anyone can give me though.
I like this trail, lots of other people like this trail, and it holds very special meaning for some of the trail users. In it’s current state it’s unprotected from logging, development, and motorized vehicle use. I’d like to see that changed and I’m willing to work toward that goal.
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/morrison-hall/
(Thanks @bent6543)
