Day 8 - St. John's, Newfoundland

Not unexpectedly, I didn't really get much sleep on the ship. We arrived at the dock and by the time I was able to drive off the ship, it was around mid-morning. As I left the port, there was a visitor's information center on the road, so I decided to stop and get some ideas for what to do for the day.

The woman who I spoke with was very helpful, and gave me a few ideas which included a visit to Cape Spear, which is the Easternmost point in North America, excluding Greenland. At one time, there was a fort here that was built to defend against attacks from Europe. There's some more history to it, but what really mattered was that there was a nice lighthouse here, and the coastal views were beautiful.

After that, I went to Signal Hill, which was also used at one time as a fort to defend St. John's Harbor. Once again, the views were incredible and there's a cool little castle built at the top of it. Signal Hill was also the place where the first transatlantic wireless radio communication was received by Guglielmo Marconi. More history!

My last stop for the day was at Quidi Vidi Brewery, a local brewery named for the very small neighborhood in which it's located. It occupies a building right on the water of a small cove with docks, fishing boats, a small fish market and some other small stores. It was a really nice setting and the beer was VERY good. I didn't have their flagship beer, which is called Iceberg Lager, and is supposedly brewed with water melted from captured icebergs that float by Newfoundland. Instead, I went for the 1892 (not sure what it was named for), which was an amber beer and more in line with my preferences. After finishing my beer, it was time to find my way to Pippy Park, a provincial park located right in the city of St. John's, which would be my campground for the night.

As usual, it was dinner ... a shower ... some reading ... and then off to bed.

Tomorrow's plan called for a very long drive, pretty much across Newfoundland to Gros Morne National Park. It was expect to be about an 8-9 hour drive.

Day 7 - Cape Breton National Park to St. John's, Newfoundland

Today's plan was to drive from Cape Breton National Park to North Sidney, Nova Scotia. I would be taking an overnight ferry from North Sidney to Argentia, Newfoundland, which is near St. John's, Newfoundland. The drive was only about 90 minutes, so I had originally planned to spend some time walking around in Sidney, Nova Scotia.

When I woke up, it was such a beautiful morning, that I decided to drive the Cabot Trail again, this time in the reverse direction, so that I'd get to see it on a nice day. I hiked the Skyline Trail again as well, and then, after that, drove to North Sideny. I arrived in plenty of time for the ferry.

The ferry turned out to be a fascinating experience. It left at 5:45 pm local time, and was scheduled to arrive at 9:30 am the next morning. It was like a mini cruise ship. There were lots of cabins, and one deck was dedicated to restaurants, bars, game rooms, shops and a lounge. There was even a singer in the lounge. I hadn't booked a cabin for myself, so I had to find an “air seat”. There were a few options, but I ultimately settled on a “quiet” room of what were very similar to airline seats, only a bit bigger and slightly more comfortable. I found an empty seat and left some of my belongings on it to “reserve” it. Apparently, this was the standard approach to choosing your seat for the night.

After that I went back to the “main” deck to see about something to eat. None of the restaurant options really appealed to me, and I wasn't all that hungry anyway, so I decided to just get a couple of VERY over-priced beers and I ate a Clif bar that I had brought on board with me. I did some reading and then decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow morning, I would be waking up in Newfoundland!

Day 6 - Cape Breton National Park

I left the campground at around 7:00 for the approximately 4 hour drive to Cape Breton. Once again, it was a pretty boring drive, with nothing particularly interesting to see or do until I crossed over to Cape Breton. There is a narrow strait that separates Cape Breton from the rest of Nova Scotia. In the 1950's, a causeway was built across the strait connecting the them. Once you cross the strait, the scenery changes dramatically, with lots of forested mountains dominating the landscape.

There is a well known road, I guess it's well known by some, called the Cabot Trail that essentially circumnavigates Cape Breton Island. It's named after the explorer John Cabot who landed here, and I guess did some exploring in the region. There is a strong Scottish heritage here, as many of the town names have a Scottish ring to them. That got my to thinking, I wonder if Nova Scotia means “New Scotland”, or something like that ... I'll have to look that up when I get back from my trip.

