Journal Entries

Eight of us paddlers launched from the end of Crescent Beach - pulled up on the backside of Bay Beach, where we scrambled over the sand dune to see a beach that rivals in beauty with the Caribbean (without the palm trees!). Purpose of the trip was to collect garbage along the beach left from last year’s campers on the Cape LaHave Island and (garbage) flotsam drifted ashore from the Atlantic. A local fisherman in his motorboat generously ferried the heavy 9 huge garbage bags full and two vehicle tires back to the mainland . Return trip about 10K.

White sand, June 1st, hottest day of the season - where's my tent and overnight gear?!! Protected area for nesting piping plovers - didn't see any, but tread carefully on the dunes.

I highly recommend this trail. In 2017, with two other couples, we overnighted at the Chain Lake campsite: spots are on a first-come basis. And free-of-charge! Plenty of water available, especially after a day of rain: a detail to check out prior to going if mobility-walking through water could be a problem. This year we booked a Bed and Breakfast in Economy, NS, minutes away from the trailhead for an early start, to carry a light pack and make this a doable day hike.

Kenomee Canyon, Economy, NS - with @hammerhead - finished his first of three crossings, 'cold water foot spa' treatment!

These are the Powerful Biscotti Bars I made for this hike - travelled really well in a backpack and didn't get soft/gooey like home-made energy bars sometimes do. (A nice reminder of the days when I used to bake and eat the sweeter variety of biscotti.) If you want to give these a try, the recipe is in this link: https://karentoewscom.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/power-biscotti-bars.pdf

Unlimited beautiful 'venues with a view'' to stop for snacks. Packed our usual: water, energy bars, apples, sausage from our favourite German 'sausage guy' at the Lunenburg market, https://lunenburgfarmersmarket.ca/ , cheese, carrots, hard-boiled eggs, baquette from our favourite German baker, https://www.facebook.com/boulangerielavendeenne/ , peanuts - and some 'powerful biscotti bars' (seeds, GF, vegan) that actually didn't crumble - @hammerhead loved these too. Sound like a lot? Had just a little bit a bit of food left after our 8 hours hike (doing the escarpment trail bumped up distance to about 20K) - never want to run out! One thing we forgot, which @hammerhead especially mourned, was our coffee-making equipment. We have 3 MSR small back-country stoves and all the gear - and all were left sitting on the back counter! Oh well...

Saturday's downpours surged through Economy River on Sunday's hike - this was the third crossing we had to fjord without our shoes for better footing. Quite a current here - grateful for trekking poles to keep me upright! The crossing was indicated on the map for this section of the trail, The Escarpment, which we hadn't hiked before. Just didn't indicate how wide- or deep - it was.

I would consider the Kenomee Canyon Hiking system with its ups and downs challenging but not too difficult for most hikers - and one is well-rewarded for your efforts. Nature's beauty can be subtle as well as showy - these trails definitely keep giving on the latter!

Early (Mother’s Day) morning hike on Cape Smokey - with a friend excited to share a pre-breakfast hike.

Ingonish Harbour in the National Park, where most of these photos were taken. Cape Breton Island's slogan is ' Your Heart Will Never Leave" - for sure you'll never forget its beauty.