Nova Scotia July /August2024

Half Cocked Brewery, Harvest Host

It’s a return to one of our favorite Harvest Hosts. Our stay at the Ceilidh Cottage Campgrounds, Mabou, Cape Breton was cut short as it was going to rain and there were no extra shows planned at the Red Shoe. It was a bit strange because the Red Shoe event page was dark with nothing. Almost like they weren’t gonna do shows anymore. They did advertise traditional music each evening during the dinner hours and it was very good, but we didn’t feel like we needed to go again. The Ceilidh Cottage Campground looked like a work in progress where they were the cottages were getting renovated first and the campground may come later. It was a bit far from Mabou and the Red Pub, but I don’t think there was anything closer. Evidently in Canada you can park in places overnight unless it says no overnight parking.

HyClass Campground, Linwood Harbour

There‘s a launch dock to paddle into this protected harbor of beautiful sunsets.

We paddle all around, but couldn’t cross the low tide to get to the ocean,

We got out to get land legs back and skip some stones from the stony beach. Day two we just hung on the swim dock because it was just too hard to get out. The water was warm and delightful on the hot but breezy day.

Seabreeze Campground, Canso

This was really a delightful campground to get charged up before the Stan Rogers Music Fest. Our site was a short walk down a path to the beach with the SUP. We did a lovely sunset paddle to the huge bird island.

That was the noisiest bird island around, and somehow landing on the beach would be like a scene from the movie “Birds” so we didn’t dare do that.

Besides, we already took our showers for the week and smelled really good!

We also did a beautiful earlier paddle (we never really ever do mornings with John).

A bald eagle was soaring high above while paddling along the beautiful rock bluffs.

In these small campgrounds, it is best to get the electric water only sites because the full hookups are the parking lot type, although they are nice and flat. So my recommendation is to opt for electric/water but don’t forget to bring the leveling blocks because many are not flat. It turns out, we only had 20 amp service and that was sketchy. But the manager was so very responsive, and an electrician was called to reroute and put in a new box as there appeared to be a problematic underground connection that occasionally cut out power. They offered to compensate us, but there was only an hour or two cut out once and then it was on and off half a dozen times during the day. The close easy access to the beach was really great ! They had kayak rentals there as well as paddle boards at the campground and also a small laundry facility.

Chapel Gully Trail, Canso

Perfect little hike before a lot of sitting at the Stanfest right in the town of Canso.

Stanfest, Canso

Foreign country, not that Canada seems foreign, means seeking out the music in eastern Maritimes were our 2024 summer gig, so Stan Rogers Music Fest was on the plan, and it has truly been one of the best. We seem to have brought the good weather here to Canso, and the show’s EMcee, Kelly, even renamed the town Cansofornia. Like Merlefest, this one has been hammered by rainy weather in the past years and besides a few night time sprinkles it has been beautiful unlike the hurricane of 2022 or flood zone of 2023. Multiple times, climate change has been brought up in regards to this festival.

The family connection, dedication and talent is the thing that binds and exudes the Stanfest spirit. It was started at the elementary school in Canso a ¼ century ago with several of the founders getting together in tent trailers to play Stan Rogers Music, and boy were these are talented guys and still are the rocks of the Stanfest. We had met David Gunning at our Millpond Music Fest some 10 years ago and remember clearly his song “These Hands” This StanFest was dedicated to Bruce Guthro, evidently one of the founders with old timers JP Cormier and Dave Gunning.

There was quite a moving pre-fest show dedicated to songs and stories in his honor. Even Irish Mythen who we found in Australia at the Woodford Folk Fest came in for one night tribute to him. Doing her “Jesus” song that we first heard there – she is incredible, and hope that we can find her playing in PEI when we are there.

JP Cormier is one of the most incredibly talented musicians and entertainers. He was definitely not to be missed with my pre-screening process with several folky songs like “Us”, “Another Morning” , Kelly’s Mountain”, but then he turned all show host entertainer with his live stream of “Classical Gas” on his Podcast String Theory. Then in the very last hours, where he played straight because he said he was too hung over to sing yet he said he decided to play the hardest classical song he knows. He is truly a great entertainer.

