Bubbling Springs

It doesn’t look like anything special when you first come upon it, a wetland area on a trail in the National Park at Brackley on Prince Edward Island. Yet a storyboard nearby refers to water bubbling up from sandstone bedrock.

My husband and I stood looking over the water for several minutes and spotted fish, not bubbles. I read the sign again and scanned the bottom. On second look, we saw them, bubble-like eruptions, spread over a number of locations! 

There is groundwater among the sandstone bedrock on the island. If pressure is sufficient, the water will bubble to the surface through fractures in the sandstone. The result is a natural spring. This spring must have been a wonderful find for the people who originally farmed this land. It looks like the spring was walled at one time.

My husband took a short video of the bubbling. You can see it here. Did you see the fish too?

We sat for a time and enjoyed the rare 13 degree Celsius day.

The remnants of a tree standing on the edge of the spring became the focus, with its stubs of cut branches. 

How old was it and how much longer could it last here on the edge?

Later we had a picnic lunch near the entrance to the Bubbling Springs Trail. This time, we’d brought our stove to cook lean bacon and heat homemade baked beans. 

It was a delicious lunch on a lovely fall day. We will take the stove again and have hot food on colder days to extend our picnic season this year. 

As for the Bubbling Springs, we will be back!