6 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

6.26.18.  Tuesday. St. John, New Brunswick to West Publico, Nova Scotia.

Breakfast at the hotel began at 6:30 a.m. I by-passed the yellow sponge “omelets” with the eerie orange filling (ubiquitous on “free breakfast included” buffets at many chains) and took just an English muffin. There were a number of other bikers and early risers, many headed for the ferry to Digby as we were.

Motorcycles boarded first, down on the deck with the 18 wheelers which is a part of a ferry I hadn’t seen before. It was much dirtier and more industrial than the car deck, one level up. Jeff used his new cuffs to help tie down the motorcycle, we locked our helmets, and then gathered up some stuff to take upstairs for the 2.5-hour ferry ride. Once we left the parking deck, the ferry was pretty plush. We settled into a comfy spot in the indoor lounge on the ferry and I got a breakfast of real eggs, that was pretty good, and Jeff got the bacon that came with my eggs. I bought a Christmas ornament in the gift shop. Capt’n Wilson roamed the ship a bit while I wrote notes and read. We both went out to an upper deck as we pulled close to shore before descending to ready the bike for departure.

Leaving the ferry, we stopped for a “Welcome to Nova Scotia” sign photo-op and geocache and also snapped pictures of the salmon-farm cages floating just off shore. Interesting to see how much fish farming there is!

Fish farm

The town of Digby is a bustling port. It’s a bit too industrial to qualify as charming, but seemed like a nice, friendly spot. We stopped at the old and very lovely Loyalist Cemetery for a geocache, winding through a neighborhood of shingled houses and shady trees.

Loyalist Cemetery, Digby

Digby

Then, we headed east past Annapolis Royal and looped west to Port Royal, where the Degus party (new spelling!) settled after leaving St. Croix Island. This was apparently the settlement described in Wadsworth’s Evangeline. (Depending on the filters used, Spotwalla may not show our actual path. We crossed the causeway from Annapolis Royal to Granville Ferry twice; we did not leap from Digby to Port Royal across the water as Spotwalla may suggest.) We encountered here, and elsewhere, a substantial amount of road repair.

Paths that weave throughout Nova Scotia are helpfully identified by the tourist bureau as “trails.” Thus, we started our Nova Scotia trip with part of the Evangeline Trail but later would be on the Lighthouse Trail, Coastal Trail, etc.

Leaving Port Royal, we stopped at the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station! Yes! Most people would not be excited about this stop, but Jeff knows me, and put it on the route because he knew I’d like it. (I move in such energy-nerdy social circles that I recently spoke with another woman who also visited here and also love it!) The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides of anywhere in the world, peaking at around 50 feet (16 meters).The electric generator at the Annapolis station uses relatively conventional pumped-hydro technology, but it “pumps” water to the upper reservoir by capturing the incoming tide and then releases it when the outgoing tide is low enough to create a sufficient head to turn the turbine. Thus, it only operates twice a day. Unfortunately, photos of hydro projects are pretty boring, since all you usually see is the surface!

Tidal Generating Station

The display also explained, however, the more innovative tidal power project that is further up the bay, where the tides are stronger. There, a turbine placed in the bay turns with the tidal current using the tide’s kinetic energy. The first attempt to install this power project in 2009 failed because the turbine wasn’t strong enough to withstand the force of the tides and broke shortly after being installed. After all, no one had built a turbine for such a purpose previously. (Jeff was deeply disappointed in the engineers for not assessing the problem correctly.) The current turbine was out for repair at the time of our visit, but has otherwise been working since 2016. I heard recently, however, that the developer went bankrupt. Sigh. Innovation is difficult.

Back in Port Annapolis, next up was a shop called Catfish Moon for some crafts shopping (for me). Santa-on-a-Moose will join the other Santas on display in my home at Christmas. Jeff spent the time prowling the waterfront and learning about the town's history.

