Nova Scotia steals our hearts

After PEI, we came through the corner of New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia. Right before the bridge to cross to Nova Scotia there is a Big Irving gas station. I have to give a shout out to Irving for being really good to campervan folk. We have used their heavy duty air pumps for our tires and now filled our water tank with their water hose. It is amazing how relieved you feel when your van is full of gas, propane, and water.

We then stopped at the Nova Scotia Visitors Center where we met a lovely young man who is also really into distrance backcountry hiking!! He sent us to a 52km loop in one of the provincial parks called Cape Chignecto. As we found out later, this park is not well known even by locals. We met two guys and their three children who live 50 km away and just learned that the park was here. Trust you me, if we had not stopped at the visitors center we never would have found it as it is not on the tourist map or google maps...

And perhaps for good reason; the road to get there is a bit scary. You traverse more than 100 km of no-speed-limit road across bridges that are unmarked and have no weight limit posted!! We just assumed that logging trucks used the road and boldly drove across. The one above almost caused our doom as it comes directly after a long straight away and a sharp curve... oh and it is one lane. Thank God no one was coming.

But we made it, and Cape Chignecto is AMAZING!! It is not crowded. In fact we were the only non-Canadian vehicle in the parking lot. It seems that the majority of the use is day use along the lovely beach.

Here is a shot of the beach that is accessible from the park office. It is called Red Rocks Beach for obvious reasons. We went into the park office to do the 52 km loop walk. You can see a map of our path in the photo below.

You must book a set campsite with the Park, so if you want to avoid the $9 reservation fee you can book at the Park rather than on the phone. We spent a long time talking with the Rangers about which direction to hike the loop and which campsite to book. They are very helpful and we decided to stay at Keyhole Brook site 3. It seemed to be one of the most private ones and when we booked no one else was set to stay there. We have crossed our fingers that it will stay that way. They gave us passes to be in the Park and trusted that we would not hike in that night. I love Canada. They really do trust people to have personal responsibility and to do the right thing just because. We left the park to look for somewhere to stay.

Again we got lucky. This appears to be a public access way to the water. Just over those rocks is the Bay of Fundy. You can see from Mike's clothing that it is cool tonight. We are a tiny bit worried about tenting tomorrow but since we can only bring one tent, there is not all that much in our packs.

The trail on this part of the loop is really good. If you look on the trail ahead, you can see the chipmunk that has made its home under the trail. He made a lot of noise as we passed.

In the photo above you can actually see where we camped. There are a few white buildings just in view and we were just over the rock berm.

We love to eat dinner with a view!! I swear we are personally keeping the Knorr company in business.

As the trail progressed there were some interesting trail features. Here is a section that used to have better stairs.

As you can see, it was well worth it. Unfortunately we got to Refugee Cove before the sun came out. In the distance you can see Haute Island. The island is 3 km long and 0.4 km wide. The Mi'kmaq, native peoples of Nova Scotia, used the island to make stone tools, and called the island "Maskusetik", meaning place of wild potatoes. Samuel de Champlain gave the present name to the island, meaning in French "High Island", in 1604. The steep 100 m (328 ft) basalt cliffs of the island are the result from volcanic eruptions in the Jurassic period and may have been connected to the North Mountain volcanic ridge on the mainland 200 million years ago, before the Bay of Fundy even existed.

The first 10 km of the trail reminded us both of the AT. It was up one mountain, then down into a gap, then back up the next one and repeat. In the gaps there were a ton of streams that were running towards the bay.

Most of the beaches here are kayak-in only. I think this picture explains why. The only downside to hiking this trail is that you can't see the plethora of waterfalls that cascade down the cliffs. Mike and I agreed that we have never crossed so many rivers on one trail.

The trail has a nice mix of shade and sun to walk through. Also there are so many micro-climates here. Is seems that every 1,000 m we are in a different ecosystem.

There are also two balds on the trail. You can see one here. On them grow all kinds of shallow-rooted plants: mosses, lichen and of course the rose plant that we see everywhere.

I can't get enough of the blue water here. It looks almost Caribbean but with the distinctive Nova Scotia rock beaches.

Now when you get into the forest, the water takes on a very different set of characteristics. You can see from this photo that the water is a very reddish-brown color. This is from all of the tannins that are in the soil. It appears to us that the soil here is very shallow. It is most likely sitting directly on top of bed-rock which does lead to the most irritating feature of this trail, which is that enormous mud wallows form regularly. Because this provincial park works hard to stay as natural as possible, there is not a lot of infrastructure on the trail. The only way to get across these wallows is to put down rocks or trunks from trees that you find on the side of the trail. This made hiking in the afternoon slow, less than 2.5 km per hour.