I had a choice to follow the Cabot Trail in its entirety, or to take a coastal road for the first 50 or so miles. I chose to take the coastal route. It was a beautiful morning and I stopped a number of times to take some pictures of the seaside scenery. When you arrive at the national park entrance, the road starts to wind its way up and through the mountains. Unfortunately, some heavy clouds had moved in and the views were not what one would have hoped for.

I drove to one of the more popular trails in the park, the Skyline Trail. It starts with a walk through the woods and then it runs along the ridge of a seaside mountain. As I was walking along the trail, there was a group of people up ahead of me looking into the woods to the side of the trail. When I reached them, I discovered that they were looking at a moose that was grazing a short distance off the trail. After watching the moose for a few minutes and taking some pictures, I continued along the trail. Eventually, the trail leaves the woods and follows a wooden boardwalk down along the ridge of this mountain. As mentioned above, unfortunately due to the cloud cover, there wasn't much to see.

I finished walking the trail and then returned to my car. After that, I finished driving around the Cabot Trail until I reached my campground. As usual, I got set up, made dinner, did some reading and went to bed.

Day 5 - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Today I traveled from Prince Edward Island to the province of Nova Scotia. There really isn't a whole lot to say about the drive ... there was nothing particularly interesting or remarkable about it.

My original plan was to spend some time in the city of Halifax walking around and exploring. I had heard about a place called Peggy's Cove, a seaside village about 20-30 miles outside of the city. It was supposed to have some art galleries and that sort of thing ... it sounded like a “tourist trap”, but I figured why not ... I had plenty of time. When I arrived at Peggy's Cove, unfortunately, the whole area was shrouded in fog, so there wasn't a whole lot to see. The village was exactly what you'd expect from a small seaside fishing village, complete with lighthouse, small shops, and little houses scattered about the rocks. I spent a little time walking around, and then decided to head back to Halifax.

The only thing I knew about Halifax before I arrived was that there was an old citadel overlooking the bay. When I arrived, I found a place to park and started exploring. The first thing to note about Halifax is that it's VERY hilly. I walked around the citadel but I didn't bother to go in. Then I walked down the hill to the bay. There was a “harbor walk” along the bay with shops and vendors. There really isn't much else to say about the city, at least from what I saw of it. After a while, it was starting to get a little late, and I decided to head back to my car to drive to my campground for the night, which was about 30 minutes outside the city.

Unfortunately, traffic in Halifax is really brutal, and it took my close to an hour to get to the campground. When I arrived, it was time to do some laundry. After that, I followed the usual process of setting up my tent, eating dinner, and then I did some reading.

I planned to get on the road early tomorrow morning for the long drive to Cape Breton National Park.

Day 4 - Prince Edward Island National Park

Today's plan was to drive from Fundy National Park to Prince Edward Island National Park.

As I was driving through New Brunswick, I saw a sign for Hopewell Rocks. When I had arrived in New Brunswick on day 2 of my trip, I had stopped in a tourist information center just before I arrived in St. John. I had told the gentleman a little about my plans and he had made a comment that I would be near Hopewell Rocks. I didn't think much of it at the time, but since I was now here, and I was in no particular hurry, I decided to go check it out. Ultimately, this is a short walkway along the Bay of Funding, with some interesting rock formations. Based on the tides, you can walk out to the rocks, but I had arrived after low tide, so I wasn't able to walk out to the rocks. It was still a nice little diversion from the drive to Prince Edward Island.

I arrived at the Confederation Bridge, which led from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. I hadn't really paid any attention to this prior to my trip, but now that I saw the bridge in front of me, I was amazed. The Confederation Bridge is about 8 miles long, and it's really impressive. The toll, which you pay only in the Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick direction is $47.75 Canadian!!!