Fort Anne, consisting of a lovely white building, bunkers embedded in manicured hillsides, and lawns overlooking the water, made another lovely stop in Annapolis Royal, plus our first time sitting in the red chairs. These pairs of bright red (Maple Leaf red) Adirondack chairs have been placed by the tourist bureau at particularly scenic spots. This overlook of the water was very deserving! Also loved watching the Fort Anne maintenance crew mow the steep hills around the fort with a mower lowered down the slope on a tether and controlled remotely. The town was cute too, with lots of sculptures, interesting looking houses, many of a Victorian style, and lots of activity. Definitely a place that would nice to spend some time in.

Fort Anne

Our next stop was supposed to be a lighthouse. As we approached the turnoff, our attention was seized by a wooden frame church, a quite large one, with four turrets surrounding its steeple, giving it a rather Disney-esque air. It was bordering a tidy little college campus with lots of solar panels, which we passed through after making our turn. Continuing down the road we came to our destination.

My attention first turned to the three wind turbines lazily spinning huge shadows across the ground. We then examined a small shrine set up on an embankment and then walked further down the road to what was supposed to have been a lighthouse. However, apparently the tower had blown down, leaving only a somewhat unattractive house, looking like a 1970’s beach house that had been abandon for lack of charm. We were looking for a geocache, so I ventured down a poorly mown track through a thicket of brush, grass and wildflowers, only to find myself emerging back onto the road near the shrine. A further check of the compass showed that the spot was actually on the far side of the shrine and easily accessible from the road without my brush rambling. C'est la vie! Jeff and I always find the hard way in and the easy way out when geocaching!

Going past the shrine led to the fourth feature on this little point of land – a fenced enclosure in which a “river” of brown water churned around a large oval track punctuated in two places by large brushy wheels that turned with the water flow. Jeff likened the flowing stream to a “lazy river” water park feature, which was probably the most charming compliment ever paid this sewage treatment facility.

After finding our geocache under the spreading branches of a large tree, we continued onward.
We worked our way along the western coast of Nova Scotia, with a lovely stop in Yarmouth. A memorial with a fountain splashing through a ship’s wheel stood in front of a vine covered memorial wall, with a colorful quilt mosaic around the corner. We watched musicians appearing to arrive almost by coincidence and carrying their instruments up a grand staircase to the park above. As the music started, a young woman was powerfully leaping up, and then down, the staircase from a squatting position. No need to pay gym fees when the local park has the perfect work-out equipment! What a great spot!

After Yarmouth, we continued down the coast, eventually reaching West Publico and our resting stop for the evening, the Red Coach Inn. Although we arrived too late for dinner, our hostess kindly sold us drinks to take back to the room. (We had purposefully stopped elsewhere since our preview of the menu suggested a vegetarian (me) and a non-fish eater (Jeff) would have very limited options in the Red Coach Inn dining room.) After an evening walk (plus some successful and unsuccessful geocaching and quite a few photos), we returned for a comfortable evening at the motel. It was nice to have the bike parked right outside. It was particularly handy the next morning when I found my hand washed items hadn’t dried completely. (Traveling with a tiny bag means you wear the same stuff over and over, and I prefer washing it out when I can.) I was able to drape the items over the bike in the morning while we breakfasted in the inn’s restaurant (nice breakfast!) and the bright morning sun made sure they were ready to go when we were.

12 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.2.18. Monday. Tignish, Prince Edward Island to Parrsboro, New Brunswick.

The inn we stayed at in Tingnish was very austere. The room was comfortable enough, but the high ceilings and dark colors gave it a very institutional feeling. The bathroom had been carved out of space that hadn’t been meant for a bathroom. Anyone with a girth larger than Jeff’s would have had trouble squeezing around the corner of the shower to get to the toilet. It was formerly a convent and still had the vibe.

