Friday, June 17, 2005
Well, I gotta say, Nova Scotia has SORELY disappointed. Its not really the provinces fault per se...its the weather. It has rained, I believe, every single day that we've been here. And I don't mean a brief smattering of drizzle, I mean either hard hard rain, or absolute zero visibility misty foggy haze for the ENTIRE day. Its a major bummer, and has meant basically no biking, and little to no serious activity at all.
We DID get some very nice hiking in near Truro, in "Economy". Dick and I did a 10km hike up to Economy Falls, one of the biggest falls in NS. It was super dee duper nice...went for a quick swim, but the water was indeed cold! We camped at Five Islands provincial park, where NONE of the sites were flat enough for camping. We did a hike the next day to Thomas' Cove, which was also quite nice.
We have done some more seriously prime hobo camping. The two most hardcore hobo camps have taken place the past two nights. On Wednesday we left Halifax and went up to Mosquidobit Harbour where I hoped to do a nice little stretch of biking - for once the weather was nice! (and this is like 1 of maybe 5 stretches of TransCanada Trail in NS)...then we discovered that the little plastic nib for my hydration pack was missing! i.e. my hydration pack was useless because it leaked like a faucet out of the drinking tube. Because we're in more or less the middle of nowhere, our best option seemed to be to drive all the way back to Halifax and try to find a store that I could buy a nib at...well, luckily there was MEC, but they didn't have any nibs that would fit my tube! I was dead seriously contemplating stealing a nib off a new pack( my pack is from MEC, and they had the same pack)...but decided not to. After talking to one of the staff for a few minutes and explaining the situation, they just gave me a brand new bag. Poof, like that. Sweetest thing ever.
But that screwed out entire plan for the day, and put us way behind schedule...so we drove and drove and drove, through Sheet Harbour(you know how to pronounce it) and even through the booming metropolis of Ecum Secum(I kid you not). However, the light was quickly fading, and there was no town over 50 people anywhere in sight...so we hobo camped in one of those picnic stops on the side of the highway. The ground was actually super flat, and it worked out nicely! However, it started to pour rain like a madman around midnight, and it was zany windy all night.
In rained all the next morning, so we bypassed my other planned biking section, and went straight over to Cape Breton....where it was so foggy you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. More rain. Did a short, wet hike. More rain.
Then, the unexpected happened. The hobo gods smiled upon us, and graced us with the perfect site...down a dirt road about 7km, we made our way to a gorgeous waterfall, and the site was equipped with a full on shelter, big enough for the bikes, a picnic table AND the tent. So yes...we set up camp in this shelter, even though the rain appeared to have stopped. Thank goodness...it, shockingly, rained all night(and has continued to rain all day today).
We're off to Newfoundland tonight at 2am. The ferrys run at the craziest times, and only run 2-3 times a day...and the ferry ride is 6-8 hours over(14 hours on the way back!!!). So essentially either you leave late at night, or arrive late at night.
We DID get some very nice hiking in near Truro, in "Economy". Dick and I did a 10km hike up to Economy Falls, one of the biggest falls in NS. It was super dee duper nice...went for a quick swim, but the water was indeed cold! We camped at Five Islands provincial park, where NONE of the sites were flat enough for camping. We did a hike the next day to Thomas' Cove, which was also quite nice.
We have done some more seriously prime hobo camping. The two most hardcore hobo camps have taken place the past two nights. On Wednesday we left Halifax and went up to Mosquidobit Harbour where I hoped to do a nice little stretch of biking - for once the weather was nice! (and this is like 1 of maybe 5 stretches of TransCanada Trail in NS)...then we discovered that the little plastic nib for my hydration pack was missing! i.e. my hydration pack was useless because it leaked like a faucet out of the drinking tube. Because we're in more or less the middle of nowhere, our best option seemed to be to drive all the way back to Halifax and try to find a store that I could buy a nib at...well, luckily there was MEC, but they didn't have any nibs that would fit my tube! I was dead seriously contemplating stealing a nib off a new pack( my pack is from MEC, and they had the same pack)...but decided not to. After talking to one of the staff for a few minutes and explaining the situation, they just gave me a brand new bag. Poof, like that. Sweetest thing ever.
But that screwed out entire plan for the day, and put us way behind schedule...so we drove and drove and drove, through Sheet Harbour(you know how to pronounce it) and even through the booming metropolis of Ecum Secum(I kid you not). However, the light was quickly fading, and there was no town over 50 people anywhere in sight...so we hobo camped in one of those picnic stops on the side of the highway. The ground was actually super flat, and it worked out nicely! However, it started to pour rain like a madman around midnight, and it was zany windy all night.
In rained all the next morning, so we bypassed my other planned biking section, and went straight over to Cape Breton....where it was so foggy you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. More rain. Did a short, wet hike. More rain.
Then, the unexpected happened. The hobo gods smiled upon us, and graced us with the perfect site...down a dirt road about 7km, we made our way to a gorgeous waterfall, and the site was equipped with a full on shelter, big enough for the bikes, a picnic table AND the tent. So yes...we set up camp in this shelter, even though the rain appeared to have stopped. Thank goodness...it, shockingly, rained all night(and has continued to rain all day today).
We're off to Newfoundland tonight at 2am. The ferrys run at the craziest times, and only run 2-3 times a day...and the ferry ride is 6-8 hours over(14 hours on the way back!!!). So essentially either you leave late at night, or arrive late at night.
# posted by Greg @ 12:37 PM 