This is our campsite at Keyhole Brook. We did end up being very lucky, because no one else had booked a site here. It seems that most people take 3 or 4 overnights to do the loop. Because of that, this camp spot is not in a great location for anything except a single-overnight two-day hike. The other amazing thing is that the dinners we had were two left over from my hike on the Appalachian Trail. I guess I have to get another shout out to Lydia and Rebecca, who have the best taste in freeze-dried food. The Chili was from Mary Janes Farm. It is pricey but yummy.

The rock structure that you see in the photo above is called the Three Sisters. You can clearly see why this is its name. We weren't sure we were going to be able to see it because it's in a day-use area that we don't hike through, but luckily the shoreline worked in our favor and we were able to view it. Unfortunately it was in the morning and still quite foggy. We have asked the locals if the weather pattern is normally how we have observed it: cloudy in the morning, clouds burning off by noon, sunny and beautiful with clouds coming back around 9 o'clock pm just in time for sunset.

I have the feeling that there's going to be a lot of red squirrel pictures in this blog. I think that they are ridiculously cute and so take every opportunity to photograph them. Many of them are good sports and hold still long enough for me to get pretty good shots.

Here is a shot of what the forest looked like at one of the most mixed hardwood areas. Much of the rest of the hike was through predominantly pine forest, but that should make sense because we're so far North. Also the weather here is quite severe and the bed-rock so close to the top of the soil that the deciduous trees have a really hard time. It's really just Maples, Beeches and Birches that really do a good job growing in this area.

We took a slightly different way back to the starting point. On the way out Mike had wanted to see this waterfall. We could hear it from the trail and knew that there were a set of stairs down to the beach, but didn't want to take the time to go back and find out how to get down on the way out. Luckily this point is after the loop ends, and on the very short out-and-back section. This allowed us a second shot at it on the way back to the ranger station.

After finishing the hike we headed out to Kejimkujik National Park. I was super disappointed that we were unable to get a kayak in campsite. All of the campsites that were even available were so close to the trailhead that it really wasn't worth camping. Mike held it together while I pouted and brooded about our bad luck. Mike reminded me that once we were out on the Lake kayaking tomorrow I wouldn't even remember that I hadn't been able to camp. It's irritating when he's right. Mike just tried to add his 2 cents by telling me I should be used to it because it happens a lot. Luckily Mike is also very observant, and on the way in to Keji He spotted this campsite. It appears that there are areas like this on many side roads where people just use land to camp on without any need to book or let anyone know. If you look in the background, there is a beautiful pond and everything. During the night we heard owls and loons. It was really a lovely spot to spend a few nights.

We rented a kayak at Jake's Landing for $40 for the day. We were lucky because we got there early so the weather was beautiful and the wildlife was still out. The guide told us that it would be best if we went up the Mersey River first. Lucky that we did because we got to see a white-tailed deer, a Blandings turtle and a Painted turtle which is native here.

I have to say that double kayaks are really hard. Most of you know my lack of coordination, but it really peaked out when I needed to row in tandem with Mike.

Luckily there were tons of amazingly beautiful and private islands to crash out on. You can see three more across the channel from us.

As you can see the weather trend continues. We took the kayaks back around 6 o'clock and the fog had begun to roll in. You can see that I had to cover up for most of the day because being out on the open water even with sun screen is impossible.

One of the coolest things about the entire trip is that we did get to see this endangered turtle. We had been passing the sign going into the park and I had refused to take a photo of it because if I didn't get to see one I was going to be very disappointed.

Luckily fate was with us and he posed on the bank so I could take amazing photographs. Blandings Turtle Emydoidea blandingii, is a semi-aquatic turtle that is classed as an endangered species throughout much of its range. We really were particularly lucky because there are only four populations of these turtles in Nova Scotia. You can tell that you're looking at this species of turtle and not the painted turtle because of the dome shell and bright-yellow underbelly.

Can I just tell you how much I'm learning about certain plants on this trip! Above is one of the largest collections of Sundew, a carnivorous plant, that I've ever seen. Also it was growing in an area I wouldn't have thought possible. This is right on one of the rocky beaches on one of the small islands in the middle of Keji Lake. Truly incredible because there was only a small patch of it, maybe 10 m long, and it didn't seem to exist anywhere else. I have no idea what made this particular ecosystem so perfect for it, but as you can see it's blooming away.