Carsie Blanton, truly a sassy girl protest singer with the lyrics that are so perfect. She went viral with a John Prine tribute song called “Fishin with You” and lots of good protest songs like “Rich People”, but does many others like “Be Good” and “Good Friends” that just bring you away singing the happy go lucky chorus . Although she said she grew up in Luray VA, and said she was from Philly her bio says she met her husband, and now resides in New Jersey and needless to say she was a first timer to Stanfest. Her John Prine song went viral because as you can see she doesn’t look very folky compared to the rest.

Mallory Johnson kind of country really but her “Married” is a hilarious song about wanting the wedding but not wanting to get married and “Wise Woman.” She lives in Nashville and talked about the inequality and discrimination of women in the industry.

Terra Spencer is a more traditional storyteller singer and her “Coyotes” or “At your Service” who say she’s late to this music thing. She is so humble, but her lyrics so beautiful and better yet annunciated so clearly “Lunenburg Moon” and “Age 38”

Martin Kerr born in Great Britain, was married and moved to Edmonton when his wife picked him out; he is also quite the story teller about how it all went down. I even bought a Martin Kerr look alike memory stick (I can pull down his pants and get all of his 50 songs and stories), trying to support a full-time artist to keep his ginger 3 boys in sunscreen. “You’re Amazing”, “Curious Heart”, “Blissful Lands”, and “Don’t Listen to Me” – looking forward to hearing more.

Lennie Gallant, an East Coast Canadian singer-songwriter who I was drawn to by his on the water songs. “On the Minnehaha” translate “On the Laughing Water” which we learned was about a woman friend who won the French Golden Globe single handed round the world sailing race or “Peter’s Dream” He’s also wrote with Jimmy Buffet and told the story of Jimmy called him to do some more songs, but then Jimmy died. He’s been writing songs as he approaches his 7^th decade and I have lots more listening to do.

The Once, a Newfoundland band, with incredible harmonies and so natural together on stage, one of the guitarist told the singer that her fly was down right there on stage. ‘We Are All Running” and by “The Glow of the Kerosene Light”.

Dave Gunning, the soft spoken and a passionate lyricist. “These Hands” , “All Along the Way”, “Coal from the Train”, “New Highway” What a fabulous storyteller and puts on such a heartfelt and entertaining show. Latest displaced being in his story was about the weed sniffing dog who also lost his job when weed became legal in Canada. His friends surprised him with an exclusive David Gunning song circle of which he was part, yet a surprise that everyone did one of his songs. Truly seems like a wonderful man. Although he performs and records with JP Cormier, he is quite a contrast to the fast talking, hard drinking smoking man who is JP.

Other incredible musicians who just seemed to play often and well with others, although, all are solo performers too. Son of headliner, Jim Cuddy, Sam Polley and the Old Tomorrows, the young ones who really rocked it out. Matt Anderson, and his blues funk and incredible stage presence “Honest Man” and “Let it Slide”. Kim Dunn who seemed to play the keyboard in so many shows, and also Darren McMullen who we learned played so many shows with so many in the “Stanfest Family” as he and his wife, Rachel Davis played the last workshop and brought back the traditional Celtic fiddling with her foot stomping beat that seemed like fiddlers get complete body workouts, not to mention beautiful harmonies too with “Home”, “Dancing on Modern Ground” and “River and the Road”

John even got up for Sunday morning gospel hour to see Annmarie Pelley, who we had met at Inverness Beach.

This was one in which we would return but a bit on guard based on weather stories of the previous fest. It was a perfect size for us and found lots of performers with whom I connected, plus the bedrock performers are incredible and well worth the repeat each year.

Tickle Islands

Murphy’s Ocean Campground was a perfect misty kayak experience around the Tickles and a place to recharge Vinny.

We beat the rainy weather and only got mistily wet and somehow the fog made the whole island experience really interesting in the rolling waves.

Murphy’s has excellent kayak rentals and John could totally control the kayak unlike Meat Cove Kayak that seemed to steer wherever it wanted.

The Tickles also have incredible scene diversity.

