Ohmygosh -- The Bridge!!!! 8/12/10

The 8-mile long (oh, soooo long!) Confederation Bridge that connects Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick, Canada, cost us money. The ride (bridge or ferry) to PEI is free, but you have to pay to leave! Our crossing today was smooth, thank goodness (unlike three years ago!). We drove straight thru New Brunswick and entered Maine at Houlton. What a delightful time we had for six-and-a-half weeks in the Atlantic Maritime Provinces of Canada.

Welcome back to the Land of the Free,  Home of the Brave: Hello America!  Go Red Sox!

One of my favorite moose signs!

8/11/10 - Tignish PEI

St. Simon and St. Jude RC Church, built in 1859, was the largest brick structure of its time: It still is the predominate feature of Tignish. Measuring 185' with the steeple, it's used today as a beacon by fishermen. 

 

 

First painted in 1885, the ceiling had gold stars painted on a blue background. It's been repainted and is breathtaking. 

 

For us, the best part was the organ - a beautiful tracker-action pipe organ, built in 1882 by Louis Mitchell of Montreal and one of only four remaining in the world. It contains 1118 pipes ranging in height from three inches to 16' ... and a lady named Diane was there to give us a sample of how it works and sounds! She played several selections, including a Bach fugue and Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Made my day!  Wowzers!

 

We gobbled our PB & J sandwiches in the lovely garden next to the church. As we got in Smartie to leave, we spotted the sign on the pole. PS: The parking lot was zig-zagged with black tire marks! People ... sigh.

PEI West Coast 8/10 and 8/11

On Tuesday the 10th we biked to the Confederation Trail's end at Tignish, a 30-miler R/T (48 km), which was fun, except there was no "end." No sign, no station, no nothing. We biked to an historic brick building thinking it might be the station, but it was a Canada Post (office). The old station had been torn down and the trail signs ripped out. So, phooey, we biked to a bakery and bought energy drinks and homemade cookies, sat outside in the shade of a tree and savored our snack.

 

Beginning the bike ride from Alberton to Tignish

 

Jimmy at the world's largest mailbox! Eh?

On Wednesday the 11th, we drove to the West Point Lighthouse and wind farm. Toured the wind interpretive centre, and then went outside to gape at all the different wind turbines. Again, gray seals were abundant around the lighthouse waters, along with Bonaparte's Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Black Guillemots and Eider ducks. We wanted to walk out onto the mile-long reef where all these critters were basking, which can be done at low tide, but the tide was up and swimming here was OUT of the question!

 

Walking the waterline where the West Point Lighthouse and wind farm are.

 

When we checked at a local fisherman's port to see what they were catching, a very nice fisherman gave us three mackerel fresh off the boat for our supper. I pan fried them and they were actually pretty good.

After an enjoyable week on PEI, we're leaving in the morning ....

Bike from St. Peters to Morell 8/7/10

On a warm, windy day we biked this 15 mile (R/T) section of the Confederation Trail because of its reputation: It's one of the prettiest. We agree. We followed water most of the way, always a good thing for us.

 

Oh, yes! Raspberries on the morning cereal 😋

 

Amber waves of grain, on PEI.

 Woolly bear predicts a mild winter?

 

Biking across the long bridge.

 

Checking on the apples - not quite ripe.

  

Trail's turn-around point this day.

Curious about the long lanes of small round floats in the water that looked like bowling balls, we asked what they were for, and were told they were mussel farms. OK. One wit told us the floats marked lanes for the Olympic swim team (obviously a joke in the brackish cold water!).

We picked a load of sweet raspberries, a couple of apples, rode our bikes and just enjoyed the heck outa the whole day - life IS good.

8/6/10 Campbell's Cove and bike ride

One of the chief things we wanted to do on PEI was ride sections of the Confederation Trail, 273 km of a fairly flat, gravel rails-to-trails path that extends across PEI from east tip to west tip. Spur trails lead off the Confederation, giving riders over 400 km of trail options. PEI is called "The Gentle Island," and the riding here is nice and easy. Potatoes are PEI's main crop, followed by grains, alternating with a clover cover... and, man, does it make a fine picture! Raspberry canes border much of the trail and low bush blueberries aren't far away. YUM YUM

Trail's beginning (east).

Jimmy unloading the bikes for our 12 mile R/T ride.

  

Photo op at the 263 km mark.

Lovely place to ride!

Wind farm across from the trail's start.

  

Whatz up with these two?

One morning while camped at Campbell's Cove, we watched a wascally wabbit (above) enjoying its breakfast, when suddenly the inquisitive (young?) crow landed next to it. Crow moved in for a closer look, wabbit looked up, crow jerked back. Repeatedly. It was like the crow was asking, "Who are you and what are you? You don't look like my mama!" This scene lasted about five minutes, and then the wabbit got tired of being eyeballed by the crow and took off after it. Needless to say, the crow flew the coop and the rabbit continued its morning siflay! Funny!

