Canadian Maritime Provinces

During the month of June we’ve visited various areas of some of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.  Each area has something different to offer, and yet so much is similar.

We started our Canadian adventure when we crossed from Calais Maine to St. Stephen NB.  We’ve crossed into Canada at this border crossing yearly since 2007 so the roads and gates are very familiar to us.  Each crossing is different in that we’ll never know what questions we’ll be asked or when they’ll want to “inspect” the trailer and pickup.  Most of the time it’s been a few polite questions: where are you heading to, how long will you be here, do you have any firearms, alcohol, produce... With our prior experience in crossings, we’ve learned to empty the fridge in the days leading up to our planned crossings - have heard tales of folks having to throw out steak and lobsters, as well as fresh corn or other produce they had just bought.

In New Brunswick, our travels have primarily been along the south coast, and once again we kept to form, visiting 2 campgrounds before crossing in to Nova Scotia.  Except for road signs indicating a change in highway numbers, the countryside is very similar in these 2 provinces. And there again, the countryside is very similar to Maine.  Lots of coastline, sometimes with cliffs, other times long tidal beaches. Rolling hills, covered in forests with the occasional village.

Nova Scotia holds special meaning for Chuck and I as we honeymooned and took a few anniversary trips in this Province via the ferry from Portland (alas, the Scotia Prince stopped that service several years ago - part of the reason we got an RV).  We deliberately did not return to places we knew from those trips and headed into the unknown for us.  Even our venture over to Cape Breton, although a new destination, felt like so much of Maine, especially the Down East region.

Most recently we headed to Prince Edward Island, and returned to a campground we had stayed at before. Our first visit there was a short 2 night visit and we .  This time however, we stayed for 8 nights and visited some of the Provincial Park Beaches, Cavendish (Anne of Green Gables fame) and even got some kayaking and bicycle riding in.  An old railroad line that went from tip to tip of the island was converted into a public trail and we enjoyed riding parts of it.

PEI has the biggest difference in landscape of the 3 Provinces we’ve visited thus far and that’s it’s elevation.  The island is relatively flat on either end and has rolling hills in the mid-region.  I think I read that the highest elevation on PEI was around 450 feet.  Between the lack of major hills and the strange tides we’d have at the campground, it made for a fun time.

With access to Labrador/Newfoundland a bit awkward (travel by ferry, 6 hours, dogs can’t be on deck with us and we can’t go down to car deck to check on them), we’ve now returned to New Brunswick and have moved inland on our journey back across.  Our current destination is fairly close to Frederickton, an area we visited last summer. The landscape is once again very forested and dotted with lakes and streams.  

Our plan is to head northwest through the province to work our way into other regions.  Time will tell when and how we do this.

Canadian Deja Vu

They say history repeats itself and in our case, some of the campgrounds we are visiting in the Maritime region of Canada are repeats - in fact, June 2007 saw our first RV trip in to Canada.  On that trip we went to Kiwanis Oceanfront in St. Andrews By The Sea, NS, Ponderosa Pines in Hopewell Cape, NS and Crystal Beach in Summerside, PEI.

Five years to the month we returned to Canada (we’ve crossed the border with the RV yearly, but  this time it’s special - remember, we’re full-timing now). Our first stop was back the Kiwanis Oceanfront in St. Andrews By The Sea.  They’ve made some changes to their campground in terms of the layout of some spaces - redesigned a few and added some others.  Because our first trip was in a 21’TT (travel trailer), our site back then seemed fairly large.  Now that we’re in a nearly 36’ 5er (fifth wheel) with slide outs, the space is more confining.  We only stayed 1 night there this year as we wanted to get on to new destinations.

Next stop was Ponderosa Pines, closest campground to the famous Hopewell Rocks, geologic formations of stone. The “flowerpot rocks” as they are dubbed,  have been eroded near their bases over the years as the tidal Chocolate River flows past them.  With the tide rising and lowering over 40’ twice a day, these delicate natural wonders should be on bucket lists.  Because of the timing of our travel, we stopped at the Rocks before we arrived at our campground, which allowed us to walk on the ocean floor due to it being low tide.  The next morning, as we departed the area, we stopped back at the attraction to view them with the water covering the bases.  

Ponderosa Pines had not changed any from what we recalled of 5 years prior.   A few sites near the office under tree cover, with the rest out in a large field with views of the water.

From Ponderosa Pines and the Province of New Brunswick, we made our very first RV journey into Nova Scotia.  This Province is extra special to us as it’s where we honeymooned, taking the overnight ferry from Portland Maine to Yarmouth NS and then driving around the region for a week before taking the ferry back.  Our last visit to Nova Scotia was in 2002 as the ferry stopped running the following year.

