Open Wildergeist on a trail and it tells you what's around you, why it's there, and what to look for next.
Look at the granite scattered around you, the same rock that lies underneath this whole loop. Where rain runs off it you get open barrens, and where it settles you get forest and bog.
The pitcher plants along this bog edge are feeding on what the peat can't give them. Each leaf is a rain-filled trap, and the insects that drown there supply the nitrogen this ground lacks.
Watch where the trees thin out ahead. The ground goes from soil to bare granite in a few steps, and the plants change with it.
How a walk starts on Pot Lake Loop
Finding your bearings…
Wildergeist can direct you to a spot on a trail and can identify a plant. But both are in service of a deeper question: what's happening here, right now?
Pot Lake Loop on the Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail is where the app knows the most. Learn why the forest keeps changing as you walk, which plants are particular to this granite country, and what is worth stopping for that you would otherwise walk past. Much of what it knows here draws on material generously shared by naturalist David Patriquin.
Anywhere else outdoors in Nova Scotia it still knows the forest you're in, down to the stand of trees around you.
We're building outward from here. Tell us where you walk.
Finding your bearings…