Current Location: Unnumbered site, Big Intervale Campground,
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 1-3, 2007
Services: None; Cost: $17.80 + park entry fee;
Nights: 2
This is a small (10 site) campground along the river with no hookups
or showers; both nights, I was alone here. Perhaps it's too late in
the season for tenters, and most RVers prefer to have hookups.
I headed up to the community of “Meat Cove” today --
it's Nova Scotia's most northerly community. There is a campground
there, but I didn't bring the trailer, as I've read that it's only
suitable for tenters or people with RVs less than 20 feet in length.
As it turns out, I probably could have stayed there, but the sites
are not very level nor large, and it would have been quite difficult
to back into a suitable site. There is hiking in the area, and I
went on the “Cape St. Lawrence” trail. The entrance wasn't
marked, so I had to ask at the campground office. As it turns out, the
trail follows ATV paths (used for moose hunting) for a few kilometers
into the woods, then veers off down an unsigned side trail to reach the
coast. The high coast winds and salt spray keep the vegetation stunted;
along the coast, it's just rocks, moss and dwarf trees, plus a light
station.
During the last few days, I have met several interesting people, who
-- like me -- are exploring the island. Bob and Ruth were from London,
Ontario; they retired from being a landlord and a Bell employee, sold
their house a few months ago and are starting to fulltime in a
motorhome. They're planning to spend the winter in Arizona. Jim and
Cathy are from California; they flew to Halifax, rented a tandem
bicycle, and are cycling the Cabot Trail and living in a tent. I'm
starting to wonder whether I should make up some “RV Across
Canada” business cards with my website and email address on them,
to give out to interested people like these couples.
Taking a break...
Current Location: Site 8,
Hideaway Campground and
Oyster Market, South Harbour, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 3-4, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $24.00; Nights: 1
After spending the last 6 nights in unserviced campsites, I decided to
spend one night in a commercial campground to recharge my batteries,
fill up my water tank, and get some laundry done. Surprisingly for a
commercial campground, the sites here do not have water hookups, and
only have 15 amp (instead of the usual 30 amp) electric service.
However, there are a few small hiking trails in the area, along the
Aspy River.
Sadly, I was not able to go on a kayak tour. The tour operator said
that the minimum number of people that he would take out was two, and
no-one else had called to go. As well, the weather was cloudy and
windy - not the conditions that I'd prefer. I'll see if there are
kayak tours in other parts of the province.
A Quiet Thanksgiving Weekend
Current Location: Site 233, Broad Cove Campground,
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 4-9, 2007
Services: None; Cost: $26.75 + park entry fee;
Nights: 5
Although this campground does have serviced sites, I've chosen to
stay in an unserviced site. My issue is that people who design
campgrounds assume that anyone in an RV wants full services, i.e.
electricity, water and sewer hookups. I only need electric hookups,
and I don't like having to pay for the others when I don't use them.
Unfortunately, this campground is “all or nothing”; since
I can do without any hookups for almost a week, I'll gladly save $6
per day. I've found that I can run the laptop computer and satellite
dish on an inverter powered by the truck's battery, as long as I limit
my usage to a few hours per day and drive the truck the next day to
recharge its batteries.
As you can see from the pictures below, this is almost peak colour
season in this area of the park. It's certain that I will not be able
to reach the New England states in time to see the fall colours there,
so I will likely head back to Ontario once I finish seeing Cape Breton
Island. I'll visit Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire another
year.
Meanwhile there's lots of hiking in the area, with some trails
following the coast, some visiting pretty waterfalls, and some climbing
high mountains to reach very scenic vistas. The Glasgow Lakes Lookoff
trail in particular was noteworthy; although parts of it were muddy,
after 1.5 hours of hiking, I reached a plateau at the top of a hill
with 360° views.
Despite this weekend being the Thanksgiving long weekend, there were
very few people camping in the park. Many of the cottages in the area
had “no vacancy” signs up, and two of the local store
clerks told me that it was a busy weekend for them. I guess everyone
(wrongly) thought that it was too cold to camp!
Two Boats in Two Days
Current Location: Site 12,
Baddeck Cabot Trail
Campground, Baddeck, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 9-12, 2007
Services: E/W; Cost: $31.92; Nights: 3
After leaving Broad Cove, I punched “Baddeck” into my GPS,
and let it find the shortest route. I wasn't really paying attention
to the road signs, and ended up on highway 312, which is the short way
around Saint Anns Harbour, instead of following the Cabot Trail along
the long way around. Suddenly, the highway ended at a ferry crossing
over the channel at Englishtown. Parking my trailer, I confirmed with
the ferry operator that my rig would fit on the ferry. I was assured
that they took transport trucks across, so I drove on board. Before I
could get out to take a photo, the ferry was already underway for the
short crossing. Unlike typical propeller-operated ferries, this one
has a thick metal cable stretching from one side of the channel to the
other, and it hauls itself along the cable. The crossing only took a
few minutes, and then I was on my way again. If I had looked at my map
earlier, I would probably have “chickened out” and drove
the long way around, and missed what was my first ferry crossing with
the trailer.
