WELCOME TO CANADA
WELCOME TO CANADAToday began the long drive back, starting the morning at the North Eastern tip of Prince Edward Island. We started with a light breakfast at the Johnson Shore Inn, with cool but sunny weather.
We then drove all around the eastern tip and onto a stretch of beaches called Bothwell and Basin Head. In fact, we spent most of our time on Bothwell, which is accessed by an unmarked, unnamed dirt road mentioned to use by our Host Denise at the Johnson Shore Inn. We then popped in quickly to Basin Head, one of PEI's more popular beaches in the summer; however, like most places we visited in PEI, we were the only ones there!
For our final leg back, we stopped off briefly in Edmunston, New Brunswick where we spent the night at the Auberge Les Jardins, a very quirkly motel/hotel right across from the New-Brunswick Botanical Gardens. We ended up in a cottage which is very cute from the outside, and very confusing on the inside - complete with a combination sink/electric stove, dangling drapes over the electric baseboard heaters and thick, monstrous furniture that needed twice the space.
But all in all it was a quiet night's sleep before we left the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada for good. I'll plan on posting some final thoughts and photos in the days to come...
06/01/09 by visitEarth
We woke up to a glorious sunny (albeit chilly) morning in Charlottetown, PEI. We had a wonderful breakfast courtesy of Maureen from the Charlotte Rose B&B, then took care of vehicle issues before going on our way. John suggested the Tai Chi Garden vegetarian restaurant, so after confirming their lunch hours, we left Charlottetown.
It was an interesting drive to the North Shore of Prince Edward Island; agriculture is the main industry here, and the rich red earth makes for a nice distraction. The farms seem to be all very well-kept, and Elizabeth remarked on the amount of space and freedom the livestock has on the island, and it's nice to see what appears to be very humane and generous treatment of farm animals here.
We drove up to Cavendish Beach (most known for its proximity to the Green Gables center, home of the author of Anne of Green Gables). It is very early in the season here, as most tourists start arriving mid-June once school is over. While the downside is that few things are officially open, the upside is that entry to the National Parks are free!
We spent a few moments braving the wind on Cavendish Beach and marvelling at the sand dunes, took a short drive and stopped at the cute fishing village of North Rustico Harbour before retracing our way to Charlottetown for a late lunch. And what a lunch it was! The Tai Chi Garden restaurant is wonderfully designed and presented, with a small but creative menu. Highlights were the baked spring rolls and pan-fried potstickers. So much so that after our soup and entree, I had another order of the potstickers for desert! A green tea for me and a nutty/sweet herbal tea for Elizabeth warmed and soothed our souls, and it was off to Greenwich, part of Prince Edward Island's National Park system.
Everyone in PEI had Greenwich on the top of their list, and we can see why. After a walk along St. Peter's Bay, we entered a small forested area before emerging on a huge marshy area and there appeared a majestic boardwalk. The boardwalk must be nearly a kilometer long, winding just above the marsh with a big sand dune on the left, gulls flying overhead and the promise of the Atlantic just over the grassy dunes ahead. Sure enough, as we approached the end, the boardwalk turned into steps and then finally a thick rope guided us over and onto the beach.
In addition to free park entrance, another major benefit of visiting PEI at the end of May is the complete absence of other tourists. We literally had the entire boardwalk hike and the entire beach as far as we could see all to ourselves. That said, it was so windy that after only 5 minutes we were ready to find the warmth of our rental vehicle!
After several days of long driving, it was time to finally check in early, so we finished the drive to Hermanville and our stop at the Johnson Shore Inn. It really is a fantastic location with stunning views from our room. However... You do pay a premium for the view and location. As a once in a lifetime experience, probably worth it; for an extended stay, better to mix it up.
The day ended on a tremendous note when we stopped for dinner at the Fiddlin Lobster in Souris. Certainly not where vegetarians would expect to be accommodated, but what a treat we had! Dennis the chef and one of the owners came out to inquire about our needs, and then wowed us with both the quality and quantity of the food: garden salad, fresh (and I mean fresh) PEI french fries and two heaping plates of linguini with herbs, vegetables and roasted PEI potatoes. We barely made it through the food. Barely. We felt like kings and with bellies full went back to the inn for a good night's sleep.
05/29/09 by visitEarth
By early afternoon, it was time to begin our Skyline Trail. It was mostly cloudy and rather windy, and for the first 3km or so along a service road then gravel trail. And then... Elizabeth spotted the moose. And then her baby! We had the mother and baby staring at us about 10 metres away. As I scrambled for a second camera, the mother stared at me suspiciously but as it became apparent we were no threat, she and her baby started grazing. It was a wonderful experience but the rest was yet to come.