However, any lack of ambiance was forgiven the next morning with the amazing spice cake that appeared at breakfast. That alone made the visit worthwhile. The innkeeper is a lovely, quiet woman, who made every effort to assure we were all well-fed before we departed. In addition, the inn is set in a lovely garden next to the church where we poked around the next morning unsuccessfully searching for a geocache. An all-female grounds crew was working that morning and one of the helpful workers offered to give us a hint. I, regretfully, brushed her off. Fifteen minutes later I was hiking across the parking lot to beg her for help when she pulled away in her truck. So, another “did not find.” But we enjoyed the garden with its small brook, a bridge, benches, birdhouses, and a miniature church to echo the big one.

We then took a lovely ride and walk around Tignish enjoying the small town sights and visited its war memorial.

The day’s ride brought us many more fishing villages, coast lines, wind farms, cows, and plowed fields. It also took us to the West Point Lighthouse where we produced our ribbon hoping for our tip-to-tip certificate. No! We should have done that at the North Point Lighthouse the night before. It’s East to North, not East to West! Apparently, we were not the only people to make this error. The West Point Lighthouse is now a gift shop and inn, and the nice women behind the counter produced a “Lighthouse Lovers” certificate of their very own, verifying our visit. But we did not get the tip-to-tip certificate although we did the trip and have the photos to prove it.

We walked down the beach for a geocache. Although others were wandering about looking at shells, it was quite windy and cold. Fortunately, it did not appear that anyone was interested in swimming, since the three young women huddled under towels and blankets on the lifeguard stand did not seem inclined to jump into the water to save anyone that morning.

One of the trip highlights was the Bottle House at Cape Egmont. A hobby-run-wild resulted in a multi-building complex built of old bottles, set into a beautiful garden. A chapel, house, and bar reflected the light from a diverse array of bottles that were embedded in mortar to form the walls of the buildings. The property also had a small lighthouse replica housing several loose-leaf binders describing the plants in the garden. A truly delightful visit. (The bottle buildings are actually replicas, as the mortar in the owner’s original creations crumbled over time).

We stopped for lunch in Victoria, a little cluster of buildings around a wharf and lighthouse that was obviously a tourist draw. There were several restaurants, but the first we stopped at was not serving in mid-afternoon so we ended up eating at a burger shack. My hunger trumped my commitment to vegetarianism, as the options were limited and not likely to improve at the trip progressed. Vegetarian options in quick-stop places in rural Canada were often limited to iceberg lettuce with a slice of tomato and maybe a side of French fries (if you don’t ask what they were fried in). I was hungry and tired of eating just fries. The burger was probably pretty good as burgers go, but it reminded me why I don’t miss meat. I can easily wait another 10 years for the next one.

Before leaving PEI, we stopped at the “Welcome” center so we could take pictures next to the welcome sign. The welcome center is a cluster of shops meant to look quaint. We left with some more Christmas ornaments (which I buy on all of our trips so we can look back in December at where we’ve been) and another geocache log.

A causeway brought us back to New Brunswick from which we continued on to the northern part of Nova Scotia. As the day lengthened, we stopped at the Joggins Fossil Center. It was already closed, but the area behind the museum offered a great view of the Bay of Fundy. This end of the bay is the best lace to experience the high tides. Unfortunately, tide changes are a time-lapse event. It is hard to be awed during a short visit. We admired the wind turbine and picked up a geocache. We continued on to Parrsboro, which was our destination for the night.

On the way into Parrsboro (actually on a small detour in which we were trying to reach the Bay of Fundy energy research center until the poor condition of the unpaved road-not-meant-for-motorcycles forced us to turn back), we passed a manor house that although almost hidden from the road looked interesting. It was called the Ottawa House. We learned from another couple the next morning that it was a museum and very much worth a visit; but that will have to be another trip. We were also both struck by the The Ship’s Company Theater – which has two old boats built into it, one of which, at at least, is apparently a part of the stage. That would be fun too.