Baddeck is home to the Alexander Graham Bell museum, a large facility
which focuses on many parts of his life, including Visual Speech and
his work with the deaf, the telephone, his kites and airplanes, and
his work with hydrofoil boats. It has numerous displays, including
original equipment and many models which he made for testing. The
homestead on Beinn Bhreagh is not open to the public.
While in town, I visited the
Bell Buoy Restaurant,
where I had a nice salmon dinner. As usual for Nova Scotia, the food
was good, but the prices were a bit high. The windows looked out over
the Baddeck harbour, where a two-masted sailboat was docking. The
waitress explained that it runs 2-hour sailing tours, several times
daily. Since I was too late to catch another sailing that day, I
decided to return the next day.
North of Baddeck is the Uisage Bahn Falls Provincial Park, with several
short hiking trails, including one to see the falls. Although much
smaller than other falls that I've seen, this one was easier to
reach.
After seeing the falls, I headed back on some gravel back-roads to
Baddeck, for the 2pm sailing. Stopping along the way to take a picture
of a river, I heard air hissing out of one of my back tires. Checking
it closer, it appeared to have been punctured by a sharp piece of
gravel. Since the tire still had some air left in it and Baddeck was
only a few kilometres away, I was able to drive into town and leave
my truck at a garage, conveniently within walking distance of the
docks. While I was out sailing, the tire leak was plugged, for the
very reasonable cost of $12.
The boat tour consisted of a sail around Baddeck Bay, on the Great
Bras d'Or Lake. The Amoeba
is a 67 foot schooner built by Captain John's father,
and now John sails it around the bay for tourists. It goes past the
Bell homestead (now owned by many of his great-grandchildren); several
eagles have nests in the area, and will fly past the boat for hand-outs
of frozen herring. The boat can sleep 8 people below-deck; John took
his family to the Caribbean on the boat a few years ago, for a 6-month
sailing vacation.
Exploring Eastern Cape Breton Island
Current Location: Site B-12, North
Sydney KOA, North Sydney, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 12-15, 2007
Services: E/W/S;
Nights: 3
Although I normally avoid the larger commercial campgrounds, this KOA
was centrally located for me to explore the Sydney and surrounding
area. Located at the base of the cliffs of Kelly's Mountain, and
right by the Hwy 105 bridge to the north-east part of Cape Breton
Island, it was a great place to spend a few nights. I had several
interesting conversations with Michael, the owner, about satellite
Internet access, and how to provide WiFi services for his
customers.
Glace Bay is home to the Miners' Museum, a display of mining equipment
from the 1900's, as well as an underground mine tour. Although the
mine tunnels (now closed) go out for several miles under the ocean,
the tour is in the first 300 feet of the mine. Regardless, it still
shows the working conditions of the miners, including damp conditions
and very low ceilings! The tour guides are retired mine operators,
so they can accurately explain the conditions that miners faced.
Also in Glace Bay is the Marconi National Historic Site, the location
of the first eastwards cross-Atlantic wireless transmission. There
is a small museum there, which was closed for the season.
From Oct. 5 to 13, Cape Breton Island hosted the 11th year
of the Celtic Colours
festival. Although most of the 45 concerts were sold out weeks in
advance, I managed to get a ticket to see the Barra MacNeils in Sydney
on the final night. This was a lively 3-hour show, with two guest
stars and great music.
Louisbourg is home to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site,
a re-constructed fort which saw several battles between the French
and British in 1745 and 1758. It contains period furniture, and is
staffed by costumed actors. It is quite a large site, with over 25
buildings that are open to the public. Regrettably, I did not have
enough time on this trip to see the whole place.
South of Louisbourg is the Fourchu Head Lighthouse, on an island
joined to the mainland by a rocky causeway. This is a very remote
and peaceful area, far enough from civilization that I saw a fox on
my way out.
Current Location: Site 9,
Linwood Harbour
Campground, Linwood, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 15-17, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $25.00; Nights: 2
It's time to move onwards, and there aren't many campgrounds that are
still open at this time of year; most closed on Oct. 15. I've stayed
at this campground before, on my way to Cape Breton Island. Although
I was only planning to stay one night, heavy rain caused me to stay
a second day.
A Quick Trip to the Southern End of N.S.
Current Location: Site 6, Elm River Park,
Debert, Nova Scotia
Dates: Oct. 17-21, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $27.36; Nights: 4
Although I did not intend to visit many tourist attractions on mainland
Nova Scotia on this trip, I did drive to Peggy's Cove. At the south
end of the small fishing village is a rocky shore, with a lighthouse
(plus the usual gift shops and restaurants!). Unfortunately, the
weather was very rainy and foggy, so my pictures didn't turn out very
well. However, the wind did produce some spectacular spray as the
waves crashed against the cliffs.
Just a little bit west of Peggy's Cove is the
Swissair
Flight 111 Memorial, to commemorate the 229 deaths on Sept. 2,
1998. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada ruled that the cause
of the fire was due to arcing of electrical wires.
