Monday, October 7, 2024

Sept. 16th, 2024, Day 20 East Coast - Parc National du Bic to Ottawa

This was our last day of the trip. Again the weather was nice. We packed up our gear, had breakfast and then started the drive from Rimouski home. We mostly used the various highways. Our first stop was a coffee stop for Margaret at the next Tim Hortens adjacent to the road.

Our next stop was at Fromagerie des Basques in Trois Pistoles. This is a very large fromagerie in a relatively new building. They also sell bread, sausages and dairy products. We bought some cheese from them.

We also visited Poissonnerie Verseau 11 in Trois Pistoles and bought more smoke fish items.

Then we continued our drive to the Costco in Quebec City. On the way we ended up in a 20 minute traffic jam close to Quebec City. At the Costco we filled up gas, bought more cheese and some bottles of wine that are not available in Ottawa.

We had a lunch stop a Parc des Berges near the town of Donnacona. This was a very nice stop. There were benches and a washroom in a nice setting with trees. Having nice baguettes with smoked fish items and cheese also helped lifting our spirits. Afterwards we continued our drive to Les Fromageries de la Table Ronde. The fromagerie is located north of Montreal and Google Maps guided us even earlier north than we expected to avoid rush hour traffic jams in the Montreal area. We made it in time to the fromagerie and bought a decent amount of cheese (Fleuron, Menestrel, and Fou du Roi (a new cheese of theirs)).

Now we embarked on our last leg towards Ottawa. Google Maps guided us on very rural roads to avoid further traffic jams close to the St. Jerome/Mirabel area and then we finally were on the right highway without much traffic towards Gatineau. The remainder of the trip was uneventful. Only the low sun in the evening sky was a bit of a nuisance while approaching Gatineau. Anyway, we made it safely home. 

Sept. 15th, 2024, Day 19 East Coast - Rimouski and Parc National du Bic

 We started breakfast at Brûlery d'Ici in Rimouski. Margaret was in need for a coffee to get started and this was the right breakfast place. Afterwards we walked through the whole downtown of Rimouski and before we ran out of ideas we got more pointers in the local tourist office. The water front and the downtown of Rimouski are worthwhile a visit. We had lunch at Le Crepe Chignon. This place can be recommended as well. It is still as good as 7 or so years ago when I visited Rimouski with Gongyu and Daniella. Other places we visited were Poissonnerie Ste-Odile, Poissonnerie Gagnon (this was the best poissonerie we have visited on this trip), and Fromage en Tete right in the downtown in the market hall. It was difficult to scale down the quantities of the various smoked fish items :-). Actually resistance was futile. We bought a decent amount.

In the afternoon we returned to Ferme Rioux. Margaret wanted to complete the whole trail from Cap a l'Orignal towards Fourche-a-Louison and return via LeScoggan (basically completing the Le-Grand-Tour). I happily declined this opportunity and had a seat in the Ferme Rioux visitor center and started to work on a handful of blog posts. I also had a good look at the artist pictures on offer in the Visitor center and ended up buying one. Margaret happily completed Le-Grand-Tour just before sundown (again using the low tide window) and I managed to post a few blogs. After Margaret came back from the trail we visited Bay-du-Haha! and watched the remainder of the sundown. Then it was time for us to return to the campsite.

Sometime in the night we both woke up because a train nearby blew its horn every minute or so. Also, plenty of truck braking was happening relatively close to our campsite. But the train horn was distinctive enough to wake us up.

Sept. 14th, 2024, Day 18 East Coast - Kouchibouguac NP, Bathhurst, Dalhousie, Campbellton, Parc National du Bic, Rimouski

Today we had nice weather again. We fold up the tent and headed for a Tim Hortens in Miramichi via the highway to have breakfast. We also crossed a good portion of the Acadian peninsula using the highway. About 15km before Bathhurst we left the highway and followed route 134 into Bathhurst downtown (from then on we followed the scenic route along the coast until we reached Campbellton).