They have several distinctive things like an evening group fire where Murphy facilitated everyone to introduce oneself and we played music with another guy. It was lovely as the next day was deemed rainy for the most part. The other neat thing is they had a propane fired burner and big pots for boiling your own lobster if you wanted to do so. Although sites were placed on grass for the most part, it was well run. Would come here again for a sunny SUP adventure.

Halifax, NS

The 1406 Edward Street Hideout with John’s siblings, Ed and Ann, for a week where we experienced some of the most interesting features.

First off it had a lovely mini split that kept the basement apartment cool in comparison to many other places in this lovely neighborhood.

We actually left a highly rated Press Gang restaurant after we sat down and decided it was just too hot to enjoy a dinner. Luckily on our very first night we found the Old Triangle Irish Pub with cool air and Theo MacIntosh, a musician who we would come to stalk all week long because we loved his style.

We would see him two more times at Edible Matters (Strawberry Gin Smash) and Split Crow Pub.

Buskerfest is what lured us to Halifax, but found the street musicians to be large comedia/acrobatic/magic shows on a concrete area surrounded by lots of people in the heat or rain. There were no street corner types like we saw in London at Piccadilly Circus. It was a lovely 20 walk to downtown through the Public Gardens and onto the Wharf area where the four large busker areas/stages were set up.

The Old Triangle had music almost every night as did many other pubs, but most importantly it had the best gingerbread whiskey caramel cake ever and we had to engage in a repeat during our week, and usually we never get a dessert. The Stubborn Goat was another place which was cool and hopping on a Friday night. The Black Sheep at the bar experience with Alex and Jeremy for an evening of bantering about all kinds of stuff from Hockey to Football to Cocktails to the Propeller Arcade(never made it to this pinball hall)

Pier 21 Immigration Museum presented quite the history and we found what looks to be the 1853 immigration of widowed Christine Klutenkamper, and her three sons George, John and Conrad from Prussia. So exciting to find some info about our friend Julie’s relatives.

The Maritime Museum to see all types of boats and ships and disasters. Yeah, we all know about the Titanic, but evidently there was an early 1900 explosion that started when a cargo ship containing munitions for WWI collided with another ship spontaneously combusting, destroying the north end of Halifax, killing 2,000, injuring 9,000 and leaving 25,000 without shelter. This was the biggest man-made explosion until the Atomic Bomb. Huge pieces of the twisted metal/concrete shrapnel were on display here. These cute little sailing skiffs were welcome after learning about that tragedy.

Features of our Air B & B. It had some unique ones including a sectional couch system larger than a king size bed to sprawl on while watching the projector Apple TV on an 8 foot long screen in comparison to the IPad which we hang between our cabinets in Vinny to view as we lie in our beds. Then there was a hot tub and steam shower which were not weather conducive, like would be lovely on a cold return from downtown. Then there was the Murphy bed that came down and converted the kitchen into a bedroom. Unfortunately the mechanism that lowered a huge table that should have included benches but now is a too big table for the space since the benches don’t lower any more. Four days in, this mechanism got stuck blocking the Murphy bed from easily being opened. Christian came down and raised the original table and brought a table to expand the counter space which was only a tiny bit larger than Vinny’s. (Not exactly a cooking kitchen) I enjoyed sitting out on the tree canopied back porch, but most mornings there was a layer of drops that needed to be dried, but very minimal mosquitos. The frig was tiny, only a bit bigger than what we have in Vinny. The underground was very quiet and we all generally slept well with no road noise. Also the great washer and dryer allowed us to get Vinny all prepped and packed up nice and spotless for another venture. Would I come again? Hmm would consider it, but it was a bit dark, with only three small windows and a glass door, but it really had some nice features too. Like this cute little visitor.

Peggy’s Cove

I think this is the biggest tourist attraction in Nova Scotia with its great bouldered shores for climbing and seeing the crashing waves and the famous lighthouse.

Then there is a quaint little harbor dotted with colorful buildings and even a purple one for Annie.

Certainly a very beautiful easy to get close to the ocean on the rounded boulders, but not too close to the crashing waves or the security would blow her whistle at you. Not good for sneaker waves to wash the tourists into the churning ocean, I guess this happens all too often.

