Bar Harbor ME and the Precipice Trail.....well named!

We arrived in Bat Harbor, the evening hour cloaked in fog.  Our friends, Nacy & Serge from Quebec City, were waiting for us and had lit the fire and decorated our dinner table. The campsites are very comfortable and wooded. We first met our friends in this exact town about 15 years ago.

We were treated to a fabulous dinner of local scallops and shrimp over fettuccine, salad, bread and wine. The evening campfire lasted for quite awhile with so many family and personal stories to share.  The next morning, fog still greeting us, we came up with a plan for a special hike- the Precipice Trail.  This route is rated strenuous, for experienced hikers who have no fear or heights or exposure.....okay.  And I can tell you that this 1000 foot hike, which gains the altitude in .9 mile, did not disappoint!  It was really cool because it involved both climbing and hiking skills- it was a class 4 scramble involving iron rung ladders and significant exposure.

  If you look really hard, you see what we are holding onto- iron handrails and ladder rungs.  Nancy & Serge have done this hike many times and guided us.

 The summit was sweet, pictures were taken and a lunch of kippers, hard cooked eggs and cheese followed to nourish us for the trail back down to the main road.

  

That night we feasted on sautéed cod with asparagus and angel hair pasta, salad, and wine.  The next morning it was time to pack up and head home.  It was hard to say goodbye to our friends and Bar Harbor even with the fog!

 

Before leaving Bar Harbor, we stopped at a local seafood shack- Trenton Bridge Seafood and take a look- grilling and steaming Seafood over wood fired grills.

  

Well, what can I say except- what a trip we had as we start t@balonging around North America. There will be more adventures in the months and years to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fundy National Park, New Brunswick

Fundy National park is located in lower eastern New Brunswick, near the town of Alma (below). And yes, it borders Fundy Bay with the most extreme tides in the world.  This park has beautiful acadian hiking trails, numerous waterfalls- 25 actually- and a rugged coastline.  The campsites were nicely private and shaded.

 

   Low tide

 We spent 3 nights here, but that is no way near enough.  If you come, try to spend at least 5 nights to really have time to hike and see the area.  We hiked on the Laverty Falls Trail and Moosehorn, bagging 4 waterfalls which were so pretty and gushing with water.  The trails are very well maintained, but the "ankle grabbers" are certainly present, like snakes.  These trails together were 6 miles, with their ever present elevations of 1100-1200 feet in a by steep climb, but totally enjoyable as the scenery was beautiful.

     

We also hiked a small trail through woods and streams.

After hiking, we went into town for a well deserved beer and dinner.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cape Breton.....a most beautiful island, not to be missed!

There is way to much to say about Cape Breton, so I will stick with the highlights.  Our campsite was in the Cafe Breton National Highland Park. This park had a major flood last year for the lower camp so they are still recovering, so campsites are a little jammed, but we really lucked out.  We had a campsite that was bordered by woods on two sides and a babbling brook behind our site.  It was great.  We stayed 3 nights.  

  

The scenery and landscape is stunning.  We did take one day to drive along the Cabot trail and decided to go as far as Meat Cove, the most northern point in Cape Breton.  The roads were fine til we got to about the last 15 miles- just dirt roads that ended at someone's front yard....just like that!  It was named meat cove because way back in time, this is where meat was slaughtered for provisions.  Today, there are only about 60 inhabitants.  On the way back to our campsite, we had a most beautiful sunset.  And as we meandered down the road, no other cars in sight, we had a frightening encounter with a moose. A full size male moose decided to take an evening jog across the road.  Fortunately Bob was able to avoid hitting the moose. Good thing because We had no idea of how large a moose could get.  The top of the legs were at the height of his side view mirror with the body, head and antlers towering above the car.      Yipes, It took 10 minutes for our heart rates to return to normal.  There are guardian angels in this world!

   Meat Cove

 

 

The hiking trails are superb.  We chose the Acadian Trail and found ourselves ascending 1200 feet and then walking across a wonderful ridge.  The trail was about 6 miles and we walked through coniferous forests that smelled like Christmas!

I wished we had a few more days for hiking.  On the last day, we visited some of the artisans.  One was a rug hooker, a dying art.

Another was an art shop filled with unusual pictures of a tiny cow imbedded in each picture and wooden bowls made from burls.

Finally, one of our trails went along a stream bed with the most moss covered rocks that I have ever seen and sooooo green.

Stay tuned.....more to come before we say goodbye to Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Island Provincial Park- Fun on the Fundy Flats

Five Islands is named for a tight grouping of small islands named Moose, Egg, Diamond, Long & Pinnacle. Five Islands sits in the Minas Basin where the highest recorded tides of Fundy occur. This was our camping spot for the next 4 nights.  After discovering a treasure trove of cheeses and clams, we turned our attention to hiking @Five Islands Provincial Park.  We hiked the Clift trail for 5 miles, and then the next day, we hiked the Fundy flats, which were at the base of the Clift trail. The time window for safely hiking across the bay floor posted by the park rangers was from 1:15-5:30pm.  So we headed out across the flats.  It is incredible how the water disappeared

with just the mud flats remaining.  We noticed huge piles of jagged rocks toward the shore, but we were able to bypass them by walking across the mud flats.

  

As we hiked along the bay floor and around a huge rock formation, the cliffs continued to amaze us.  

  

We stopped along the beach and found a spot for a picnic. The water was crystal clear and many beautiful pebbles.
It wasn't too long after lunch that we checked our watches and knew it was time for the tide to come in.  We headed back and noticed that our mud flat was appreciably smaller. And as we continued our journey, the only path remaining were those jagged rocks- our mud flats had disappeared!  The going was slow for about one quarter mile as we scrambled across these rocks.  Finally, ankles intact we made it to the end of the hike, covering about 3 miles of varying degrees of mud wetness or drying- depending on the direction of travel. There were only 2 other crazy couples making the same journey.  A successful hike!

While we were at Five Islands, we visited the lighthouse and enjoyed traveling down back roads.  We also discovered that they love to play washer toss- a game somewhat like a combination of maybe horse shoes and corn hole.  Varying sizes of washers are used and tossed into a circle. In a box.  Points are as follows: 3 pets if it lands in the circle, 2 points if it lands in the box, and 1 point if it touches the outside of the box.  An extremely popular game, tournaments are held and there is great competition for trophies.

   Views from lighthouse.

Finally, the day we left, we came across an art show in a nearby town- Parsonsburg.  Here are a few pictures from the show.  There were submissions from all over the world- USA, Canada, New Zealand, Italy- just to name a few.  Media used included paintings, videos, and other materials for construction of their art work.  In addition to an expert panel of judges voting for first, second, third choice and honorable mention, they had a "people's" award where anyone stopping in to view fills out a ballot with 2 choices.  We voted for our favorite art pieces. What fun!

 

So. off to our next destination.  But wait- a market on the way? Oh, yes.