Walking the Windmill Roads

On West Pubnico Point, we have a wonderful tourist attraction in the form of a 17-unit windmill farm. Of course, it is much more than a tourist attraction. According to Atlantic Wind Power Corporation Ltd., this 30-megawatt wind farm creates clean, renewable energy that does the following according to their brochures:

1. Supplies the energy of 13,000 average Canadian homes.

2. Will displace about 90,000 tons of CO2 per year.

3. Is equivalent to not driving 16,000 cars for a year.

4. Has the same impact as planting almost 750,000 trees that will absorb CO2 for 60 years. We can add that it’s not likely we will ever run out of wind either.

The windmills have a hub height of 257 feet and the blades form an arc in the sky reaching 389 feet from their cement base on the ground. The energy from these mills travels on submarine cables under the floor of Pubnico Harbour to a substation located in Lower East Pubnico.

There are about six miles or so of access roads connecting to the Pubnico Point main road and this is where most of us do our daily walking. A very pleasant walk; the revolving blades create a gentle swish that is not disturbing at all most of the time, somewhat the same noise as water lapping our shores.

The only time that we should avoid these roads is when there is ice on the revolving blades or when work is being conducted on the units by the maintenance crew.

Like belonging to a club

Walking these roads is almost like belonging to a club; you see the same people over and over again. In summertime I see young mothers with their baby carriages enjoying the sunny, carefree days. Often they stop and talk with me, and many times people I don’t really know recognize me for one reason or other.

There are several schoolteachers who take their daily walk in late afternoon as a way of unwinding after class. Tourists come from all over to visit the windmill farm and I talk with many from the Annapolis Valley every summer.

During migration, we see flocks of birders with their binoculars doing what birders do; there is no shortage of sea or land birds.

Since all the roads have padlocked gates to prevent vehicle traffic, it is an ideal place for exercising, such as running, and secured enough for the locals to exercise their dogs as well…on a leash, of course.

Wildlife is plentiful at times, too. I have seen deer a number of times, a few foxes, countless porcupines and Snowshoe rabbits, and some porcupines were so small that the quills were still soft, yet I prefer not to fool around with these walking pin cushions. Reptiles abound too: harmless garter snakes, green bullfrogs, big tadpoles, spotted salamanders, and so it goes; the ideal walk for nature lovers in summer.

Some of us hardy souls walk the windmills trails in winter too, dressed as if exploring the North Pole, of course. In winter we study the animal tracks that we see in the snow.

Something to look forward to

Every June during the Tern Festival (an event sponsored by the Acadian Museum), we do the “Birders Loop” with birders from all over the province. A birder I am not; still, I love rubbing shoulders with these dedicated and interesting people and learn a whole lot from them.

This is something to look forward to. Every year the same people keep returning, often with friends, and the group keeps getting bigger and bigger. The “Birders Loop” is really catching on.

Taking advantage of the wind is nothing new, though; ships have been propelled by wind power for centuries. Smaller windmills have provided power for water pumps, family-operated sawmills, charging batteries and so on.

When I was growing up there was one solitary windmill at the last house in my Acadian village near where the wind farm is today. This was to run a generator for electricity and lighting and this one was the first windmill on Pubnico Point.

History aside, birders, walkers, joggers, tourists and those running their dogs are enjoying what the windmill roads offer them. There is now interest about making a few trails into the woods just for walking.

I hope this becomes a reality soon. In the meantime, those gigantic wind blades just keep on turning at 17 revolutions per minute.

laudent@hotmail.com