Haunted houses and daffodils: Digby 2.0

In early May while Ty's brother was in town, we ventured out to visit Digby Island again.  Last time we hiked across the island from the airport ferry dock.  This time we took the easy route by taking the water taxi that deposited us right in the quirky, quaint community of Dodge Cove.

It was a perfect time to visit, Dodge Cove was in bloom.  Most prevalent were the sunny faces of daffodils doting every yard and along the sides of the road.

We struck out to find the CBC Hill trail just south of the community.  It is a charming, easy, well-maintained trail.  We found frogs and unfurling fiddleheads on top of the various "treasures" like beach glass, shells, mini dinosaur figurines and a few Disney princesses tucked into various nooks and crannies by locals. This would be a perfect trail for wee ones.   You can even sneak down to the beaches to do some intertidal investigating.

Half way along the loop the highlight of the trail emerges from the undergrowth: the old Doctor's House.  What must have once been a stately and stunning home now stands in ruins, slowly crumbling back to the forest. Built in 1912, apparently it was never occupied by a Doctor, but was constructed to house one should the quarantine hospital that had been built on a small island nearby ever been put to use.  Alas, the boom of immigration that was predicted, never occurred and both structures began to crumble. Now it stands almost as a sweet and sad reminder of a yet another boom that never manifested for this part of the coast.  

It's creepy and beautiful all at once.  Looking at it from the trail, one could imagine white, ghostly figures appearing in the open, dark windows. I would never step foot in it, and not just because most of the floors have caved in, but it's the perfect stereotype of where a horror movie would occur.  As we poked around, my scaredy-cat nature ensured that I had Cody or Ty nearby.  

The deliciously eerie aura of the house is quickly replaced a little further along the trail as you climb the CBC hill (so named after the CBC transmission towers located there) and step out into a field of daffodils.  

Instead of looping back to town at the end of the trail, we continued along to Casey Cove to do a little beach combing and see the old marine station.  Yet another picturesque set of buildings slowly falling victim to the wet climate that decays just about everything.  

After making our way back from Casey Cove with only a bit of time left before the water taxi home, we made a last jaunt, this time up Buddha Hill.  The short trail leads up a soggy incline to a nice lookout west towards Chatham Sound.  A small Buddha lies hidden in the salal with a scattering of small offerings laid at its base.