I even snapped a picture of the famous Peggy’s Cove lighthouse without a single body in the photo and that is quite a feat because bodies were everywhere on the climbing on the rocks and I heard that a couple on their honeymoon was swept out by one of those sneaker waves.

For as busy as the place was, we got a table immediately at the cafe on the rocks, and the food was surprisingly good.

Gaff Rock and Hirtle Beach Trail, near Lunenburg

This will be one of my all time favorite hikes even though I got stung and had a little welt for a bit. It is a 5 mile hike with everything

Beach, Christmas tree and deciduous forests, scrub bushes, dirt with some rocks over which to maneuver and this really cool shale material that sheared in vertical direction and looked like stepping onto it might do an egg slicers type meeting with your foot.

Of course there was a gorgeous view off the point and part of the trail was all along the cliff, not just a peek through like we had at the more famous Acadian Trail in Cape Breton National Park.

Best to plan this at low tide so you can walk on the sandy beach and not on rocks for about a kilometer (doable but sprained ankle risky).

The Trail head starts at Hirtle Beach and it looks like quite a nice swimming beach but undoubtedly cold water.

When taking the trail again may consider turning back to head counterclockwise instead of the loop because it is high on the bluffs and even get up close to these slices of shale that are really cool and you can see down into the water weeds and see sailboats gliding through the ocean.

The parking lot was big, but it had beach traffic and people also parked along the road. We always get places late enough to find one of those early birds parking spots that have already had their day. So many beautiful photos

Harvest Host Lightship Brewery, Lunenburg

First Stop the Harvest Host Lightship Brewery, for a delightful outdoor area on the Lunenburg Harbor. From our Harbor view parking spot, there was a golf course to the right, Lunenburg across the harbor to our left, and lots of moored sailboats.

Pleasant little path into town where we walked by the 200 foot Mylin IV SuperYacht where a crew of 17 must support the 10 guests in 5 cabins, constructed for the late owner of Carnival Cruise Lines in 1992 and named Mylin after his wife, Lin, and is the 4th and final Yacht. His son, the CEO of Carnival inherited the Mylin IV.

There was even a pirate ship The Harbortown is most famous for its the home of the Bluenose II which is on a 3 postage stamps, the dime and the Nova Scotia License Plate and symbolizes the strength of the Canadian fishing and shipbuilding industries. She held the the Fisherman’s Trophy for 17 year after her first win in 1921. She travels and has ports of call where you can visit and I think even sail. Unfortunately she was in Halifax during the Harborfest, but non the les the town is quite adorable.

The Lunenburg Folk Harbourfest

It was going strong and we just managed to make it to the opening Thursday night act after a great Hike to Gaff point, a beer at Saltbox Brewery in Mahone and a nap. The main stage has a thousand chairs set up neatly in rows under a huge tent with side flaps if it should rain sideways. This stage is only used for the night shows, with 5 other stages a short walk from each other where daytime smaller shows take place.

And three of these places are rainproof, Lunenburg Opera House, St John’s Anglican and Central United Churches which are also acoustically pretty superb when it comes to music fest stages. But we went into rain contingency mode where the Park Stage was switched to St John Parish Center and the Wharf Stage was switched to Zwickers. The Lunenburgers like to keep their festival goers dry which has been a huge complaint at Stanfest and Merlefest (unless its a year where Vinny brings the good weather) It was supposed to be beautiful this weekend too, but somehow the sporadic rain started up, well no problem here with their rain contingencies. They say that the fest will be capped at a 1000 because that’s all that will fit under the tent.

John dropped me off at 6:45am, Day 1 as he was taking Vinny to get a new air conditioner and water pump at Jerry’s RV about an hour away while I had a full day of music. I hung out at the No9 Coffee shop complete with mismatched wooden furniture, couch and cushie chairs by the fireplace, as it sprinkled off and on all morning. Breakfast Golette was the bomb and I had to restrain myself from their other delights. Here I met Joan and Dan from Swarthmore PA who have been coming to this Festival for 20 years. The beginning years had camping and they recommended some places, as we discussed our favorite musicians.

