We began our day with a beautiful sunrise! Normally sunrise people, we haven’t seen many the past couple of months, since the sun gets up really early in these parts!
I know in the previous posts I said we’d have a lot of hiking here, but that was way, way, waaaay understated! I’ll get back to that in a minute.
After discussing several options as to what to do with our first full day, we headed out to Chignecto Provincial Park, which is the largest Provincial Park in Canada. Anyway, I had read in a Tripadvisor Forum that “The Elliot Brook to Seal Cove (this is part of the Cape Chignecto Trail), make in my opinion about the best overall hike in Nova Scotia. It starts along a pretty brook and then climbs to the top of a low escarpment and on to a place called Green Point, where you will be overlooking Eatonville and the Three Sister rock formations. Then it follows the escarpment for one stunning view after the other until it drops to the wild beach at Seal Cove.”
That’s all the information we had. We didn’t know where it was, or how to get there. We stopped at the Red Rocks Visitor Center, but the attendant had no info for us, other than to tell us that a ‘shortcut’ road to the start of that part of the trail was rather treacherous. As a side note, the Cape Chignecto Trail is a 27-mile loop trail. A 3-4 day hike if you do it all at once. We took the opportunity to hike about ½ mile of it (and back for a total of 1 mile) from the Visitor Center. Pretty views, but really windy!
Of course we opted for treacherous! We have a Jeep! It started out pretty easy, but then quickly developed into a Jeep-worthy-barely-a-road adventure. The gps actually knew it existed! Quite surprising if you’d seen the road. Eatonville Road. Which in Nova Scotia-speak actually means the road to Eatonville. Which it was. And it was 7 miles one-way.
Here’s some video I took on the road. It doesn’t do it justice. So much fun!! : )
Along the way, we spotted two different groups of deer that we unintentionally scared away from their breakfast. And our youngest son called (believe it or not we had service! Out in the middle of nowhere! I just don’t get it….) and told us to look into a class-action suit against Carnival cruises that we were named in. We’ll have to check it out (although I can’t imagine what the reason would be).
And so, we finally arrived at our destination to find . . . . nothing. All we had to go on were the words from the Visitor Center gal. Two outhouses. Behind the camping area. Yeah, well. We never thought that would be all the help we’d get!
We DID however find a large park building that was all closed up near the end of the road. And there was a sign that told us about another hike. Let’s call it Three Sisters. It seemed like an easy 2.5 mile trail with promising visions of God’s creation. It started out as a deep pebble covered trail that was difficult to walk on, but eventually changed into a more sturdy one. There were look-outs along the way, and we thought it pretty funny that they all had wheelchair ramps. There’s absolutely no way a wheelchair could possibly navigate the beginning of that trail. Not even if it had wide tires. Anyway, it was a nice hike that combined exercise, education and spectacular views. What more could you ask for?
This is Anderson’s Cove
Named after the Anderson family who settled here in the mid 1880’s during the growing shipyard and lumber industries.
On a clear day, you can see the New Brunswick coast from Fundy National Park to Cape Enrage (we’ll be visiting both later!)
It was pretty clear today, but we didn’t know what we were looking for at this time.
This cove used to be a large ship-building yard.
Hard to imagine!
This is called a sea stack.
At one time, it was attached to the coast, then gradually the tides whittled it away to leave this.
See the boulder stuck between the rocks?
This is Three Sisters
At one time, I remembered the story, but I can’t now. : (
I think it had something to do with a Mic’maq traditional story . . .
And then came the part where we discovered we’re not as young as we used to be. . . .
We found a sign that said Elliot Brook by the side of the road, so we knew we were in the right area. Then we saw the two outhouses, so we figured we should go there since that’s what the woman at the info center told us. But first we had to find a place to park. It was about a quarter-mile up the road!
We came to Elliot Brook – or at least we assumed so . . .
We kept walking until we came to a sign – finally!
We ended up hiking about 10 miles total. We used to do those on a fairly regular basis when we were on vacation, so we really didn’t think much of it. However – –
What we didn’t know, is that this part of the trail was a root-infested, stream-fording, black muck-pocked, up hill both ways (truly!), dead quiet hike.
And by the time we made it back to the Jeep, almost everything in our bodies ached.
But what views!!
We’re pretty sure this is Green Point. There’s no sign, but it was green and a point. : )
Here’s a quick 10-second video to show how windy it was:
A tiny yellow mushroom ‘field’
Git Down From There!!
Don’t look, Mom!
Finally! He heads back!
So THIS is what Blue Spruce looks like! : )
Honestly, I don’t know what this is. We saw it in a few places. We have no idea what would make the wood blue – especially this shade.
Unfortunately, we didn’t make it all the way to Seal Cove. Since there were no signs of any kind, we had no idea how much further it was. For all we know, it could have been just around the next corner. Or the next one. Or the next . . .
We didn’t even get our fabulous lunch view because it was so windy and cold at all the view points!
Still, it was very much worth the effort.
We only saw 8 other people the entire 5 hours we were on the trail! Can you believe it?
Have you been keeping track? How many miles did we hike today?
This cairn is right in front of our site. We sat and watched the tide cover it up . . . .
It’s all we had the energy to do . . .