Just steps away from busy Ioco Road and the Port Moody Recreation Centre, a new trail built by hard-working volunteers is alive with the sound of hummingbirds and squirrels and the smell of new green leaves and skunk cabbage.
It's Bennie's Trail, a 300-foot walk to the north of the Noons Creek Hatchery that is inviting to both hard-core naturalists and simple nature lovers.
Named after one of the founders of the Noons Creek Hatchery, run by the Port Moody Ecological Society, Doug Bennie, the trail winds through spindly vine maples, proud cedars, fast-growing cottonwoods and grand Big Leaf maples. A tributary of Noons Creek runs through it and there are interpretive signs to look at as well as markings from various animals - including trees studded with bear claw marks.
On Saturday, the trail will be open to visitors during the 11th annual Fingerling Festival this Saturday, May 4.
The project started as a way to clear invasive plants, such as lamium and blackberry, and "then it took on a life of it's own," said Dave Bennie, Doug's son who is still an active volunteer with the hatchery.
He said volunteers spent hundreds of hours last summer and fall pushing through the trail through dense blackberry bushes and swamp, loading wheelbarrow's full of bark mulch on the path so visitors wouldn't get their feet wet.
PMES president Sandra Niven also welcomed visitors to the trail this weekend. "They can walk it and it will be nice, we can spread the people out."
For more information, visit http://noonscreek.org.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Fingerling Festival Saturday, May 4 at the Noons Creek Hatchery in Port Moody from 1-3 p.m.
80 displays from a variety of presenters
Bobs & Lolo in Concert at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
transfer fingerlings from the hatchery pond to Noons Creek
walk the new interpretive trail, called Bennie's Trail.
