Day 06 (Aug. 7) - Annapolis Royal Day 3, Kejimkujik National Park

A new couple joined us for breakfast this morning. They just moved back to Halifax from Austin, TX where they lived for three years. She was born in this town and they wanted to visit again. The four friends that we met yesterday who are traveling together were leaving today to ultimately end up at Prince Edward Island. Suzan served us homemade breakfast cake, homemade scones and blueberry jam, a first course of blueberries with cherry yogurt, and then a big slice of a spinach feta frittata. Like yesterday we all talked and told stories about our travels. At one point the retired teacher, Deanna, told Rob that she loves his laugh and wants to bottle it up! We exchanged our contact info with them, hopefully our paths will cross again. 

Lucy was chilling out in the hallway as we left.

Today we planned to visit Kejimkujik National Park, about 45 minutes away, to go hiking. We arrived at 11am and stopped at the Visitor's Center to get a trail map. Two trails connected and left from that location, Mill Falls and Beech Grove. They were about 4.4km total round trip. On our way, we soon arrived at the waterfalls. The Mersey River is the color of tea due to it flowing through bogs. The rocks were really cool to look at and walk across.

We picked up the Beech Grove trail and had a nice walk through the woods. The trail also provided additional glimpses of the river. 

This park has a large concentration of old and new growth hemlocks, which is apparently rare. We decided to do the 5km Hemlocks and Hardwoods trail next, which was a short drive away. The park rangers were recommending it to everyone who asked about hiking as a highlight of the park. We had the trail mostly to ourselves the entire time. 

Michele saw this little mushroom and moss scene and thought it looked cute, like a fairy house. Anybody home?

We were able to catch a picture of two creatures we saw along our walk. A female Hairy Woodpecker.

A little ground squirrel we named Chirp because he/she had quite a set of lungs. 

There were educational signs along the way that told about what was in that specific area. Such as, if a large tree falls, it opens up space for new trees and species to grow. Hemlocks drop needles that create a very acidic soil that prevent other plants from taking over beneath them. They also have very shallow roots, so the park built a nice boardwalk through a large grove. 

This hemlock is 400 years old! Many of the others surrounding it are 275 years old. 

This tree was an example of a hemlock starting life on a moss patch on the top of a rock and how the tree adapted to grow around the tree. The nearby information sign indicated that this tree had been badly damaged by people walking around it and compacting its shallow roots. We aren't arborists but this tree looks to have been killed by a chainsaw. What do you think?

This hike was a loop around Big Dam Lake. The path didn't take us right to the lake, but we could catch glimpses through the trees. We could even hear the very distinctive calls of a Loon (the bird) earlier during our hike. 

As we neared the end of the hike, a man and his very fluffy Australian Shepherd approached. The man asked if we could help him get his bug spray out of the pocket of his big backpack as he just started on the hike and had already been bitten three times. He was holding the dog leash and couldn't easily get to it. His dog's name was Sparta, who is a very good hiker, but whether it is a good camper was yet to be determined! 

After that hike, we drove south to check out the canoe and kayak area for tomorrow. It was a popular activity and many families and kids were out floating on the Mersey River. We asked about options for tomorrow morning and planned to go back to rent kayaks for a few hours. 

On the way out, we drove to the end of the paved road and found a little beach and a cafe. We also stopped at a tower overlook and realized why we were the only ones parked there.

The park needs to increase the height of this lookout or perhaps that chainsaw that was used on the previously mentioned hemlock might do the trick. ;-)

We drove back to the Visitor's Center to look at the exhibits then headed back to our B&B. We decided to catch dinner at the Crow's Nest across the river in the town of Granville Ferry. One of the breakfast couples recommended it. Hardly any restaurants were open in town tonight, being a Monday and a holiday. It was a short 15 minute drive and we got to see the mountains that we've been looking at across the river for a few days. The Crow's Nest was busy! Luckily, without a reservation we were able to get a table with a short wait. It had colorful and fun decor and an extensive menu, both for fish lovers and those not. Rob got an orange float before his meal!

Michele struck up a conversation with a local fisherman.

After dinner Rob suggested we find a good view of the Bay of Fundy since we were near it. He drove us a short way to Delaps Cove and found a pier to walk on. We really weren't supposed to be there since it was a pier for fishing boats, but nobody was around. We think we saw an otter floating near the rocks.

The sun was starting to set so we went to the grocery store near our B&B to pick up lunch items to have for our kayak adventure tomorrow.