Sept 29 - Kejimkujik National Park, NS

Monday, September 30

Great breakfast of ham and egg breakfast tacos and coffee. Explored some more of Kejimkujik Park, including a trail called Roger’s Brook which had some nice red maples.  The Mersey River is bog fed and quite dark with tannin and other stuff – makes a great reflector!  Lots of bogs, fens and marshes this trip!  But no mosquitos, thankfully!

Lake Kejimkujik early morning Mist, near campsite

Color at Roger's Brook Trail

Roger's Brook Reflections

On road to Digby

Called to make sure we could catch the ferry at 4:00 from Digby Nova Scotia to St. John. , New Brunswick. This will save us about 6-7 hours driving time through areas we’ve already seen.

Digby is noted for scallops so we had some for lunch at the Boardwalk Café, along with a local dish called Chicken Rapure , an odd potato and chicken casserole. 

Spent some time at the welcome center using their wi-fi and then when we got on the ferry, there was also wi-fi, so got caught up on the blog. We noticed some big round netted areas in the water near the ferry and were told they were raising Atlantic salmon there.

Salmon nets

  Got the impression that these coastal waters have been overfished for years and recent  regulations are going to take a long time to make an impact.

The ferry ride was about 3 hours, so we arrived in St John just after 7 PM. 

Our ferry

Crossing the Bay of Fundy

We went back to the Canadian Tire where we stopped 2 weeks ago and spent another quiet night.

Tuesday,  October 1, 2013

Woke to rain and 48 degrees.  Greg decided Canadian Tire would be a good place to get the oil changed, tires checked, etc. so we had breakfast at McDonald’s and waited till 9:00 to have that done.  They didn’t believe Greg when he told them  the Trek wouldn’t fit on their ramp because of the low clearance  but learned the hard way that he was right.  No damage done, and they seemed to do a good job slooowwly checking things out.

Meantime we watched CNN in the waiting room to learn about the US government shut-down,  Glad we hit Acadia Nat’l Park on the way up!   Also learned that hockey is starting today when the  Halifax Mooseheads face the St John Sea Dogs.

Headed south for the border crossing at Calais where I forgot that we had an orange, which got confiscated, but the guard was nice about it.  Decided to stop to replenish groceries and then had lunch at Grampie Bill’s – actually pretty good! Immediate relief from the high prices for gas and groceries in Canada!

Martha at the visitor’s center suggested that if we’d had enough lighthouses for a while, we should head to western Maine for Fall color and wildlife.  So we spent most of afternoon winding our way west. Many lakes and streams and more mountains as we got further west. 

fields down a little side road

Ended the day boondocking near Blue Mountain, on a little dirt road  with a hand-painted sign announcing “Weld Rd.”  The road ends just 20 yards or so further in, at an abandoned cemetery from the 1800’s.  Don’t expect much traffic J. 

This is close to lake Rangeley, noted for fishing and foilage!  Talked with Mom, Bryan and Matt.  Looking forward to tomorrow as the colors looked promising as darkness fell.