The mother headed off into the woods with her baby following, and after many smiles and self-congratulations for our timing, we continued. Having only spotted two other sets of hikers we were all alone, and we discovered that the grazing trail for the two moose followed our hiking path; they emerged to find some choice grass and vegetation only a few metres from where we were standing. For the next 30 minutes or so, they came within a few feet of our trail to eat, looking at us occasionally but generally quite intent on their food. The most interesting and cute aspect of these two was that the baby was still a bit too short to properly eat, so he often kneeled on his front legs to graze, just turning his neck to reach new vegetation. After a couple hundred photos and videos and more chilling wind, it was actually us that decided to leave them to eat in peace.
After the high of enjoying company of wild moose in their natural habitat, the end of the Skyline Trail was going to be hard pressed to impress, but it came close. A long series of stairs follows the crest of the mountain that we followed down to the edge. These hundreds of stairs create quite a visual and physical experience, surrounded by the valley on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.
A few minutes in the wind is all we could handle, so we hiked all the way back without any new excitement, then began the long drive to the Caribou - Wood Islands ferry that would bring us to Prince Edward Island. After a bit of vehicle mishap involving failing breaks and a rain front coming in, we caught the last ferry to PEI and arrived at the Charlotte Rose B&B just before midnight. Our host John had stayed up to greet us, so after we were shown to our lovely room, it was time for a comfortable sleep.
05/29/09 by visitEarth
Well, today was quite the wildlife encounter day! We started the morning with breakfast at the Keltic Lodge - me with my fruit bowl and Elizabeth with fresh blueberry pancakes. We then headed out and decided to do a number of short hikes around the Cabot Trail before culminating with the highly recommended Skyline Trial just before Cheticamp. So just a few minutes past Ingonish, we took the 4km or so Broad Cove Mountain trail to get a higher view of the Atlantic overlooking the Keltic Lodge.
As we were trekking up the trail (still feeling the repercussions of two days of the Cabot Trail Relay Race), I glanced to my left and saw a dark object that looked out of place high up a thin tree. I looked closely and... it was a black bear, just staring back at me! I called out for Elizabeth, she came back to where I was standing and we both marvelled at how still it was, looking intently at us. But after all of one photo and the start of a video, the bear looked at us one more time than started scrambling down the tree - and fast!
Now we're almost 100% sure that the bear was trying to get away from us, but that didn't start the adrenaline rush, and pulling out all the stops that come to mind with a bear encounter: walking slowly away, talking loudly and even picking up a rock to scare it away just in case. Needless to say, it never followed us and by 10am we'd already had our animal excitement for the day. We made it to the summit without further encounters, and after some nice vistas from the top, we made our way down very cautiously and loudly.
We continued along the Cabot Trail, with a few scenic stopoff points, and taking extended video of our way up both North Mountain and MacKenzie Mountain, including a neat hike called the Lone Shieling Trail around a Scottish settler's hut, and the MacKenzie waterfall trail. As we summitted MacKenzie Mountain, we also walked around a bog (or technically a sloped fen) where we could see many signs of moose but no activity that time of day. We did, interestingly, see what we think were frog eggs growing in the water right below the boardwalk.
After an already busy morning, we were ready for our piece the resistance - the famous Skyline Trail near Cheticamp...
05/28/09 by visitEarth
After the race, we gathered together as a team, then went to the community centre for a quick lunch (or chip snack in my case), awards presentation, a final goodbye to everyone, then Elizabeth and I continued along to Ingonish and the Keltic Lodge. One interesting quirk to the journey was taking the "ferry" which provides a shortcut that Denise told us the locals take. It was literally a 5-minute trip, connecting one part of the island to another by a boat using a cable. We actually thought we were drifting before leaving the dock and hadn't even gotten out of the car before we realized that the ferry ride was over!
Our drive to the Keltic Lodge was lovely as the sun was out and it was nice to see this part of the Cabot Trail without either running it, preparing for running it, or recovering from running it! Needless to say, there are many scenic viewpoints along the way; with a few strategic photo stops, we made our way to Ingonish and the Keltic Lodge. This is a great setting, right along Middle Head peninsula, and as it was still early in the season, we basically had the entire resort to ourselves. Our cabin overlooked the water, with a distinctively retro 70's decor for the main common room and bedroom, and an up-do-date and huge remodeled bathroom.
After unpacking, we decided to do the short 4km hike around the Middle Head trail, which juts out at the extreme into the Atlantic Ocean with sheer rocky drops and crashing surf. And extreme wind!
I was rather sore from the nearly 39km of hill running over the weekend, but still managed to enjoy the sights and sounds of this trail, especially catching glimpses of a working fishing boat picking up its catch at the end of the day.
Despite frequent sightings of moose droppings all over the trail, the parking areas and even right in front of our cabin, there was no moose to be found...
To end our day, we backtracked a bit into the small town of Ingonish and had a lovely dinner at a fish-oriented restaurant which actually had a couple vegetarian-friendly options, which we enjoyed, including a salad with remarkably good home-made dressing. Exhausted for the day and barely making a dent in my glass of wine, we headed back to the Keltic Lodge for a quiet sleep.
05/28/09 by visitEarth
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