We tried to park in Bathhurst downtown but did not find immediately a suitable parking lot. After seeing a portion of downtown from the car while looking for a parking lot we decided to continue driving. We stopped at the Poissonnerie Arseneau to buy some smoked fish. Then we continued along the shore of Chaleur Bay following the Acadian Shores Road Trip signs towards Dalhousie and Campbellton. We had a nice dinner at Charlo Beach near Dalhousie. There was a parking lot right at the beach with a few benches and a washroom. We had a baguette style lunch while enjoying nice view across the water to Gaspe Peninsula. Then we continued towards Campbellton. All along from getting into Bathhurst and driving along the shore towards Dalhousie we encountered again plenty of house with Acadian stars over the entrance areas and telephone posts painted with Acadian flags like the day before. I am surprised how much national identity symbols are on display everywhere in this area.

In Campbellton downtown we had a short stop and walked a portion of the town and the shoreline.

Then we continued our drive towards Quebec. We crossed over into Quebec at Matapedia. The drive from Matapedia towards Mont-Joli at the St. Lawrence shore is very scenic despite driving a highway. Amqui is a town that lingers in my head (it has a very nice ski hill). We had another baguette stop at Lac Matapedia. Then we continued our drive and finally saw the St. Lawrence river. From there it was only a short highway drive to Parc National du Bic. It was a Saturday and we wanted to make sure we had a campsite there. The campground was very full, but we still got a site. Actually it was the "worst" camping site we had on the whole trip ;-). After setting up the tent we went back to Rimouski for dinner at Parfum de Coree. We enjoyed a good Korean dinner there. We also managed to buy some baguettes at Boulangerie Le Farinographe.

Afterwards we drove back to Parc National du Bic and even managed to hike the trail from Ferme Rioux (Visitor Center) to Cap a l'Orignal along the St. Lawrence shore. We just made it to Cap a l'Orignal at around sundown (we needed low tide) and returned to Ferme Rioux via the Le-ContraBandier trail. The walk late in the evening was every bit as scenic as the one I had done 6 or 7 years earlier with Daniella. The trail can only be walked at low tide. Back then, we also walked into the sundown. Very crawled very satisfied into our tent this night. 

Sept. 13th, 2024, Day 17 East Coast - Kouchibouguac NP and Bouctouche

 The night in the campground was interesting: Suddenly at about 1 or 2am in the morning there was a tremendous low frequency noise. I woke up and as I listened to the noise it sounded as if we slept right beside a busy Trans-Canada-Highway with lots and lots of trucks. Then I thought maybe there is an army exercise with propeller air-planes and trucks or boats going on right adjacent to the national park. Anyway, it took quite a while until this tremendous noise died down (at least an hour and likely more). Later in the day, when I asked somebody from the national park, I was told that on the other side of the river, there was an active commercial fishing harbor located in the middle of the national park. What we heart was the fishing boat fleet coming back or leaving the harbor. Judging from the duration and the level of the noise lots of fishing boats must have been involved. And likely some were racing each other or they were in a rush to come back or get to their fishing grounds ...

We had another day with nice weather. We started the day with breakfast at the campsite. Then we headed for our first trail on Kelly's Beach. There is a decent sized very long boardwalk that runs from the shore to a very large sand dune about 500m off-shore. The boardwalk ends at Kelly's Beach, which is basically a very nice sand beach where people stay for a swim (when the weather is warmer or walk like we did). We walked south-east on the beach for about 3 to 4km, maybe even 5km one way. And then we turned around. Mostly on nice firm wet sand. At some points along the beach one could watch birds or seals. We walked way further then all the other people and greatly enjoyed the scenery.  The way back to the boardwalk felt a bit long however ... Very, very nice. From the boardwalk we counted about 20 herons that were chasing fish in the shallow water between the dune and the shore.