Ottawa House

The theater

We came into Parrsboro rather late, but went straight to the dock to check on the tides. Parrsboro is the point where the tide differential is the sharpest. We arrived at low tide and looked down onto boats sitting in the mud, way below us, and outward across acres of mud flats.

Parrsboro Mansion Inn, our home for the night, was fabulous. Our hosts were lovely, greeted us warmly, and showed us to our huge room. The room was beautifully decorated in cream, sage and gold, with fairly ornate furniture in white and gold. I thought it had a sort of Palm Beach feel and Jeff thought it felt more European, but we both liked it. We spent part of the evening lounging on the porch and then retired to our very comfortable (and air conditioned!) room. Breakfast was very European style – meats, cheeses, tomato and some really delicious bread that you could toast.

13 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.3.18. Tuesday. Parrsboro, New Brunswick to Perce’s Rock, Quebec.

We checked in at the dock again in the morning before leaving town.  In the 12 hours since our last visit the tide was low again, so the view was much the same, but some of the boats were gone – testimony that the tide had come and gone as we slept.

We also wandered around town a bit. Parrsboro has a cute little downtown with a number of sculptures and an area with historic cars and a little train.  The town square is also the site of a statue of the legendary Glooscap, a member of a native tribe who has various wonderful things attributed to him (apparently the legend varies).  The statue is imposing and memorable, both because it’s huge and frankly, ugly, at least in my view.  You can decide!  I liked the metal sculptures of the barber shop better.

 

Parrsboro

On our way to the Gaspe Peninsula, we stopped at Shediac, a small set of shops with a giant lobster sculpture outside, and at a lovely spot on the Miramichi River where we took a break to eat lunch from the assortment of snack bars and similar items I had stashed in the top case.  (Jeff seldom stops for food, so I’ve learned to plan ahead.)

Shediac

High above the town of Carleton, overlooking the Bay of Chaleur 555 meters below, sits a church. The church is modest, but the view stunning (as it the very blue roof of the church). The trip up Mont Sainte Joseph was a winding road and the top had a steep parking lot with a huge pile of dirt in it. Months later, Jeff still has very strongly negative memories of that parking lot, but we made it in safely and enjoyed touring the mountain top.  On the way down, Jeff prompted me to video tape the ride, which I did until the road got so rough that the footage was useless; and in any event, I wanted my hands free in order to hang on and relieve some of the abuse my spine was taking from the bumps.

The south shore of the Gaspe peninsula reminded me of Italy’s seaside villages.  The road hugged the coast and the sea wall for the most part, with a fairly constant string of housing on the inland side of the road. Occasionally there would be a burst of shops and restaurants that had the same seaside aura as little towns on the Jersey shore or California coast.  Even if I hadn’t been able to see the ocean, I’d know I was in a coastal community. It just had that vibe.

We also began to notice church steeples sheathed in metal.  The bright silvery surface looked like it was built to sustain high winds. The steeples were very striking, and I don’t recall seeing others like them elsewhere.

Our destination for the day was the southeast end of the peninsula, at Perce’s Rock.  The rock extends out into the water and an arch allows a view through it.  We approached at sunset and the view was stunning.

Our reservations were at a lodge above the town, Au Pic de l'Aurore.  We had a little cabin that was spacious and comfortable.  The parking, however, was dicey.  Jeff had to run the bike up a grassy embankment to park it next to our cabin.  The only other option would have been to leave it up at the main lodge.

The town had lots of places to eat but few had good reviews and there were even fewer places to park.  So we had to search and circle a lot before we found a place to eat, and I sat on the restaurant’s patio waiting quite awhile while Jeff found somewhere to park. Many people stay in town I think, and therefore can park at their hotels and walk.

Back at the hotel I washed out a few things and hung them on the porch of our cabin, using our portable clothes line, to dry overnight. Gave the place a real lived-in look! But I pulled them in early the next morning before too many people could be offended.