It’s the trees that make the place.

If you have ever pulled into the parking lot at Ski Wentworth or taken a ride on the new chair you have no doubt laid eyes on one of the most majestic maple trees in all of northern Nova Scotia.  There is a good chance you just didn’t realize.

Hidden in plain sight is one of the biggest, most robust sugar maples I have ever laid eyes on.  It’s tucked away in a small residual stand of trees at the bottom of the Chickadee on skiers right.  I had been working here for over a year and never noticed other people I have shown have been here much longer and didn’t notice either.  You can be forgiven for not seeing it.  The tree top is visible from almost anywhere in the parking lot, there isn’t really anything that makes it stick out. Sometimes the best hiding places are in plain sight.  On the day we decided to build a small, accessible ‘putter course’ at the bottom of the hill I went poking around to see if I could find some interesting lines hidden in the small groupings of trees.  I hadn’t spent more than 2 minutes poking around when I discovered it.  The biggest maple I have found on the property so far.  We lovingly call him ‘Gilbert’.  

Gilbert is nestled just above the old Barclay road.  My guess is he is at least 150 years old.  Two of us can’t quite fit our arms all the way around his trunk.  You would have to assume he was there before the road and that the previous generation of engineers built around him.  Now, he is tucked into a small little pocket next to an ash, and Hemlock, surrounded by mix spruce and fir, which came up much later.  Every single person that I have brought to see it is blown away, both by the size and the fact that he went unnoticed for so long.  You don’t have to work hard to see him for yourself.  He sits just off the trail after hole 1 on the ‘Hopper”, our new putter course.  His bottom branches stretch out for what feels like ever as he seems to make a habitat all of his own.  It is safe to say we created our second hole on the putter course just’ as a way to feature this tree.  It is worth it to play just for this.

I am constantly amazed how many incredible trees I find on this site and I have only begun to scratch the surface.  Now that the word is out we are looking for cool trees so many staff have pointed me in the right direction.  I will do my best to keep sharing them with you!