Every MC starts off with we are on sacred land of the Mi’kmaq First Nation, we come in harmony and peace. The town is totally involved sponsoring the musicians, that means paying and putting them up for the weekend. At every musician introduction, the sponsor is announced and people are asked to patronize or go in and thank businesses. The sound systems have been among the best for these venues. Although, I was a bit disappointed with the loudness of the main stage Ennis Sisters and if it weren’t for being trapped in the middle I would have backed up. I longed to hear their beautiful harmonies and lovely lyrics without a PA system, another reason to go to Newfoundland. That’s from these three sisters hail.

They look in their 20’s but they are obviously in their late 30’s if not older. Many of the musicians came from Newfoundland actually – they have a Folk fest too.

The sisters, Maureen, Karen and Theresa hooked me with their performance of “I will Sing You Home”. Don’t listen to this unless you have a box of tissues close by Sing You Home – Remember Them At The Rooms – YouTube. The eldest songwriting, Maureen, wrote this to process the grief of the loss of her cousin by suicide. This song has been used in all kinds of remembrance ceremonies and will be performed at Carnegie Hall. I just listened to their 2022 Album On We Go and I loved every song on the Album. Their harmonies are incredible and the penny whistle and Bodhran mixed with beautiful lyrics and their family stories and they even dance and have matching outfits. They have been performing together since the littles was 3 years old with their first album release in the late 90’s.

Well there is a lot of folk, but OMG Suzie Vinnick, Lloyd Spiegel and Charlie A’Court can really lay down some rhythm and blues. Their album “An International Roots Blues Kitchen Party” is fabulous. They played together today, but all have solo appearances and then there was the trombone.

We had seen Suzie alone and her Irish white complexion and red hair and matronly appearance in general was not the stereotype of her incredibly bluesy voice and fantastic guitar playing. She even pulled off just playing the bass to two songs. She is a very talented woman who breaks the stereotype mold!

Moira and Claire, very young with great sister harmonies. I picked them out as a not to be missed, so young and will look forward to seeing them develop.. Also the hometown girl, Kristen Martell, who opened the show was on my don’t miss list. Julian Taylor his stories, presence and lyrics were incredible and I am a follower.

I don’t know why I missed the Lynn Miles pre-screening, but she’s had a Juno award album of the year and has been releasing albums since 1991. BTW Juno is a Canadian Music Award. Then there is another pre-screen failure of mine James Keelaghan “Gathering Storm”, Juno Album of Year 1994. He’s a 60’s baby and his lyrics are inspiring and many are wrapped around historical events. Luckily he played the final night.

So this is not a camping festival, but there is a very small municipal campground about a 100 yards from the main stage tent that was not on my camp spot radar when I did my planning. The Little Lake Family Camp was not at all bikeable even though I had hoped the 5 mile bike ride would be possible without ending up on the side of the narrow no shouldered road. Luckily, I must have scored a cancellation and we are in town for Saturday and Sunday yeah 902 634-8100. This is the way to go when visiting Lunenburg.

The Lunenburg Opera House has a summer season where so many really great acts like my newly discovered Blissfest activist Crys Matthews and also well known Canadian David Myles who we heard twice at Millpond years ago. This would be a nice town to hang a bit, great WIFI at the quiet municipal campground and 5 minute walk to town with breweries. This festival was also such a lovely size too and would do a do-over for sure.

Kejimkujik National Park, Jeremy’s BayCampground

Located near the center of Nova Scotia, the park had some really nice paddling. After taking the exploratory Slapfoot gravel bike trail from the James’s Campground, we decided to launch from the Kedge beach the next day.

There were several walk-in cabins and these teardrop treehouses where you could pushcart in your necessities.

Many of the overnight accommodations, as well as beaches for launching vessels, were right off the Slapfoot trail.

We ended up driving to a beach parking lot for Paddle Boy to do his pumping because it was a bit far from our campsite to carry all the crap. Lake Kejimkujik and Jeremey’s Bay were a bit too windy to venture across, so we ventured along the coast to Jake’s Landing where we found the Mersey River to paddle up.

The next day we drove right to Jake Landing with our already inflated SUPs and paddled way up the Mersey which was really nice. Although there were really high grass reeds, no alligators about which to worry, just a few little sunning turtles.

There was a spot in the river that got more narrow and shallow and that made the current so strong that we almost didn’t make it past where we could see the deep easy water. The boards didn’t pop and we were able to push off the bottom without scraping for the most part.

