Ministik A87 to Horseshoe Lake or North Miquelon (10:30 Start) – Tentative
May 11, 2025 @ 10:30 am – 3:30 pm MDT
For the past few years there has been a ‘Mother’s Day Breakfast’ at the Spilstead Community Hall (20502 Township Road 502, corner of Township Road 502/Range Road 205).
We will check to see if they will have a Mother’s Day Breakfast again in 2025, if so we can meet at the community hall for breakfast then drive the 2km to the trailhead for the hike.
Those just want to hike can meet us at the trailhead.
This will be one of our hikes within the Ministik Bird Sanctuary. We’ll meet at the trail head beside “A87” (Spilstead Access), ~0.2km south of the corner of Township Road 502/Range Road 210, at 10:30 a.m.. The hike will leave from ‘A87’ at 10:45. (Note: if there is no ‘Mother’s Day Breakfast’ at the Spilstead Community Hall then we will meet at A87 at 9:45 with a 10:00 start).
Based upon spring trail conditions, the hike will either go north from A87 to Horseshoe Lake or south to North Miquelon.
During the 2021 season, these hikes had the added bonus of walking with Dylan Reade, the Oscar-nominated cameraman behind some of the great IMAX films (“Fires of Kuwait”, “Flight of the Butterflies”, “Dinosaurs Alive”, to name a few). Dylan was producing a series of videos for the Beaver Hills Biosphere website. In an email correspondence, Dylan said, “I am particularly interested in Ministik since a portion of the sanctuary intersects with a route that Joseph Tyrell took through the Beaver Hills in 1886—which I am also covering in an upcoming episode.”
If you are new to WTA hikes, then you should visit the Guided Hikes webpage for essential information. For further information specific to this hike, refer to The Waskahegan Trail Guide Book, pages 71 & 73, or contact the Hike Leader, TBD,
A87 to Horseshoe Lake – Overview
Plants typically seen on the trail from A87 north to Knull Lake – Coltsfoot, agrimony, rose, sasparilla, meadow rue, dogbane, goldenrod, Asters, fireweed, thistles, giant hyssop, nettles, other mints, mayflower, birch, spruce, beaked nut hazel, honeysuckle, highbush cranberry, snowberry, water hemlock, yarrow, yellow rattle in grass patches, fairy bell, false soloman’s seal, lily of the valley, nodding biggars tick, and various mosses.
The Ministik Bird Sanctuary, an important bird sanctuary for migratory waterfowl. You can hope to see plenty of wildlife as well as a fine example of muskeg habitat. This is an excellent time to visit here, as mosquito populations are down, but come prepared anyway (with repellent) as well as water, sun block and lunch for another fine day on the Trail. If you have a camera and perhaps a knock-about pair of binoculars, why not bring them too? You won’t be sorry. The pictures from May 5th, 2024.
Here are the stories of previous hikes:
A87 North Miquelon – Overview
This is the hike in the Miquelon & Ministic area that we did a few years ago with the “Red Deer Ramblers” and is also great for bird watching. The trail goes the Currie pasture, past the Sanctuary Estates subdivision and the Marsh Mitchell cabin. The pictures from May 7th, 2023.
Here are the stories of previous hikes: