8/26 Friday. My parent flew to
Halifax during the day. I took a red eye flight. 96°F in Portland.
Nova Scotia
8/27, Saturday. Met my parents around 1pm (4 hours ahead of west coast) at Hilton Garden Inn outside of airport (there's one hotel right at the airport), riding its shuttle bus with 3 other couples on a Caravan tour.
Our Airbnb host at Halifax had someone pick us up with a reasonable fee. A student from Saudi who studies business (his wife studies nutrition) here. Our studio for the night is at
Elite Suites, next to the Citadel. Our host invited us up to his 17th floor penthouse, which he also rents out (per room) on Airbnb. It has two large balconies on two sides, one overlooking the Public Garden west and the Citadel north; the other side overlooking the harbor.
Our first stop is natually the
Citadel, since it's on the way. Quite nice. The ground is free for all, great green space for locals who don't mind the sun. Inside the wall, quite a few very young park employees dressed in uniforms, talk about various aspects of the past bunker life. I like the WWI trench mockup. Saw a wedding party here, who rented one (only one?) building for the occasion.
Afterwards, we walked downhill towards the harbor. We arrived at
Government House (10-4), just as it was closing. So didn't get to go in.
Halifax downtown isn't pretty. A few nice buildings, but most are rectangular blocks, devoid of style and character. We had a late lunch at Two Doors Down (rated #1 on Yelp). Excellent presentation. Tasty. A bit pricy. Portion isn't generous.
The harbor sees the most tourists. We took the
Alderney Ferry to Dartmouth. You can buy the ticket right at entrance. No change. $2.5/1.75 (senior). Get change from 2 change machines in the waiting area. Ask for a transfer, valid for 90 minutes. The journey is 10-12 minutes. About every 30 minutes.
There's a international peace pavilion on waterfront. Many countries contributed a rock each. The return trip is about sunset. Quite nice, but wrong direction for taking photos of Halifax skyline.
8/28 Sunday. I went for a short jog before my parents got up, at
Public Garden. Very organized, orderly flower arrangements, name tags, a small dahlia exposition, a couple of ponds, wooden benches every where. Not big, but very pleasant, especially at this hour: crispy air, almost no one else.
After breakfast, I walked to downtown Avis office on Grafton St. to pick up a car at 9:30. They were fully booked: turned away a group of Indian in front of me. Reservation is crucial.
Driving to the SW coast, mostly woods with skinny trees.
Peggy's Cove lighthouse is the most photographed spot in Atlantic Canada. It sure is pretty. Lots of tourists. I like big slabs of rock here, and you can walk all over. Didn't see whales. Saw a seal bobbling up in the water.
Later, we stopped at Chester's ferry dock to
Big Tancook Island. A picturesque seaside town.
Mahone Bay (3 churches, none open. It was a Sunday), in comparison, is quite touristy, lots of flower decked shops and people window shopping.
Last, we had a late lunch in
UNESCO listed
Lunenburg. Colorful buildings. However, not many. Just a couple of blocks. The Savvy Sailor Cafe is ok, another Yelp find. Good view of the harbor from its deck.
Now cutting across the province to its northern shore. Checked out
Kejimkujik National Park. Did a short hike to Peter's Point. We were the only people on the trail. Minor mosquitoes. These red chairs are featured in many Canadian parks we visited on this trip. These two were nailed together, so it's difficult to move.
Checked into
Grand Oak B&B across Annapolis Royal, on the oldest road of Canada (leading to
Port Royal (the oldest white community in Canada. The site is closed Sun/Mon).
8/29, Monday. A sumptuous breakfast, with many homemade treats: jam and muffin. The owners were minister and wife from London Ontario. Moved here Oct last year. Empty nested (5 kids all grown). 3 guest rooms all taken. Ours is a 2-room suite.
Fort Anne is the oldest military post, taken over by the British in early 1700s, who kicked out those French at Port Royal. Only 1 original French building (an ammunition stone hut, dated in 1600s) left here. There are many similar sites and sad deportation stories in this area.
Annapolis Tidal station (10-5) is the only operating tidal power harvesting site in North America.
Bay of Fundy is famous for its tide. The current generator runs twice a day on low tide, in a similar fashion as a regular hydraulic dam, after storing water at high tide. They are testing a new turbine that would operate in water without a dam. In the last test, the previous model survived only 2 days. There's a free, very short and noisy (due to cooling fans) tour of the site. Only available when the generator is not running. It's definitely worth the time if you are interested in mechanics.
Blomidon Provincial Park has two parking area. We went to the top of the bluff. Because it's only about an hour after high tide, Minas Basin is just like any other bay. Pit toilet, camp sites, windy at picnic tables (small roofs). From the lower parking lot, you can walk to the reddish mud beach.
Grand Pre NHS, on the southern shore of Minas Basin, is another French-British confrontation site, or rather a collection of sites about the 1755 Acadian deportation, in this marshy area cultivated by building dykes and channels. This one obtained UNESCO registration in 2012. At Evangeline Beach, tide was receding. By the time we arrived at Horton Landing, the mud flat was getting substantial. The garden behind the main interpretive center has a memorial church, and statues of Longfellow and his heroine Evangeline, flowers parterre and old willows.
Fort Edward NHS, on the mouth of Avon River, 20+KM SE, has just one building, a small wooden house - the oldest military blockhouse in North America. Here's where the British troops stationed, who chased out those Acadian at Grand Pre.
Drove 3+ hours to Cape Breton for the night. Pouring rain on the way. Arrived at Dundee after 9pm, on the bank of Bra d'Or, another UNESCO registered area.
Cape Breton Island, NS
8/30, Tuesday. Just one day at Cape Breton:(
Stopped at Baddeck, for Alexander Bell NHS (9-5). A nice place with a good view of the lake, many original artifacts of Bell's life, many telephones, a reconstructed plane with some original frames. The site, however, has nothing to do with Bell. I was told that his house is on the opposite side of this enormous lake, still privately owned by Bell's descendants. I consulted the PEI ferry schedule in the info dossier at the front desk. Because it's totally different from what I saw on the company website, I asked one park employee, who doesn't seem to know anything, not even the fact that one of the only two ferry boats is in repair for the past 2 months.
My main goal of coming to Nova Scotia is to hike in
Cape Breton NP and to drive Cabot Trail.
With only a few hours to spare (instead of 2.5 days - my original plan), we hiked the easiest, and probably most popular trail here: Skyline Trail. Cars overflowed on to the road. It's definitely worth the small effort. Beautiful views of the winding road and ocean from the long boardwalk, over-engineered with seating areas. Ripen huckleberry in the open area where the boardwalk is.
I saw 2 bull moose on both sides of the loop. Keep left at junction for a shorter and easy in and out on road like flat trail. I walked back completing the northern part of the loop: not much view, more like a trail, a lot less people. We turned back at French Lake, nothing interesting. Maybe drove only 20% of Cabot Trail. It's quite pretty. Should be more impressive in fall.
I was aiming for the 7pm ferry to enjoy the sunset, but was running late. Now with over an hour to spare, we stopped at
Arisaig PP for sunset. Couldn't find a quick viewpoint at the park itself, we watched the sunset at the lighthouse (now an ice cream shop) at the end of Arisaig Point Rd. Not bad. It's probably worthwhile to spend some more time in the park, cause this area is known for fossils. 20 minutes later, we caught some fabulous after glow of sunset right on hwy 245 (Shore Rd), opposite of Big Island.
Took the last (10pm)
ferry from Caribou to Wood Island. The drive to Pictou across the bridge of Pictou Harbor is quite pretty (too late for us to appreciate). Caribou itself has no service. Only vending machine at the ferry terminal. Nothing else was open at this hour. Very weak Wifi. The ferry crossing is 75 minutes. Smooth sailing. Only half full. We arrived at hotel just past midnight.
Prince Edward Island
8/31 Wednesday.
Rodd Resort by Brudenell River is quite nice. Immaculate grounds. Very green. We didn't take advantage of any of this.
Our first stop is
Prince Edward Island national park Greenwich area. Over-engineered boardwalk, shower rooms, and a picnic shelter with wood burning furnace, sink, and picnic tables. The sea water is not chilled to the bone. Its western tip has sand dunes, and southern stretch is along St Peter's Bay (mussel bed).
Charlottetown is the birthplace of Canada, or rather a building:
Province House. In September 1864,
Charlottetown Conference was held here, which voted to form the confederation of Canada. However, only in 1871,
British North America Act 1867, with Queen's approval, on July 1st, Canada is formally
established. In the basilica a block away, delegates to the conference are etched in a stainless window.
We had lunch downtown in another Yelp find. I didn't like it, so not recorded here. Luck has it, that it started pouring when we went to the restaurant, and stopped before we finished. On our way out of the town, stopped by the ground of
Government House.
Green Gable was closed when we arrived. Walked a bit in the ground. I watched
Anne of Green Gables when I was young and was fond of it.
Even though it's a fiction, and I don't remember much of it, I still decided to pay a visit to the recreation, the tomb of its author
L.M. Montgomery in Cavendish Cemetery, as well as a
house she lived before (just a couple of blocks east), which is now a bookstore.
Cavendish Beach, in the vicinity, is quite pretty. Low red bluff, very colorful in early evening. It also has beach access with shower rooms. It's part of
Cavendish Grove section of Prince Edward Island national park.
Confederation Bridge (CA$46) is the longest bridge in the world at 12.9 Km. There's a bridge park next to the bridge entrance, where an information center was closed when we arrived (7pm), and many shops. You actually don't see the bridge here. For a better view, drive further to Marine Rail Park, where the former Port Borden Pier Lighthouse was moved from its original ferry location. Time for sunset. We stayed in Moncton for the night.
New Brunswick —> Nova Scotia
9/1 Thursday. Moncton
Magnetic Hill ($6) is a quick stop, without getting out of the car. It has a short stretch of road, which you put your car in neutral and the car will roll back on the seemly rising slope. It's probably optical illusion.
Fundy national park is rather big, dad's wish. There wasn't much to see, for it was foggy and the tide was high. We did a short hike to Wolfe Point.
Hopewell Rocks park is privately owned ($10/pp). The
Flower Pots area is very very small. You have to walk about 15 minutes on a trail to the viewing platform. Walk down the metal stairs to the beach to walk around these iconic rocks who have been slowing eroded by the tides. Lots of people, gigantic parking lot. On the way back, we took the little cart ($2/pp) back to the entrance.
I wanted to visit
Joggings Fossil Centre, Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy, but didn't have time.
On the way to Halifax airport, we detoured to Pugwash to visit
Thinker's Lodge, the origin of the
Pugwash Conference.
It is a non-political gathering aimed for world peace, born in the heat of cold war (1957). We arrived in pouring rain, just after 5pm, when it closes. The lady who was locking the door, saw us coming, and asked if we could stop by the next morning. After knowing that we came from west coast and were flying out tonight, she kindly let us in, and gave us a personal tour of the house. We saw
Joseph Rotblat's 1995 Nobel Peace Prize medal, and
Cyrus Eaton's Lenin Medal.
Our flight out of Halifax on Air Canada was delayed, reducing our connection time to about 15 minutes. My parent's first leg on Air Canada was delayed by over half an hour, reducing the connection time to mere 20 minutes, causing unnecessary anxiety. Air Canada, being almost a monopoly in Canadian air transportation, is the worse airline I've taken. I was told British Airway is worse (longer and more frequent delays without compensation),
but luck so far has kept me away from British Airway. This trip we had 3 delays (50%). Not a single verbal apology ever uttered. No estimated wait announced. My last flight with Air Canada 2 years ago, caused me miss my connection (actually, I ran to the gate in time, but my checked-in bag didn't, and they wouldn't let me on the plane without my luggage,
thus forcing me to wait 4 hours for the next plane). Same, no apology, no compensation.
Arrived at YVR (no rental car booth opens after 1am) at 1am. Total driven ~1400 miles in 5 days.
9/24 Saturday. Cloudy - sunny. Rained Friday night. Weather forecast at Russel Lake. Whitewater Creek trailhead is 7.5 miles off Hwy-22 (on 2243 - Whitewater Rd), 10 miles east of Detroit. Privy at the big parking lot. It's 2.5 hours drive from my home. Being so close to Portland metro, this is a very popular hike. The trail is in very good shape. It starts out in the woods, and an hour later, you join PCT (hard to miss). Follow PCT north all the way to the park. Jefferson soon appeared beyond red huckleberries and trees.
I reserved Campsite 15 on the north shore of Bayes Lake. This photo is the view when I ate my dinner. Took sometime to find the correct site, even though I picked the site online, but that was months ago. It's in the woods above the lake shore, has privacy. Has a limited view, but an easy access to a great waterfront seating area. Camp 16 is more open (better view from the site itself), but would have to endure traffic. After pitching the tent, we checked out the surrounding lakes and campsites, during which I lost my hiking pole :( I like Camp 25 by Park Lake, as it is totally open. Great view, but no privacy. Camp 4 at Scout Lake is good for big group, and has great view.
9/25, Sunday. Headed towards Park Ridge along PCT. One of my favorite place here is this plateau. Not many people stop by. Too bad, no water if you want to camp here. 
Continue up. Once reached Park Ridge, you'd see Hood in front, Adams and St Helen further left and north, many bumps below. Still has a bit of snow left to cool the water. Saw one woman and her dog camping here. We walked up to the top on the west side of the ridge. There were 3 tarns below.
Stopped by Russel Lake's northern shore on the way back. Very pretty now with crisscrossed creeks. A bit muddy, but not too bad. Berries were plenty here, even though they were small. Most places in the park, you only see the red leaves, almost no berries, or shriveled-up remains of a berry. Too many people?
9/20, Tuesday 7pm. Powell's Cedar Hill branch hosted 