Our first destination in NS was Five Islands RV Resort on the northern side on the Minas Bay. Because we’ve recently extended our discount RV club membership from yearly to lifetime, we chose Five Islands as they are a member campground.  While the view from the campsite was spectacular, and the park was very quiet, it was not the best of campgrounds for me.  Most of my issue is with their write-ups in various publications. Things they claim are there or have been done, really don’t measure up to what I was agree with. Example, they say they recently renovated the bathrooms.  Maybe there’s new paint on the walls, or lights that sense someone entering and turn on, but old toilets and sinks, as well as stained drop ceiling panels with holes cut in them allowing one to see the cobwebs on the rafters does not match my definition of renovated.

Because we signed up for 4 nights when we first arrived, we tried to make the best of our situation.  Needing groceries we asked the owner where a store was - he said 20 minutes up the road.  More like 45 minutes and it was more a convenience shop then what we wanted.  We drove another 15 minutes and found what we needed.  A suggestion given to us Mrs. owner at Five Islands was to go to some of the waterfalls in the area.  We decided we’d try that one day. As soon as we turned off the highway to the falls, the road was no longer paved, but dirt.  We drove and drove, through forests and blueberry barrens, worried about what we had gotten in to - there was no place for us to turn around.  Finally we saw a sign that indicated the falls were another 2km.  We got to the parking area and started to follow the trail to the falls.  Then we found the stairs, leading down to the base of the path and the falls.  40 or 50 stairs, then packed dirt for a further descent, another steep staircase, more dirt descents. Got the the base and found a so-so waterfall. (A rockslide a few years back has affected this location and it’s no longer as spectacular as it was in the photos we were shown).  Now we have to climb the hill and drive all the way back through the dirt and mud.  Needless to say, we should have realized what we were getting in to when we learned the name the waterfall, “Economy Falls”.  These falls are located in the community of Lower Economy, NS.

Leaving Five Islands, we headed to Cape Breton, an island that makes up the eastern portion of the Province of Nova Scotia.  We chose Adventures East for our campground, again because it was a member of the discount camping club.  We were allowed to pick our site as they were not busy yet.  Once again we decided to stay 4 nights.  While at Adventures East we got to kayak on Baddeck Lake a few times, we also drove the Cabot Trail, a very scenic drive along the coast and through the forests over mountains.  Because we loved the campsite we had, as well as the location of the campground, we extended our visit another 6 nights.  It was hard to leave when we did as the weather had been so nice, we were enjoying our style of camping and our camp hosts was a terrific person - both in terms of information on the region as well as someone I would want to have as a friend. 

Not wanting to overstay our welcome and to get back on the road, we headed over to Prince Edward Island and returned to Crystal Beach Campground.  This campground is at the foot of Malpeque Bay as the sunsets over the water are amazing.   The tides have been a bit tricky in terms of figuring out when high tide is.  Seems they get a high tide and a half tide - as well as 2 lows a day.  (Easy way to know it’s high tide is when the water surrounds the marsh right across from our camper.  Half tide the water starts to close in on the marsh, but doesn’t cover the bar completely.)  We’ve gotten out on the kayaks again, and are staying for 1 week before we pick up and move along. 

There’s still 2 opportunities for us to repeat Canadian campgrounds, but neither one is from our original Canada RV trip of 2007  (Hawkshaw NS and Niagara Falls ON). Will we make it to either one? Are they on the discount priced RV list? Only time will tell.

Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

One of our destinations while RVing in Canada was the territory of Cape Breton.  It’s a large island and is the north east portion of the Province of Nova Scotia.  Prior to the Confederation (when the territories joined to become the country of Canada) Cape Breton was it’s own distinct territory.  Folks in this area still fly their own territory flag along with the provincial flag of Nova Scotia.

By far the largest tourist draw to Cape Breton is the Cabot Trail, a 300 km (185 mile) loop road that crosses through mountains and valleys and along both coasts of this area.  Portions of the trail are within the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, while the little towns along the way are "outside the park".  There are numerous hiking trails, rustic campgrounds and overlooks throughout the Trail, within the park as well as in the little communities.

We opted to do the trail in a clockwise direction - if we decide to drive it again we’ll go counter clockwise to catch some vistas we missed on the initial trip.

It was a beautiful day, the temperature was 15 c (60 f), the sun was out and just a few clouds dotted the sky.  The fields and hills were various shades of green.  Some trees were still just getting their leaves, showing a soft green against the dark conifers. Multitudes of rivers, ponds and lakes dotted the landscape and added punches of blues to the palette. 