We went back and slept at the same spot again for another night. I wanted to give you a different view of the campsite so you can see how cool these free campsites are in Nova Scotia. They really are quite far off the road and very private. I love the fact that they are provided for anyone to use. I'm not entirely sure if this would be considered Crown land, but perhaps.

When we were on one of our hikes today we finally caught up with the blueberries! We have been chasing huge plants full of green berries all the way up the side of the Maritime Provinces. We always seemed to be a week too early everywhere we went. Finally, if the bushes had been in the sun, we were able to pick a few ripe ones. They're not quite the same species that you would buy in the grocery store, because as you can see they're smaller and a little bit more tart, but very delicious.

On the 15th and 16th of July, Kejimkujik National Park was doing a BioBlitz event to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. The park teamed up with scientists, experts, and park visitors to find as much wildlife as possible in a short period of time. They then had people upload their findings to iNaturalist.org Citizen Science web page. Mike and I spent over an hour talking to experts in different fields. It was incredible how much science knowledge is packed into this park.

When we were on our way out of the park, we stopped at the Visitor Center one more time. That's where we spotted this guy! Meet Castor...this little Beaver is now our trip mascot. You can expect to see a lot more pictures of him everywhere we go. We decided to leave the park because I wanted to see a local museum in Annapolis Royal that deals with tidal turbines. I had never even seen a museum that was dedicated to them, let alone one that would actually let you see them at work.

This facility may not look like much, but it has a prototype tidal turbine that was intended to be reproduced and used in the Bay of Fundy. Unfortunately the Bay of Fundy has a lot of surprises that the tidal turbine experts didn't anticipate.

Firstly, the Bay has an incredible amount of sediment that builds up rapidly near the dam that was to hold the tidal turbines. This would seem to be an issue that could be solved, but the Bay of Fundy erodes enormous amounts of material upstream and the material that is deposited on both sides of the dam is not really able to be removed in any kind of economically appropriate manner. The other thing is that no one told the Bay of Fundy that currents are supposed to diminish as you go deeper in the channel. If you are curious about why this happens, it is because the friction should increase between the water and the sides/bottom of the channel, slowing down the current. This does not happen in the Bay of Fundy, so the surface current of about 10 knots stays very constant throughout the entire water column. Also most tidal turbines are simply not set up to deal with this speed. So this singular turbine does work and produce electricity for about 1000 homes. We didn't know it when we arrived, but we are also very lucky that the tidal turbine was shut down on the day that we visited. If not, we would never have been able to see this area!

This is the main floor where the tidal turbine is housed. It is four stories beneath the surface of Highway 1 and there are two stories underneath it.

You are now looking down on top of the actual turbine. The teal-colored portion is the upstream section where the water comes into the turbine. The orange portion is the electromagnet where the actual electricity is created. The yellow mechanism is there to ensure that the flow of the water and the speed of the electromagnets match up with the electricity grid.

I just loved this picture. This computer is almost as old as I am. It is digital but runs on analog input and is responsible for ensuring that the turbine, electromagnet and grid actually work together to produce and transmit usable power.

After the tidal turbine, Mike and I decided to have dinner out. I saw this dish on the menu and just had to try it. I like pickled fish so we thought we'd give this Canadian version a try. It was done in sweetened vinegar which gave it a dense feel in the mouth but the taste was lovely.

There is a small section of Kejimkujik National Park that is about an hour away and called the Seaside adjunct. We got to see harbor seals, gray seals and beautiful landscapes. Though really it just seems that all of Nova Scotia is stunning...

This is the seaside portion of the park...

And this is the interior section. There is a bit of mixed forest too that houses a bear and her two cubs. We had hoped to see them feeding on dead seals, but no luck.

Now we are on our way to Dartmouth to see Dan, a local Nova Scotian whom we met and who has been kind enough to invite us to stay at his house and go to a BBQ at his buddy's place.

Going around the table it is Gen, Dan, Joe and Mike... yes Joe is wearing a zombie beaver shirt... no I didn't steal it but I wanted to...

Thay have about a perfect house. It is right on the Atlantic Ocean, on a dead-end road with 180° views. You could die happy here.

Little did we know when Dan introduced us to Gen and Joe that they would invite us to come back the next night for a lobster, clam and mussel feast!! It was amazing... I mean crabs right out of the water were 8 dollars a pound!! Even less in US currency...around US$6.35 a pound! Sorry to inform you all in this way, but Mike and I are expatriating to Canada where we are buying a house like this and eating nothing but lobster forever...