This made for a bit of excitement in our paddle. The campsites were huge and although there was really poor cell reception we had a great time here except for when it started to rain just in our last few hundred yards of paddling. But then the sun came out and we dried off the boards before the next shower. Drying two standups with two bodies in a van is trying especially when there are wet clothes and towels. But the next day was nice and we put them away in a hopefully dry enough condition.

Cape Split Hike

This was my most favorite hike in Nova Scotia even though it ended up being over 9 miles, but it didn’t seem like the 1381 ft elevation gain that All Trails indicated because it was so gradual, I guess.

Reaching the goal of the split rock cape was jaw dropping.

Peering through the split rock was like no other.

We ended up doing the loop counterclockwise going for the straight away side and getting up there faster than taking the more convoluted path that had many overlooks along the way. We had driven from Kejimkujik NP that morning to pursue the good weather forecast and didn’t get started until almost 2pm. The top has almost no shade, so not suitable to stop and sit and rest, whereas some of the outlooks seemed to be shaded for a nice rest. We basically walked for 9 miles with only 5 minutes here or there.

My suggestion would be to do clockwise rest at one of the more shaded lookouts and then go down the more straight path.

Kempt Shores Retro Music Fest,

Wow, so happy we veered off the spreadsheet for this. Evidently they have a bigger fest in July with original work artists. I would say Kempt Shores is to Stanfest as Millpond is to Strawberry. This RetroFest is just a thing that is ever changing and they hired four night time dance bands, two each night, to play music of the 60’s to 80’s. The bands were fabulous and unfortunately there were not so many people to enjoy this absolutely rainless musicfest which we have heard time and time again is not usually the Nova Scotia way. So many really nice people and musicians.

The first night was the core old timer who jammed evening at the owners, Marc and Patty‘s covered deck. They had been playing together in this informal way fir years. BJ played both keys and guitar singing one of Ma‘s favorites.“Those Were the Days“

Marc and Patty own the place and Marc plays standup bass and fiddle and is the cando easy going guy that has been joined by never stops strumming/singin Bill and his wife Joy. They helped us through our first jam sessions.

The first hours out, of Vinny I met Gary and his wife Gywnn who live near Peggy’s Cove and Winterhaven FL in the winter. Then came Brenda and her husband Dave who said they may consider being Emcees for the fest next year because they are both quick witted and lively folk originating from Newfoundland now in closeby Hantsport. We need to contact them before our Newfoundland Trip planned for summer 2026 to get the lowdown. Then there is Ed who said to look up the South Shore Bluegrass association in Bridgewater the next time we pass through for Jam information and inexpensive camping. Evangeline Campground was also called out by Rosie as a great campspot. BJ the fabulous sweet keyboard/guitar/singer what a delight. Evidently there is a small music fest circuit through this area that do specific themes or music genres in the summer – Look for it.

Wolfville

This is quite the farmbelt area of Nova Scotia with lots of vineyards, apple orchards and U Pick Blueberries. We stayed at the Horton Ridge Malt Brewery where the main game is preparing the Malt for other breweries rather than brewing. This is done by moving around the malt until it just sprouts as it has the higher sugar content and then roasting it for sale. Monday night anywhere is pretty slow and we were lucky it did rain more because the freshly graded loading and RV parking area would have been quite the muddy mess. The bartender was friendly, and hopefully one day we will get back to do some wine tasting as the area is loaded with them.

We had time to go into the darling little town of Wolfville for lunch. It is one of those tourist towns but with a nice Miillennium Trail and other multi use connecting trails in both directions . We decided to do a bike ride along the Dyke Trail to Evangeline Beach. This gravel road went through farm lands and was quite an easy going flat ride with the reward of an ice cream cone and a scene of low tide, muddy mush.

There was a religious based campground there as well. Riding back to Wolfville we saw more of the large tides for which the Bay of Fundy is known and it was the perfect, 10 mile ride exertion after sitting at the music fest for 3 days. Wolfville has a number of nice easy rail trails and there is even a wine route on these nearby trails to Grand-Pres Historical District for a next time.