The Trail roadway is well maintained in some areas and needs work in others.  It seemed that the road within the park was in better condition, while the road in the towns and villages were not so - leaving me the impression that the Park maintained it’s portion (thus an entrance fee) and the small communities (and provincial government) were responsible for the rest of the road.

We started our trip just below Baddeck, on the lower right hand point of the Cabot Trail, cutting across through the Margaree Valley.  This was a nice trip, the road had some curves and hills, but all in all a generally easy ride through farm lands and forests.  We did find ourselves driving slower than the posted speed limit, but we never felt like we were holding up traffic.  What little there was would easily pass us and we were alone again on our outing.

 On the west coast, the view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence greeted us at the Village of Belle Cote, one of many fishing villages that dot the coastlines. 

Our travels then turned towards the north and in to the Highlands.  The Cabot Trail follows right along the coast with beautiful vistas toward the water, and equally beautiful views back into the woods. It passes through the community of Cheticamp, known for hooked rugs.  Many shops were not open (pre-summer season) and for the few that were, we did not stop to look. Besides, with less than 400 sq ft of living space in the RV, where would we put all the souvenirs we have bought.

When we reached the Provincial Park, we started to climb in elevation, which increased the intensity of the views; deep valley gorges filled with conifers and other vegetation. The highest point along the Cabot Trail is North Mountain at 457 m (1499 ft). There were a lot of twists and turns on this road and each one brought another grand view.  You leave the park to go through the community of Pleasant Bay and then re-enter the park and drive across the Cape Breton Highlands, heading towards the east coast and the communities of Cape North and then Ingonish.  

This portion of the drive is especially tricky in terms of twists and turns and dips and hills.  We felt there were a lot of blind corners. While this is a National Park, the road is the only way to cross this region of the territory; every now and then a tractor trailer truck would drive by. We were always so glad we didn’t “run into them” on the hairpin turns, nor did we get stuck behind one on any of the hill climbs.  As we rounded one corner, the driver of a pickup truck, coming the other way, had his hand out the window.  I wasn't sure if he was "hand surfing" or giving us a warning ahead wave. His motions weren't so clear.  A moment later we knew exactly what he was doing as a very wide load was following right behind. Chuck quickly maneuvered our truck over to the shoulder to allow the oversize load to pass.  Unlike the U.S. when you need banners and other indicators of large loads driving along, Canadians seem much more relaxed and nonchalant about it.

Waterfall near Ingonish

We stopped at an ocean lookout along a stream in Black Brook Cove.  Here the river and ocean have a rather black color, I think due to the large quantity of seaweed that is churned with the tides. While at this stop, we noticed there was a waterfall on the opposite side of the river. We did a quick backtrack and while Chuck walked the dogs, I clambered over the cobbles to capture the image.  The changes in sounds was very interesting.  While walking the shore, I could hear the deep roar of the ocean tide crashing on the rocks, but as I got to the base of the falls, their sound overshadowed the tide. The falls emptied right in to the ocean in the cove.  While the whole day had been enjoyable, this scenery was the personal highpoint of my day.

When we reached Ingonish, we started south along the East Coast, thru St. Ann’s Bay area and back into Baddeck and to our campground.  By the time we reached St. Ann’s Bay, we were so glad to know our day’s adventure was almost over and we’d be home in a short while.

Wreck's Place

Our day trip took 8 hours - the drive itself can be done in 5 hours, but adding in all the stops at scenic lookouts and one or two shops along the way stretched it in to a lot longer trip.

A few more images of our day on the Cabot Trail - between us we took well over 200 photos - it was hard to pick and choose which few to share.  Enjoy!

Lupine and the Aspy Valley

Chuck photographing scenery at Cap Rouge

Chuck and pups at scenic stop - Cap Rouge

Malone System

Where does one begin raving about a product that makes their life much easier?  Since we’ve been living in our RV full-time, one issue we’ve had is how to transport our kayaks on the roof of the truck, while still making sure there’s adequate room over the bed of the truck for the RV to be connected and to pivot for turns.

Originally we mounted some Thule brand bars to the roof and would carry the kayaks flat, using kayak padding and swim noodle foam to pad the kayaks against the bars.  We then had a myriad of ratchet lines, one front and one rear on each kayak and a fifth line to pull both kayaks together. To load the kayaks we’d have to climb up and in to the bed of the pickup, lifting the kayak each step.  It was a long and tedious process and we discovered that we were warping one kayak when we’d cinch it down.

