June 11, 2021 - A Walk in the Park, Day 1

The sound of the alarm clock waking us up at 5am is not something either of us are used to. Don't get me wrong, I love the calm crisp air of a morning sunrise, its just hard for me to pull myself from the comfort of bed in the mornings. But a 5am alarm is what we are dealing with this morning. We have a long drive and an even longer hike ahead of us today. Our bags are already packed in preparation, and we need to get on the road by 6am to beat the high tides for the first leg of our four day hike. Our friend Zabrina is joining us on this one. Her and I were part of a group that did this hike 2 years ago, but this will be the first time for Melanie. Our road trip begins east into the rising sun and takes five and a half hours until we finally see the sign for our destination, Cape Chignecto Provincial Park.

Cape Chignecto is located in the northern region of the Nova Scotia mainland, near New Brunswick. The closest town is Parrsboro, with a Population of around 1200 people. The park envelops the shores of the Bay of Fundy, home to the worlds largest tides. The trail we will be hiking is about 51km, much of which follow the 200m cliffs and valleys along the shoreline and passing through beautiful old growth forests. Today, we will do about 15km to our first campsite.

The first leg of our hike takes us along the beach of the Bay of Fundy. If you are able to time your departure right. taking the beach will save about 1km off the hike to the trail split. There is a longer alternate route along the shore through the trees, but as long as you are on the beach one hour before the high tide you are safe. Any later than that and you risk getting caught against the cliffs! That's not a concern today, we have about two hours before the waters edge takes away our walking lane. Hopefully we are able to time the tides right on our way back.

When we did this trip two years ago, we did the 51km loop counterclockwise and stayed in remote cabins along the trail each night. Things are a little different the time around. COVID-19 has closed use of the cabins this year, so we will be camping traditional style in the camp sites. The other difference is we will be doing the loop in the opposite direction. Having done it once already has given us a much better sense of how long each section of the trail will take to hike and its difficulty level. Last time we grossly misjudged what our bodies could do in a day, and it made the next three days that much harder as we were in really bad shape before we even got to the hard hills. No matter which direction you choose to go, the first short leg is the same, to McGahey Brook, then up, up, up, and up, until we near the top of the cliffs. This is where the trail will split, and we will go left this time instead of right.

Now I did say the last time we misjudged what we could do in a day, but that does not necessarily mean it is the hardest section of the trail. In fact, we will be doing the hardest section today, or at least it is the section with the biggest climbs and descents. I remember by day three last time doing these 200m ups and downs, and by that time my knees were in pretty bad shape. One lesson I learned from that trip is to bring trekking poles. Actually, I did bring trekking poles last time, but left them in the car thinking I will never use them, and didn't want to carry the extra weight. I ended up using one of Zabrina's poles after the first day. It is amazing the difference they can make, especially on the descents. After the fork we continue the slog the rest of the way to the top of the McGahey Brook cliffs. Once there we get the first taste of some of the amazing views we will be seeing for the next two days.

This first section along the cliffs stays mostly inland until we get to our next big obstacle, Mill Brook. This is the first of the two biggest elevation changes, 230m down over about 1km, with nothing resembling flat ground the whole way down. The decent is actually a small service road which the park uses to service the Mill Brook campsites at the bottom. I am not sure what kind of ATV they use for this, but it must be pretty impressive, as some sections of the road must be approaching a forty degree slope. The loose gravel surface of the road makes it that much more difficult to maintain traction, even while walking. I remember thinking two years ago while going up this slope it would probably suck more coming down. I think I may have been right. Every step has to be carefully made to ensure your next one is not on your butt.

It takes about thirty minutes to descend into Mill Brook. The bottom of the road comes out to Mill Brook where we take a break and filter some more water for the next leg. While there are some campsites here, we are pushing on a little farther today, to Refugee Cove. It is only a short walk across Mill Brook and we are immediately presented with the task of climbing 230m back up. This side of the gorge is significantly steeper than the other. Unlike the decent, which is more or less a steep ATV trail, this side zigzags up the slope, switch back after switch back, like a mountain road in the Alps. After several breaks and contemplating our life choices, we make it to the top where we are rewarded with a change of scenery and a change of terrain type.

The next section of the hike takes us through a magnificent maple forest. No matter where you look, all you see is green. There are not many places I have been in Nova Scotia where there is not at least some mix of hardwood and softwood, but this particular location is all hardwood, mostly maple with some birch scattered throughout. This part of the trail is a fairly long stretch, but because it is mostly level walking, we make our way to the next feature pretty quickly and without much effort, which is a good thing, because the next trail feature, Refugee Cove awaits us at the end.

Refugee cove is very similar to Mill Brook in that it is a very steep and long service road to descend to the bottom followed by a long climb back up the other side. Fortunately, we only have to make the descent today as our first campsite of the trip is at the bottom.

Slow and steady all the way down as the footing is questionable at best, we make it to the bottom, which dumps out right on the beach.

A short walk up the brook and this is where we will set up for the night. Melanie and I have our hammocks, and Zabrina has a small one person tent for her and Loki. There is only one good tent pad on this site, but the trees for hanging hammocks are plentiful.

Supper for this trip is all dehydrated meals. When doing any backpacking trip, the less weight you have to carry the better, and one of the best ways to eliminate weight is to eliminate liquids. We dehydrated our meals last weekend in preparation for the trip. For me, tonight will be dehydrated spaghetti noodles, sauce and mushroom. It really is amazing how well some meals rehydrate, and pasta is probably one of the best for it.

We spend the rest of the evening exploring the beach at refugee cove, and just sitting around camp until darkness falls and tucks us in our beds. We will need a good night sleep, because the same thing awaits us on the other side if Refugee Cove that awaited us on the other side if Mill Brook.... Switchbacks....