Tuesday, August 18

Today we said goodbye to the Atlantic Coast for a while and struck a route across Nova Scotia toward the Bay of Fundy side of Nova Scotia. But first, since the day's route was short, we continued south for a while, following the coast out three peninsulas and back, in and out of fog. Good scenery and many tiny fishing villages. There were also many pleasure boats, primarily sailing boats. We saw relatively few pleasure boats this whole trip until we got down to the Halifax area. The sailors in this area have a short boating season, of course, and there are many more traditional boats than at home.

Leaving the coast, we drove to Kejimkujik National Park, a popular destination, especially for canoeing, with a large lake filled with small islands. After setting up camp we launched the canoe and had a good paddle for an hour and a half. Clear sky, warm, calm lake, light wind. Good conditions. Best canoeing of the trip so far. And the lake water is even a good swimming temperature. Maybe I'll take a dip tomorrow.

After dinner we sat in on a ranger presentation on survival techniques. He demonstrated fire making using all the old boy scout tricks: fire by friction using an improvised bow, flint and steel, and lighting magnesium shavings with sparks. Also some tips on getting clean water. Not a great presentation, but still interesting. I learned a few things. Our canoe dry bag has a whole permanent kit of dry clothes, food, and other survival stuff including, for fire starting, a lighter and a can of Sterno. I'll continue to rely on that before fire by friction, for sure. We figure the contents of our dry bag would keep us going for at least a couple of days, and there actually was one time when it almost got pressed into service. We nearly missed our takeout point on the Stikine River in British Columbia, when there was no alternative all the way to the Pacific, 140 miles downriver.

Especially since I lost our camera, I'm glad I'm keeping this blog. Even if no one else reads it, it will remind us of all the places we've been and the wonderful things we've seen and done so far. And we're far from done.

9:30 and still 84 degrees in the Casita. Warmest evening of the whole trip. No electric hookup at this campground, or it would be the first use of our air conditioner on this trip. As we move toward Sept., though, I guess we're on the downslope of summer, even as we gradually move south.