During our travels thru Maine this Spring, we thought about going to L.L. Bean to purchase some Thule J Bar carriers for the kayaks.  Because we were spending the night parked in Cabela’s parking lot, we went it to see what they carried.  They had Thule products, but they also carried a less expensive line by Malone that would fit the Thule bar.

On researching the Malone product, we found them for an even lower price at a truck accessory store in Portland we had shopped at many times during the 10 years we lived there (Yankee Custom).  They only had one set of J Bars so we decided to get them and try them on one kayak.  If we liked them they could have another set within 36 hours.

We tried the Malone rack and really liked them, so we requested the shop order another set for us.  When we went to pick them up and install them, we also looked at an accessory for loading kayaks up to the J bars.  We asked if we could try them before we bought them and got the ok.  What we didn’t know is that they needed some assembly before you could even use them.  Needless to say, once we assembled the Telos Load Assist units to try, we found they really did the job.

The reason the Portland ME truck shop was able to get us another set of J Bars is Malone is based in Westbrook ME, the next community over.  The kayak system was designed and packaged in the US (manufactured in China).

Besides the loading bars; which makes it a piece of cake to get the kayaks on and off the truck, the other nice feature of the Malone Kayak Carrying System is that the J Bars fold down when not in use, lowering our vehicle's overall height.

photos show us taking a kayak off the truck.  a) kayak in J Bar cradle   b) attach Telos Load Assist
c) lift kayak from J Bar into load assist brackets    d) bring load assist brackets down alternating lowering ends     e) remove kayak, then remove load assist bars      f) fold down J Bars

Should we bring them or not

Well it’s about time.  When we left Florida this past March, we decided we would carry the kayaks and bikes with us instead of storing them in the utility trailer with the motorcycles.  That: the trailer and motorcycles, would stay in our friends’ backyard awaiting our return.  The bicycles were mounted on the 5th wheel’s ladder and we rigged some bars on the truck and figured out how to transport the kayaks there, while still having room over the bed of the truck for the 5er.

We’ve not had much opportunity to use the kayaks or bikes yet and had been questioning whether our decision to bring them with us this year was prudent or not.  While passing through Maine in late May we purchased a rack system to transport the kayaks in a better manner than what we had been doing. (read my Malone System Blog). Even with a better transporting system, we still weren't using the kayaks as we had hoped.

In April, we spent a month at a campground in MA that had mostly hard packed dirt roads, but they were always filling in holes, leading to soft patches. Chuck and I would ride our bikes, but I didn’t use the pet jogger we picked up in FL with Rugby too much. No place to kayak there.  May was spent traveling up and down the I-95 corridor.  Between the birth of our first grandchild, location and or weather, we didn’t get in any biking or kayaking.

Now we’re in Canada and have been hoping to get out on the kayaks.  Weather has been our primary deterrent; cold, wet and raw.  Today was the winner.

Our campground has access to the Baddeck River which leads into Bras d’Or Lake, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  The sun was out, the temps were about 20 C (aboot 70 F to us Yanks).  There wasn’t much wind.  So off we went.

The portion of the lake we paddled was enchanting.  Off in the distance, the highlands region; forest covered, with some farm land clearings was spectacular.  Along the shoreline of the lake, several camps or clearings for future cottages.  Above us, blue skies and white clouds.

We had to deal with some winds while paddling, thus our intentional direction of going in to the wind, allowing us to take it easy on the paddle back.  Shore birds of various sizes flew by, some even squawking at us as we came closer to the marsh they were in.  And above us glided a spectacular bald eagle.  Because of the wind and the waves, my photos of the eagle did not come out as well as I wanted.  My boat was rocking and the wind kept driving me in a different direction, but I still got some images.

Hope you enjoy our day.

The Backside of Beyond

Go To The Backside of Beyond.  That’s how one local gave me directions to a local attraction.  Took me a moment to realize what this woman was saying. Thought it was a really cute way of saying it was off the beaten track.

We’re currently camping on Cape Breton Island, the easternmost part of Nova Scotia.  While here we plan to drive the Cabot Trail and kayak in Bras d’Or Lake (pronounced BeDoor).  Perhaps we’ll do a Puffin boat ride or tour a distillery.  Maybe Chuck will see a moose in the wild.

As full-time RVers, I found one question asked of us quite interesting. “Where are you going on your vacation and for how long?”  I suppose each campground could count as a vacation, with the drive between them our work. Being retired and living out of our 5th wheel camper, we have our home with us; it just doesn’t feel like we’re on a permanent vacation.

We plan to stay in the region for several days up to two weeks and then plan to head on to Prince Edward Island to continue our exploration.