East Point, Prince Edward Island, 8/5/10

While we camped for a few days on the east coast of PEI, we explored the area - its wind turbine farm, the East Point Lighthouse, and the ocean. The lighthouse protects the area where the Atlantic, Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Straight meet and churn the waters. We were astounded to see a whole slew of Gray Seals in the water off the point with their heads/necks up out of the water, looking around, as though checking to see if perhaps the coast was clear or a freight train was aiming for them - funniest thing to see. Big dudes, too! Watched common eider ducks floating out amongst them, but the pictures didn't show much. Gorgeous day.

Week Five - Monday 9/24

Decided to move on to NB as most of the campgrounds on PEI are already closed for the season... time to leave. Stopped first @ internet café to catch up on emails and the world’s goings-on. Chilly morning (and windy), so coffee tasted extra special. On our way, we stopped at a roadside stand for another king-sized cabbage, some broccoli, and a new pint of blueberries which we enjoy on our morning cereal. Drove across Queens County to the new (1997) Confederation Bridge, 12.1 km span over the Northumberland Strait, linking PEI to New Brunswick. Of course, the wind gusts were 60 km/hr, which gave me extreme shudders, but Jimmy drove and he said it was fine. I wanted to kiss the ground when we landed at the Visitor’s Ctr in New Brunswick. Drove to Chignecto campground (only one open) @ Fundy National Park on Bay of Fundy, a most beautiful place.

PEI - Week Five, 9/23-29

On Sunday, 9/23 we drove to Charlottetown for a look-see, parking downtown at the Visitor’s Center. The weather was fine enough for a Cow’s yummy ice cream cone each!  We watched an interesting video at the Province House Founder’s Hall, site of meetings in 1864 that led to Canada’s Confederation three years later. 

You go, girl!

While in town, we visited an art gallery and numerous century-old churches, including St. Dunstan's Cathedral, above, a large, stone church in the centre of Charlottetown.  Designed and built in 1896-1907, the church suffered extensive fire damage in 1913 and was rebuilt in 1916.  It was consecrated and elevated to the status of Basilica in 1929.  St. Dunstan's was designated a national historic site of Canada because of it's fine High Victorian Gothic Revival style of architecture.  The inside was magnificent; even the ceiling is ornate.  The outside was just as imposing as the inside was beautiful.

Next, we drove to Beamish Apple Farm outside of Charlottetown – Open Farm Day – and enjoyed an apple farm tour, complete with open wagon ride and u-pick apples.  We picked some, too.  Nice afternoon!

At Cardigan we had dinner at Cardigan Lobster Suppers. I had a 5-course lobster dinner, (yay!) including steamed mussels, and Jimmy had a delicious lobster pie. We'd never eaten mussels before, and we were surprised by their good taste.  They were quite yummy.  Fun day all around!

Nova Scotia: Week Four - Sept 15-22, 2007

Sunday the 16th we moved to Cheticamp C/G at Cape Breton Highlands Nat’l Park for a couple of nights. The day was still cloudy and cool, jacket weather, but no rain. We decided to hike the sometimes-rough 7.6 mile R/T Salmon Pool River Trail, which started out wide enough for a vehicle and ended up a narrow winding footpath. We followed the tannic Cheticamp River from our campground near the ocean to the mtns where it became a raging torrent, plunging over boulders, wild with rapids and waterfalls. We didn’t see any salmon, but aren’t they hard to see in the water unless they’re jumping? We enjoyed a great hike, and got back sort of late.

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Monday the 17th dawned clear and sunny, altogether gorgeous, and we set out for the Skyline trail. The brochure says it’s a “dramatic headland overlooking the rugged Gulf of St. Lawrence coast. Whales, eagles, moose, bears.” This 5.7 mile loop was one of the most outstanding trails we’ve ever been on. We saw both Minnie and Mickey (big rack!) moose, hawks, and at the top of the headland, we watched pilot whales frolicking in the waters 250 meters down. Fields of wildflowers and ferns mixed with fragrant conifers. A boardwalk led off the trail with stairs and platforms for viewing the Gulf far below. Fainthearted people wouldn’t be able to do this one!

After finishing this trail, we elected to do a wee 1.9 mile hike to Benji’s Lake, very different than Skyline. We spotted more birds (no moose) here, inc. a spruce grouse poking along on the ground, and identified the red-breasted nuthatch, an early warning fella, whose call sounds like a toy tin horn and who alerted everything else in the forest of our presence, the rat. We were tired when we got “home,” but we had a terrific day! Windy and 5°C (40°F) is our forecast low – real snuggling weather – we can add that third blanket, and wear lightweight long-johns! We don’t sleep with the heater on, but we appreciate it in the morning – either electric or propane, depending on if we’re hooked up or not.