Digby

Another of those fishing towns that are catering to tourists in the summer with lots of seafood restaurants, whale tours and picturesque harbor fishing boats. It also has the best private campground that we have experienced in the Maritimes. Digby campground is newly renovated with the best location, location location, only 2 kilometer rail trail into town without riding those bike unfriendly roadways of Nova Scotia. Campground has a delightful community firepit and all kinds of games, upon checking you get an orientation and a camp specific paper full of things to to with distances.

We have really had enough of the cute harbor towns now. We came here to see the Balancing Rock on the Digby Spit and it is here where Vinny got his first major scar, not like usual where John or I have gotten them. The Digby Spit is about 75 kilometers and to get to the end at Brier Island one must board two ferries that are free in que-up style. The adventure begins when I decided to go for T.R. Falls(ak Lake Brook Falls). Sounds nice huh..Not listed in All Trails, but we have found other hikes not listed here, so it was a halfway point, but we should have gone for Sandy Cove Beach. But, no, we went along this road that turned gravel and more rutted as we drove the last 200 meters, is what our GPS said and ended up at a homestead with a really big 5th wheel and a guy who said this his property, but he is happy to share his falls with us. We should have stopped at this gravel parking area on the left side, but civilization and a homestead was in view and we saw a newer car. They made it so can we. Well we did but almost fell off the side of the first road trying to avoid a huge pothole. This is where there was a gnashing of fiberglass which we have heard that scrape sound before, but this one was a bit more than a scrape.

We were happy not to have cracked the black/gray pipes or left the generator behind, but Vinny has his first major scar. The guy told us to go up the right side with left uwheel on the grass centerline and this worked much better on the way up.

Well, the T.R Falls(aka Lake Brook Falls) hike – this is what we came for after all. We should have listened to the song lyrics „Don’t go Chasing Waterfalls“ There was a cut path that grew less and less cleared, but there was a bright red waterfall sign.

Eventually, “the path“ disappeared and we saw bright pink ribbons tied to branches that we followed to the sound of running water. There were lots of downed branches and decaying trees and mossy green growth in which you would sink easily as you avoided the really mushie parts that are evidence of being close to a stream hence falls. Although the hike was to be very short we took his advice and did hiking boots and a set of poles. We felt like it was an achievement getting to the falls which looked to be a perfect natural carving of what would be a man made water feature in a backyard as the tiny water steam criss-crossed perfectly.

And we found this perfection all by ourselves, with only a Vinny casualty. Look for the homestead on Air B and B, as he was almost finished renovating it and living in his trailer.

Balancing Rock, Digby Spit

Well, let’s go the next 30 kilometers to what is listed in All Trails – Balancing Rock. Somehow this just felt too easy to get to compared to our last hour’s adventure. Big parking lot, lots of boardwalk over the bogs, 200 shingle tarred steps, and finally the entire cliff area to see the balancing rock was freshly fenced with wire to prevent anyone from escaping to push over the rock an squelch the tourist Digby Spit economy of Whale Watching and lighthousing. Legend has it that some tough fisherman way back in the day had already tried and if they couldn’t succeed it is just not the age in which it should tumble like the Double Arch in Utah did this summer. I need to feed Paddle Boy more spinach.

Brier Island

This required the last ferry ride and we decided to visit one of the lighthouse as we aren’t into whale watching tours, I had already made us one of my signature chicken wraps with lots of Spinach to keep my Paddle Boy strong, since no eating places or breweries in site, so the off to the Brier Island Lighthouse where I threw a stone into the pile and wished for our American Democracy to continue.

With the lighthouse in sight we opted to park and walk down the divots and huge puddles that blocked the road this time.

The lighthouse was in action no more and it looked like you could pull off and camp anywhere around here. There were burned out fire pits and people had obviously done this. This was another one of those sanctuary areas where the seagulls had the main say! Definitely wouldn’t go here again, but it was interesting to experience the ferry system that these parts are accustomed to, roll on and roll off, really easy.

I think we have had our fill of cute little Maritime towns. Unfortunately most of the seafood is deep fried and we are really trying to watch our cholesterol.

The Nova Scotia Music festivals and really nice people are a reason to come back !

Nova Scotia 2024