Day 12
Yesterday, after helping Laura carry the laundry to the machines, I was browsing through the literature and found a brochure for a drive around the St. Margaret's Bay region called the Coastal Heritage Trail. We had planned on doing sightseeing today anyway so decided to follow the trail on the brochure. Here is the map we followed with assistance from Google Maps. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them on your screen.
We drove to the eastern end of the trail and started at #1 on the map - SS Atlantic Heritage Park. The park is the resting place of 277 passengers and crew of the SS Atlantic which ran aground near there on April 1, 1873.
This monument was erected near the site of the mass burial. As a ship captain, I'm very interested in what happened to cause such a catastrophe. As with most problems like this, it was a combination of decisions and actions that led to the sinking. They were running low on coal because a multi-day storm had slowed them down so they decided to pull into Halifax for more coal. The crew was not experienced with these waters so the Captain left orders to be woken up at 3am when they should be close to shore. The First-Mate decided all was well so he let the Captain sleep. The ship struck the rocks at 4am.
Next, we passed a restaurant with a great sign so we had to turn around and check it out. The sign said, "Beer and Lobster - Enough Said". Here is a picture of the sign and front of the building. It was right on the edge of a cove with a beautiful setting. The fish chowder was maybe the best I ever had but the lobster roll and fish-and-chips were a little so-so. 
The beautiful setting was worth it anyway. This was our view from the patio where we had lunch.
After lunch we continued our trip to Peggy's Cove. We were told by locals that this was a great place to visit as the point stuck out on the ocean and the lighthouse was beautiful. Unfortunately, every other vacationer in the area also heard this and the place was packed. Not even a parking spot within a mile of the town. We bypassed Peggy's Cove for this trip.
We skipped the Pioneer Cemetery and tried to find the Old Annapolis Road Hiking Trail. It sounded like a beautiful hike through the woods around a lake. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the road to the trailhead because of construction. Laura wanted to visit a local beach which was only a short distance away so we drove there and I started my search for the hiking trail - you know I don't give up, right?
As Laura walked the beach, I search for the trail on Google. I did find a reference to it but needed to download an app called AllTrails. I'm thinking, "What the heck? I need to buy an app just to find this trail?" But, the app was free and it did give me directions to follow on Google Maps. Ok. Now to find Laura. I walked to the beach and took this video Cleveland Beach, Queensland, Nova Scotia which came out nice. Most of the beaches we've found in Nova Scotia are small and isolated. The coastline here is pretty rugged. This is a great example.
After Laura came back we set course for the trailhead. It took us down a highway under construction and told us to turn through the construction site. I figured the maps did not know about the construction so just kept going. As we drove by, I could see a gravel road leading away from the site. We turned around at the next exchange and took the gravel road. 5 or 6 miles later, after being bumped and jostled like crazy, we arrived at the trailhead according to AllTrails. There was an overgrown gravel road so we grabbed a water bottle and walked down the road. After about 1/2 hour and several walks around streams across the road, I decided to check the AllTrails map. It was working even though I had no service on the phone and showed we had missed the turn into the woods a ways back. Ok. I take it back. This AllTrails app is great! Who knows how long we would have walked before turning around. This is the pond we would walk around.
We did find the trail around a nice pond / lake and it was like a hike through the Adirondacks. Very quiet and isolated. The walk through the woods was about 1 1/2 miles and great exercise. Some of it was very well maintained. Here is Laura walking across a bridge built over a large stream.
I checked the AllTrails app several times to make sure we stayed on the trail but it was pretty well marked with yellow arrows on the trees. After about 1/2 way around, we could hear thunder in the distance even though the Sun was shining through the trees where we were walking. We picked up the pace a bit and dodged the raindrops for the last 1/4 mile or so. It rained just hard enough to wet down the gravel road for our trip back to the construction area.
After the hike we were tired and sweaty so decided to end our sightseeing and head back to the campground. After showers and clean clothes, we felt much better and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Last night at our Sailing Club dinner, someone mentioned to us how beautiful Cape Brenton was at the north end of Nova Scotia. I had checked a few campgrounds up there and none of them had very high ratings. I said something like, "We have to leave something for next time." and Laura was not happy with that and let me know. On the way back to the campground I told her I'd be happy to change plans if she was willing to do the work and find us a place to stay. Today she did find a campground not too far from Cape Brenton in Linwood Harbor and called for a 2-day reservation. That's where we are heading tomorrow.