Once we made it back, we hiked the Salt-Marsh-Trail. This is a relatively short 1km trail, mostly boardwalk with nice views at the marshland between the short and the Kelly's beach dune that we had walked before.

Afterwards we decided to head back to Bouctouche to shop for grocery and more importantly to have another dinner at La Sagouine restaurant. On the way from Kouchibouguac to Bouctouche we took the slow scenic route. We came through a number of towns and small villages on the way. A good chunk of the small road runs along the shore and was very scenic. There were lots of houses with Acadian stars over their entrances. We also come across lots of telephone poles that sported an Acadian flag painting on the first 1.5m from the ground. One village stuck particularly out with an oversized Acadian flag being hoisted at the begin of the village. I have seen lots of Canadian or Quebecois flags, but the size of this Acadian flag topped everything I have seen in Canada. A certain Acadian spirit was surprisingly visible in the area. It was right in your face. We made it in about 1 hour to Bouctouche. In time for an early dinner at La Sagouine. Margaret ordered a Chicken Frigot (an Acadian dish) and a lobster roll. I ordered a haddock platter. Again, everything tasted very good and was affordable. The restaurant filled up again, as we ate our food. We also ordered desserts again. I think this was the best restaurant on our trip.

Afterwards we went to a grocery store (mostly to buy a few baguettes) and drove back to the Kouchibouguac NP campground. At the visitor center I also found a T-shirt for Anna.

At sundown we drove over again to Kelly's Beach. There we attended the "Moon and Dune" event. At different stations on the boardwalk and the beach one could listen to native stories told by local folks, sit at a fire, and watch the moon through a telescope. It was very nicely organized and informative. The moon was partially out and sometimes a bit clouded, but experiencing the marshlands and the beach at night was worth the while. We went to sleep at about 10pm or so.

Kouchibouguac National Park is definitely worth a visit again. No wonder the campground was nearly full despite it being post Labor Day. Lots of people had bicycle hookups on their cars.

Sept. 12th, 2024, Day 16 East Coast - Grand Pré, Burntcoat Head Park, Bouctouche, and Kouchibouguac NP

We had another day with nice weather. We packed up the tent, left the campground, and headed for breakfast at the Wolfsville downtown Tim Hortens. The place was crowded, but good. After breakfast we continued to Grand Pré. Grand Pré is another nice village similar to Wolfsville: Neat and old houses. Once there, we visited the Grand Pre National Historic Site. We walked through the Visitor Center and an adjacent church. Both host small museums documenting the landscape and its history (mostly 1720 to 1760 history in a sense similar to what was on display in Fort St. Anne in Annapolis Royal about the French Acadian farmers and their struggles with the British Navy and British governance). The whole landscape there is  also a UNESCO World Heritage site (Landscape of Grand Pré). The visitor center and the church are surrounded by nice gardens and we walked from there up to View Park and back. View Park offers a gorgeous view over the farmland with its dykes, across the Minas Basin and across the land to Blomidon Provincial Park (the hill where we camped on top).

We also visited 2 beaches (Minas Basin Viewpoint and Evangeline Beach) by driving across the dyked farmland and enjoyed the views.

Then it was time to head for Burntcoat Head Park. This was a drive through rural Nova Scotia. It took a while and then we arrived pretty much at low tide (as planned). Burntcoat is a superb municipal park (no access fee). One enters the park via a set of stairs cut into the rock to enter the shore at low tide. From there a significant portion of the coast line is accessible while some sensitive parts are closed for visitors. The Minas Basin tide is one of the largest in the world. It has carved a number of "flower pot" rocks away from the cliff that comprise the shore. At low tide, the beach is a few hundred meters wide and several km long. The flower pot rocks and the shore cliffs are made of red sand that looks spectacular. In same sense it is similar to Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy that we visited 1.5 weeks earlier, but longer, wider and less crowded. While there were a lot of people too, they dispersed easily. We probably spent between 1 and 2 hours there and walked a decent amount along the beach that was open for visitors.