 

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Tuesday the 18th we pulled up stakes to drive wherever the wind blew us … and we ended up at the world’s end – Meat Cove, at the very top of Cape Breton Island – where the road ends and the sea starts! The last 5k was an unkind dirt road, but the view … oh my, it was worth it! Meat Cove is a tiny rural fishing community, the most northerly settlement in Nova Scotia.  We managed to pull our little RV onto a high grassy bluff next to the ocean. Yikes, don't get too close to the edge, because it's a long way down! This campsite has to be the best ever, with mountains behind us and the ocean in front, and craggy coves along the coast. No hookups here! We love that we can camp in our little RV with or w/o hookups.

Our little Trail Lite is camped at the top of the world!

We got "directions" to Cape St Lawrence Lighthouse, so we set off on foot – straight up, and up, and up. The route was tortuous. We either missed our turn or didn’t go far enough, but we didn't find the lighthouse. I don’t know who was more surprised – me or the ponies – as a line of three horses, two painted ponies and a big brown mare, came around a curve, ambling up the trail like they were out for a Sunday stroll. They stopped to see if we had any goodies and continued on! Nothing and nobody else around – huh! Crazy! We also startled a ruffled grouse. I'm not sure far we hiked, but we were gone for hours. We were tired this evening, but we stood outside after dark, studying the sky that stretched from horizon to horizon, eyeing the Milky Way and a heavens full of stars – wow! Another cold nite is forecast.  We don’t mind a bit.  Such a spectacular place to camp!

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We left Meat Cove on Wednesday the 19th and followed the scenic Cabot Trail south to Louisbourg. Somewhere along the way we stopped to pick a dishpan full of really dinky “native” apples hanging on a tree in front of an old white clapboard church that seemed unused. We also paused a couple of times while still in the Nat’l Park at awesome scenic viewing places; such a pretty day to drive. At Point of View RV Park in Louisbourg, we signed up to stay for two nights.  And, we enjoyed a buffet dinner in their restaurant. Halibut, oh yeah, yum-yum! Did a lot of laundry here, too.

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Thursday, Sept 20th, turned into another warm, sunny day.  Jimmy and I were at the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada ... founded by the French in 1713 and abandoned by the British in 1768. The British blew up the fortifications in 1760, and in 1961 Canada decided to reconstruct one-fifth of original Louisbourg. Nowadays dozens of costumed animators become the town’s residents, àla summer of 1744. Period homes and exhibits line the central streets. We spent fascinating hours touring, asking questions, watching demonstrations, etc. The blacksmith made us a hook, and we bought a loaf of “period” white/wheat bread to go with our chili, which, if it had been round, could've been used as a bowling ball, but it tasted good … the first night. After the Fortress, we rode our bikes to town to go thru the RR Museum.  FUN day.  After our return to Tergel, we ate our delicious chili and bread! Then, we peeled and cored those silly apples and cooked ‘em up with a bit of brown sugar – nice, sweet desert!

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Friday the 21st we elected to hop the ferry to Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.). When we drove up to the ticket booth @ 2:45, the ferry was boarding, and this time we weren’t last to board – three monster gravel trucks pulled up alongside our little RV (geez!). We chose Brudenell CG in eastern PEI because it was close to Montague, which has a farmer’s market on Saturday. It’s one of the few campgrounds open at this time of year, and it’s a great choice for us ... as we’re close to the Confederation Bike Trail.

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On Saturday the 22nd, we hopped on the bikes aimed for Montague.  Cool temps to start, but the day warmed fast in the bright sun. The Confederation Trail (rails-to-trails) stretches across the island, and it’s perfect for riding as its relatively flat and smooth.  This wonderful trail is bordered by raspberry canes and ferns, flowers and cattails, and fabulous trees. More reds and yellows and oranges of autumn are appearing. (Watch out for woolly bears!) We found the farmer’s market, but were disappointed as the vendors were at the 70-mile yard sale! We rode around (up and down) the town and even checked out a couple of yard sales, then rode back to camp for lunch. After lunch (we finished up the everlasting cabbage we bought in Liverpool!), we rode to Georgetown, an old shipbuilding town with marvelous old homes and beautiful Chestnut trees. I bought a newspaper at Darryl’s (they have everything) mostly for the paper's name: The Guardian – Covers Prince Edward Island Like the Dew. Okayyyyy!  Still windy, but t'was a wonderful day to ride – we put on 30 miles. Lovely, lovely day.

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