We did it again

Got back to Hopewell Rocks with high tide today (3rd visit, 1st high tide). Fun to compare views of low to high in person...  tide was about 14' high (if that helps you see how tall these rock formations are)

Once, twice, three? times in our lives

Most people visit Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick once in a lifetime.  For Chuck and myself, we’ve now been twice - lucky us.

Our first trip was 5 years ago and we stayed at a campground about 2KM down the road from the rocks.  It was a really nice experience and we walked on the ocean floor as it was low tide when we arrived that day.

Yesterday we returned, again at low tide and did a much faster visit to the ocean floor, partially because it was close to closing time at the attraction, but also because we had already been driving for over 4 hours and still had to get to the campground to set up.

It was somewhat our plan to return to the rocks this morning and kayak around the rocks at high tide, but the weather is not that great (cold and windy).  We’ll go back to get some photos from land to really get the full impact of the tidal range in this area (some say upwards to 40 feet in height difference).

After the Rocks we’ll head over to Nova Scotia and take a few days break from traveling before we head up to Cape Breton Island (part of Nova Scotia) and tour the Cabot Trail.

Somewhat the same, but so different

We just crossed over from Maine to New Brunswick Canada and although so many things are similar, there are a few differences that have already arisen. We learned about much of this in school, but since we never had to use the knowledge in the States, I feel like I'm an old fogey just trying to get by.

For starters, there’s funny money.  Because we’ve crossed in to Canada many times since our Honeymoon in Nova Scotia nearly 12 years ago, we’ve acquired some Canadian currency.  Canadians use dollar coins called “loonies” because of the image of a Loon on them.  They also have “twoonies” which are two dollar coins, made with 2 different metals so you easily see the difference.  Paper bills are different colors which makes finding them a bit easier as you look thru your wallet and see blues, green and reds.  Their smaller coins are very similar in appearance to American currency, but I’m making sure I use up all my pennies as they will be phased out later this year.

Currently the currency exchange rate is almost 1 to 1, so we’re not gaining or losing when we go to the bank.

Next on the differences is temperatures.  Thanks to a high school teacher who loved to give his students various trivia facts, I know a quick way to get a close approximation of Celsius to Fahrenheit.  And even easier than that method, I realized the other day that every 5 degrees Celsius is approx 10 Fahrenheit, at least for those temps between 40 and 90 F which is the standard weather range we’ll be experiencing as we travel.

The other major difference for us is the rest of the Metric System.  Highway speeds and distances are in meters, not miles, and weights are grams and liters vs pounds and ounces.  Our pickup truck has both Miles and Kilometers displayed on the speedometer, but the numbers for the metric numbers are very small and hard to read.  Fortunately we are able to have a digital display show us our speed in KM so that hurdle is crossed. 

Buying fuel will be interesting. In Canada you buy your fuel by the Liter and it’s approximately 4 liters to an American Gallon of fuel.  So while the initial image of lower fuel prices are in you mind, the quick recalculation of the price on the marquee to a conversion of American shows that it’s pricier in Canada compared to U.S. costs (based on New England prices).

Today we went to a supermarket and I was stumped at the meat display as to how much I was buying.  I couldn’t convert grams to ounces quickly.  I’ll need to carry a quick conversion sheet on future shopping trips to make sure I get enough but not too much.

You're Ticking Me Off, Quit Bugging Me

All Spring, we’ve heard predictions that ticks and bugs would be more prominent this year as the winter was so mild along the East Coast.  

Being dog owners, I’ve always been on the look out for ticks and would use a topical product on them approximately 9 months out of the year.  Two years ago, I started applying this product on the dogs every month.  I use to skip the winter months as fleas and ticks were not a problem for us in Maine during the winter.  With our travels to mid-Atlantic States throughout the year, I decided to include treating the dogs during the winter months as a precaution.

Just in the past month I’ve personally seen the increase in ticks.  Fortunately, those on the dog have not been alive.  Twice I’ve found dead ticks on the hairs of one of my pets, and have removed 3 live ones from myself and 1 off my husband.  Two were still crawling around when we found them, but we each had one attached.  I’m optimistically hopeful that the ticks that did start to attach did not carry Lyme Disease and that we removed them before they could do damage to us.

And to add to this insect drama, we’ve returned to the woods on Northern New England and are constantly swatting at biting / stinging critters.  Most evenings we’ll spray ourselves with a bug repellant, but there’s still the bothersome mosquito or noseeum that gets you.  The other day, something stung me in the corner of my eyelid. Not fun, my lid was swollen for most of the day and my vision wasn't the greatest.  Good thing we didn't travel that day.