Then it was time to drive to New Brunswick. Initially the road from Burntcoat to Truro went again through very rural (and scenic) places to Truro. But we had no time to visit the various "Tidal Viewing Points" mentioned via various traffic signs. From Truro we mostly used highways to cover some distance. We did a minor detour in Moncton to fill up the gas at the local Costco and then headed north towards Shediac, Bouctouche and Kouchibouguac. At some point it became clear that we had to make a choice between visiting Shediac or Bouctouche and we made a decision for Bouctouche and passed Shediac by staying on the highway (for a while we considered driving through the downtown, but then decided that that was not an option). We arrived in Bouctouche in time for dinner. Margaret had picked La Sagouine restaurant. It was very good and affordable. So good, that we decided to have another dinner the next night (coming all the way back to Bouctouche from Kochubouguac). Margaret ordered a lobster roll and I ordered seafood pasta with a salad. We also had dessert. All very good and affordable. The place was well visited.

Afterwards we headed for the last stretch on the highway to Kouchibouguac National Park. We arrived there very late. But the reception was still open and we were able to get a campground for 2 nights. We found the tent site and built the tent during darkness using our head lights. Finding the washroom was a bit of an adventure. The map given at check in showed a path way that did not exist where penciled in. Margaret found it. However I ended up with a bit of bush-whacking and ultimately also found the trail to the washroom.

Sept. 11th, 2024, Day 15 East Coast - Cape Split PP and Wolfsville

It was again a nice day. We had breakfast at the campground. Then we drove to the Cape Split Provincial Park (maybe 15 to 20 minute drive). From the trailhead we hiked a 12 to 13km round trail to Cape Split and back. The trail runs mostly in forest areas along Minas Basin to Cape Split and from there back along Scott's Bay to the trailhead. There are a handful lookouts on the way. And Cape Split itself is a gorgeous cape that offers views into Minas Basin, across the Bay of Fundy and into Scott's Bay. It is basically a hundred to two-hundred meters of open meadow bordered by steep cliffs into the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin. There was a decent wind that was completely absent within the forest. Very nice. We did not see whales despite looking with the binocular for a longer time. 

After making it back to the trailhead we decided to do a bit of sightseeing of the northern end of the Annapolis Valley with the car. We made it to Wolfsville first. There we ended up shopping at 2 local farm-owned shops for vegetables and fruits. Afterwards we parked in downtown Wolfsville and walked various streets in downtown. Wolfsville is a university town (Acadia University) and was very lively. Lots of people walked in the streets (a good chunk were likely students). The downtown houses were old and neat. We visited a local cheese shop and bought an "Annapolis Valley Gold" alpine-style cheese. It was very good when I opened and tasted it a few days later. We also visited a Nova Scotia Liquor Store and perused the local wines. It turned out that the north end of Annapolis valley had their own appellation and we bought 2 different bottles as future gifts (as of writing this the bottles are still closed, so I can't comment further on the wine). We also had an ice-cream on the way.

Afterwards we returned to the campground and had dinner. We had another gorgeous starry night.

Sept. 10th, 2024, Day 14 East Coast - Thomas Raddall PP to Digby, Annapolis Royal, and Blomidon Provincial Park

We were not really sure were to head next from here. But over the past 2 days we figured our next destination would be the Annapolis valley (before we also considered heading south to Yarmouth or north to Risser). The main reason was that we wanted to have a more relaxed way back to Ottawa and not ending up having to drive very large distances on the way back. So the Annapolis valley it was.

It was another nice day. We packed up the tent and decided to have breakfast in a Tim Horton's in Liverpool. The cream cheese bagels tasted good. We also filled up the gas there and shopped at a Sobey's for the next few days. I also went to the local post office to get stamps for Daniella's postcards. Liverpool downtown from the little we saw looked like an interesting town.