Once I crossed the bridge, I had to drive across the island to the North shore, which is where the national park is located. Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a very agricultural province, along with fishing. Have you ever been to the store and walked past the fish counter to see mussels labeled PEI mussels ... well, apparently, PEI has a very large mussel industry!

Once I got to the park, I checked in at the registration desk and parked my car at my camp site. There was a walking/biking trail that essentially followed the road along this section of the North coast. The trail was mostly flat, and it was a beautiful day for a ride. I stopped briefly at Cavendish Beach, and even spent a few minutes in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I then continued the ride to the end of the trail. It was about 10 km each way.

After the ride and a shower, I made dinner, did some reading, and then went to sleep. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving Prince Edward Island and heading to Nova Scotia.

Day 3 - Fundy National Park

The plan for today was to spend the day hiking and biking in Fundy National Park. Based on the information I had been given at the visitors center yesterday afternoon, I decided to ride the Goose River Trail first. According to the park guidebook, this was an 11.85 km trail that followed the coast line South of the park. It was rated as a “difficult” trail.

As it turned out, the rating was a little understated! The trail had a lot of very steep sections and hairpin switchback turns. The good news, was that it was VERY smooth, with an almost gravel like based for most of the way. I had to walk the bike up a lot of the steeper sections, but at the end of it all, it was good ride, an excellent workout, and I was glad I did it.

After that, I needed a little time to recover so I ate lunch and planned the next part of my day. I decided to do the very short, and beginner rated Ship Haven Trail, which led to a covered bridge. I figured this would be a good way to get myself going again.

After that, it was time for another hike, this time on an “intermediate” rated trail. The trail was a 4.5 km loop that led to a point overlooking the bay called Matthews Head (of course there was no way I could pass this up). The hike turned out to be a little more difficult than I expected, but that was probably because I was already pretty tired from the bike ride. After that, I debated heading back to the campground for a shower, but there was really one more bike ride that I had really wanted to do on the intermediate rated Black Horse Trail. It was only 4.5 km long, and with an intermediate rating, I figured it might not be too difficult, even though I was really tired from the earlier part of the day. As it turned out, the trail was perfect ... exactly what I had been hoping for. It was a nice, easy and fun ride, and it only took me about 25 minutes.

I headed back to the campground and grabbed a much needed shower. After that, I got in the car and headed into the small nearby town of Alma, New Brunswick. There was a local brewery, so I stopped into for a beer. Then, it was back to the campground for dinner.

Tomorrow, I'll be leaving New Brunswick and traveling to Prince Edward Island National Park.

Day 2 - Acadia National Park to Fundy National Park

Day 2 of my journey had me traveling from my campground outside of Acadia National Park to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick, Canada. Along the way, I'd be passing by St. John, New Brunswick, so the plan was to stop there and do a little sight-seeing.

I woke up, made some breakfast, and broke down my tent. The drive through Maine to the Canadian border was all on a single lane highway that wound its way through the Maine wilderness. It really reminded me of driving through the Adirondacks, only with smaller mountains!

I reached the Canadian border and went right through the Canadian immigration and customs check-point. I arrived in St. John about an hour or so later. There's not really a whole lot to see and do in St. John, at least as far as I could find out. One of the biggest tourist attractions is the “reversing falls”. The tides here are very extreme, and there's a river that ends at the bay. When the tide is at low tide, a waterfall is created where the river meets the bay. As the tide comes back in, it appears as though the waterfall is flowing in reverse. I had arrived during a low tide cycle, so I didn't get to see the water flowing in reverse. There was a nice walkway from the reversing falls along the harbor into the downtown area, so I decided to take that walk. As mentioned, there really wasn't very much to see.

Before leaving St. John to head for Fundy National Park, there was one important thing I had to do. St. John is the home of Moosehead breweries, so of course I had to pay a visit for a beer. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, they didn't offer tours, so I had a beer and then hit the road.

I arrived in Fundy National Park at around 5:00. The visitors center was still open, so I went inside to get some recommendations for some bike rides and/or hikes for the next day.

After that, I went to the campground, got all set up, made some dinner and went to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day of hiking and biking!