Bill's thoughts on traveling by RV -
One of my "cons" with RV traveling has been the large crowds at the popular places. Seems like we never had too much of that when traveling by boat so I was making that something "bad" about RVing. Today I got to thinking that maybe that's not quite fair. We've never traveled with the boat in the summer because we've been running charters or managing the marina. If we did, I'll bet the more popular ports and cities would be very crowded too. I'll take that off the list for now.
Campsites are sometimes very close together and this campground is the closest we've seen yet. This evening, our neighbor to port decided they wanted a campfire. Even though everyone in this campground is really close, campfires are not outlawed. Having a campfire is part of camping and RVing. I get that. However, we had to close up our trailer because it was filling with smoke from his campfire. Hopefully, we'll be able to open up before bed time.
Day 12 - 126 miles (no towing), 1,415 total miles
As Laura walked the beach, I search for the trail on Google. I did find a reference to it but needed to download an app called AllTrails. I'm thinking, "What the heck? I need to buy an app just to find this trail?" But, the app was free and it did give me directions to follow on Google Maps. Ok. Now to find Laura. I walked to the beach and took this video Cleveland Beach, Queensland, Nova Scotia which came out nice. Most of the beaches we've found in Nova Scotia are small and isolated. The coastline here is pretty rugged. This is a great example.
After Laura came back we set course for the trailhead. It took us down a highway under construction and told us to turn through the construction site. I figured the maps did not know about the construction so just kept going. As we drove by, I could see a gravel road leading away from the site. We turned around at the next exchange and took the gravel road. 5 or 6 miles later, after being bumped and jostled like crazy, we arrived at the trailhead according to AllTrails. There was an overgrown gravel road so we grabbed a water bottle and walked down the road. After about 1/2 hour and several walks around streams across the road, I decided to check the AllTrails map. It was working even though I had no service on the phone and showed we had missed the turn into the woods a ways back. Ok. I take it back. This AllTrails app is great! Who knows how long we would have walked before turning around. This is the pond we would walk around.
We did find the trail around a nice pond / lake and it was like a hike through the Adirondacks. Very quiet and isolated. The walk through the woods was about 1 1/2 miles and great exercise. Some of it was very well maintained. Here is Laura walking across a bridge built over a large stream.I checked the AllTrails app several times to make sure we stayed on the trail but it was pretty well marked with yellow arrows on the trees. After about 1/2 way around, we could hear thunder in the distance even though the Sun was shining through the trees where we were walking. We picked up the pace a bit and dodged the raindrops for the last 1/4 mile or so. It rained just hard enough to wet down the gravel road for our trip back to the construction area.
After the hike we were tired and sweaty so decided to end our sightseeing and head back to the campground. After showers and clean clothes, we felt much better and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Last night at our Sailing Club dinner, someone mentioned to us how beautiful Cape Brenton was at the north end of Nova Scotia. I had checked a few campgrounds up there and none of them had very high ratings. I said something like, "We have to leave something for next time." and Laura was not happy with that and let me know. On the way back to the campground I told her I'd be happy to change plans if she was willing to do the work and find us a place to stay. Today she did find a campground not too far from Cape Brenton in Linwood Harbor and called for a 2-day reservation. That's where we are heading tomorrow.
Bill's thoughts on traveling by RV -
One of my "cons" with RV traveling has been the large crowds at the popular places. Seems like we never had too much of that when traveling by boat so I was making that something "bad" about RVing. Today I got to thinking that maybe that's not quite fair. We've never traveled with the boat in the summer because we've been running charters or managing the marina. If we did, I'll bet the more popular ports and cities would be very crowded too. I'll take that off the list for now.
Campsites are sometimes very close together and this campground is the closest we've seen yet. This evening, our neighbor to port decided they wanted a campfire. Even though everyone in this campground is really close, campfires are not outlawed. Having a campfire is part of camping and RVing. I get that. However, we had to close up our trailer because it was filling with smoke from his campfire. Hopefully, we'll be able to open up before bed time.
Day 12 - 126 miles (no towing), 1,415 total miles
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