Our next destination was Digby. We arrived there around noon. While not being directly on our route, Margaret figured she wanted to try scallops there and had located 2 possible places. The first one was closed, so we had our scallops at Carla's Takeout. The place offered all sorts of seafood morsels, but we we both ended up ordering the scallops for which Digby was well-known. They were good and not pricy. The place was well frequented while we ate there. Adjacent to the takeout was Carla's Seafood Market. We also went into that shop and bought various smoked fish pieces for the next days. We also drove through Digby downtown, but did not park the car and have a longer walk. Digby has a large harbor with an active fishing boat fleet. Next time I would definitely spent a bit more time there walking the town.

Our next destination was Bunchberry Nurseries located between Digby and Annapolis Royal. Steve had mentioned that the Annapolis Valley had possibly interesting nurseries and I mentioned this to Margaret. Now that we were here, we took the time to visit one that was on the way and looked interesting. We spent about 1 hour there and had a good look at all the plants and facilities. The staff had time and was happily answering any question we had. The nursery has a very large selection on water/bog-plants, shrubs and trees. I was very close to buy a pitcher plant as a present for Zandra and Steve but opted out when we heard that it needed to be watered with rain water. That was not an option for us: we were still over a week away from Ottawa and we only had access to normal water at the various campgrounds. So we bought 2 other plants similar to ones we had seen in Kejimkujik NP for them. I was considering buying a hazelnut tree but it was too large and did not fit into the car. I finally selected a grape plant for our garden. We also bought some smaller plants for Margaret. Last but not least, I considered buying a rock with some Chinese/Japanese characters painted on it but opted out after hearing the price. I will definitely visit the nursery again if I make it into the area. I was an interesting place with lots of unusual plants.

10 minutes later we arrived at Annapolis Royal. Our first destination was the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. We walked the whole garden: Very enjoyable. I liked their Innovative Garden section: It featured a small hot house, raised beds, a smaller pollinator section and a few interesting smaller trees in a confined setting to show visitors what a home garden could look like. They also had an interesting section of ponds, sections with large trees and a sections with native plants. I will definitely visit the garden again if I make it into the area. One of the better gardens I have seen in Canada. Clearly the climate in the Annapolis Valley is relatively moderate and plants grow well there. We spent probably 1 to 2 hours in the garden.

We also visited Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal. The entrance was free for us since we had the one-year Parks Canada pass. The site features a small museum that is worth a visit. It mostly focuses on the 1720 to 1760 time and the events related to Annapolis Royal. Back then Annapolis Royal was the main French town beside Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The Annapolis valley was mostly settled by French farmers. Over time the British Navy/military subjugated the area and ultimately the settlements of the Acadian farmers were burned down and the people had to migrate elsewhere. The British governors did not trust the local Acadian population despite their intent to stay out of the European British/French quarrels/fights. We also walked the walls of the Fort. It is built in a star pattern that was invented by the French architect Vauban. All in all, we stayed about 1 hour in the fort.

Before leaving Annapolis Royal we walked the down area. The town has a set of old interesting houses. This was definitely a worthwhile walk. We visited the local German Bakery (located in one of the old downtown houses) during the walk and had cakes there. We also bought apple strudel and 2 large pretzels as a snack for the following days. Later, both the pretzels and the strudel turned out to be very good.

We then drove to Blomidon Provincial Park to camp there for the next 2 nights. The drive took us from the south of Annapolis Valley to the north-east corner of the valley. We drove through a number of smaller towns, then a section of a local highway and then again through a chain of small towns. These towns look neat and are surrounded by orchards (apple), lots of vegetable fields and even vineyards. Clearly the area is fertile and the climate moderate. In some sense it reminded me at South-East Ontario and Niagara. We arrived at the campground late and had to check-in via a phone call. The campground is located on top of Blomidon and offers superb views into the Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy. We managed to watch sun down during a nice evening walk as well. Watching the night sky from the campground was also super duper. Both nights were clear.