Kejimkujic National Park Sept 2 – 3

News from home has Hurricane Dorian with sights set on Charleston.   Never good news for us folks with a house that floods.  In our flooding history in our home, the big problem doesn’t start until October and we had hoped we’d be having a lighter year this year.  Apparently we were going to be wrong on both counts.  Anyway, we were nervous about heading to far afield with cell coverage being essential during this precarious time.

Figuring that the worse case scenario was that we’d get to Keji to find no coverage.  If so, we could spend at least a few hours to hike and get a feel for the area before finding our way back to service.  Thankfully, we arrived to find decent service pretty much throughout and we grabbed a campsite and settled in. 

I’m always thrilled to be back in a park.  I love putting our “rug” under the chairs outside and laying out the tablecloth with my outdoor candle.  Home in the park.  AAAHHHH.  And we didn’t waste a minute before setting out to see what made this park special.

On yet another trail we wandered.  Thinking we’d have a short jaunt around the campground and area before finding a real hike to try, we set out following the little dotted lines on the camp map.  I honestly don’t know how it happened but 2 miles went to 6 went to just under 9 (?!) before we made it back to our site – completely spent! 

The trail had wound around the entrance area where we had to stop and pay for our site and around to the different areas of the campground.  It didn’t look like much on the map and, for the FIRST time yet, was really not very exceptional!  We kept going, hoping to find the WOW moment.  

Don’t get me wrong, this is a  Planned around a very large glacial lake with interesting islands dotted throughout, it is a canoe/kayak dream.  The trails were quiet and peaceful especially with the weekend crowd gone and not yet replaced.  The landscape we saw was mostly flat and the paths were all manicured – which was part of the problem for us.  With near 9 miles of gravel paved paths, our feet took quite the beating!
nother wonderful area!

Happily back at our site, we finished the day just being there.  Relaxing in our site, barbeque dinner at a casual pace, Rob’s guitar accompaniment and a nightcap by campfire all made for the perfect recipe for a great night’s sleep.

With rain expected overnight, we had put most of our things away before we retired for the night.  Waking to find the forecast wrong, we got up to a misty morning over the lake.  We wandered down to the water to watch the gathering light and listen to the loons call, a sound I hadn’t heard since my Wisconsin childhood. 

With the storm still tracking back home and miles to knock off the map, we left the campground early.  The forecast had no rain predicted but we’ve decided that a drizzly mist here is called “cloudy” and we set out in what we would have considered a slight rain.  The day’s plan took us around the west side of the island along the coast of the Bay of Fundy.

The drive was one of the best yet with decent roads and beautiful views nearly the entire way.  With the weather staying just about the same, we stopped only to pull over at a lovely vista and enjoy our lunch.  We arrived at our destination in time to get on our bikes for the tidal bore on the Salmon River.

If you remember, we experienced a tidal bore in Moncton on our way east.  Well, we’ll be going right back through Moncton again tomorrow to make the turn around the top of the Bay of Fundy.  The Truro/Salmon River tidal bore was pretty much an exact repeat of what we saw in Moncton although this time we knew what was coming.  The biggest difference was watching the wall of water and worrying about the deluge expected back at home in the next few days!

With our 2^nd bore under our belts, we biked further into Truro to see what we could see and found a lovely park within the mostly industrial   Victoria Park was gifted to the town many years ago and has been creatively expanded over the years to be a wonderful lush retreat with a spiderweb of trails throughout.  We got off the bikes and wandered – because we could! 
town.

And the day ended getting caught up and ready for our last few days in Canada before we’re back in the USA and headed slowly back home.  We’ve officially made the turn “back” and can already feel the end being closer than the beginning.  Still hoping for good news on the hurricane front, we forge on…