Stressful Sunday
Current Location: Site C-3,
Wishing Star/Étoile Filante
Camping, Shediac, New Brunswick
Dates: Oct. 21-23, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $25.00; Nights: 2
Sometimes, everything goes your way; sometimes, it doesn't...
My “Trailer Life” campground directory showed that Camper's
City RV Resort in Moncton was open until October 31th. I
phoned to confirm, but received no answer. This wasn't surprising;
some parks are not regularly staffed at this time of year; they will be
open, but have a sign up saying to pick a site, and pay the manager
when he checks in that evening. As I pulled into Moncton, my truck
was very low on gas, as I had mis-judged the amount needed to drive
over the Cobequid Pass in Nova Scotia in strong headwinds. My plans
were to park the trailer at the campground, then head back into town to
find a gas station. However, as I pulled in, I discovered that the
campground was closed, and the gate was locked!
Returning to the highway, my “low fuel” light went on. I
back-tracked to a large gas station that I had passed on the way into
town, and managed to fill up while the trailer was still attached.
This was the first time that I've done this; due to the poor
maneuvering room in some gas stations, I always leave the trailer in
a campground before filling up. After refueling, I checked my
directory and found a campground in Shediac that claimed to be open.
A quick phone call confirmed this, and I arrived stressed out, but
safe.
North of Shediac is the Bouctouche Dunes, whose boardwalks and
facilities are funded by New Brunswick's
Irving Oil, which operates Canada's
largest refinery, plus numerous gas stations in the province. The 2
km boardwalk goes along the dunes and past a house that looks like a
lighthouse.
Another Long Drive
Current Location: Site 3,
Cosy Cabins &
Motel, Lower Woodstock, New Brunswick
Dates: Oct. 23-24, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $27.70; Nights: 1
After 3 long hours of driving in intermittent rain, I arrived at
Woodstock, the closest campground to the border crossing into Maine.
This is a good place to get prepared for Customs, including finding my
passport and the cats' medical history papers.
Once again, the information in the Trailer Life directory was incorrect;
after heading north of town for quite a ways, I phoned for directions,
and had to turn around in somebody's driveway, as the campground was
south of town. The campground itself is small (only 16 sites), and
right on the Saint John River.
Making a Run for the Border
Current Location: Site 43,
Katahdin Shadows
Campground & Cabins, Medway, Maine
Dates: Oct. 24-25, 2007
Services: E/WiFi; Cost: $20.00;
Nights: 1
I always worry about crossing the border, even though it always goes
smoothly. Today, I had my passport and the cats' vaccination records
handy, although I wasn't asked about the cats. Remembering something
that I read in an RV magazine, I told the border guard that I was going
home to Ontario, and didn't mention how much I would be exploring
Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire on the way. It seems that it's easier
to clear Customs when they think that you are just passing through the
country, rather than visiting it. Since the types of food that's
allowed into the US changes regularly, I listed on a sheet of paper the
types of meat, dairy and fruits/vegetables that I had. An agricultural
inspector asked to see my fridge, and confiscated my beef burgers and
hotdogs, as well as an unopened bag of cat food. Otherwise everything
went smoothly, and I was on my way in about 20 minutes.
Apparently, central Maine has had below-freezing nights, so this
campground has turned off their water and blown out the lines. As
such, they've lowered their nightly rate significantly; $20 per night
is the cheapest that I've paid yet. With our strong Canadian dollar,
it is quite a good deal.
Too Late for Colour
Current Location: Site 35,
Christie's Campground,
East Newport, Maine
Dates: Oct. 25-26, 2007
Services: E/W/S;
Cost: $24.25 (Discount: Explorer RV Club);
Nights: 1
This park is on the shore of Sebasticook Lake; it's mostly filled with
seasonal campers who are finished camping for the year, so it was very
quiet. I only saw one other couple here, plus the owners. Waking
early, I noticed the sun glistening through the morning fog on the
lake, and managed to get a few pictures.
When I was in Cape Breton Island, the autumn colours were at their
peak. So, it's no surprise that by the time that I get to the New
England states, everything is past its best; most of the leaves have
already fallen. The Weather Channel's website confirms that I would
have to drive a significant distance south to get ideal colours.
Instead, I'm going to head back to Ontario (probably to Algonquin
Park), and spend a few weeks in one spot, without traveling every
day.
On the way out, I met an interesting man from Nova Scotia who was on
his way south... to Cancún, Mexico. For several winters, he has
driven to Texas, then drove over 2,500 km from the US border to
Cancún (on the very eastern side of the country), where there are
RV parks on miles of sandy beaches. This area is safer than most of
the US, he believes, once you get south of the strip along the US
border.
You've Got to be Kidding!
Current Location: Site 35, Cascadia Park, Saco, Maine
Dates: Oct. 26-27, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $29.96;
Nights: 1
I'm generally a very tolerant person; I can put up with a lot of things
which may bother others. However, I think I've hit my limit this time.
This is the worst campground that I've seen so far on this
trip! The roads and campsites are too small for even mid-size
RVs like mine; I was having difficulty with a 26-foot trailer to avoid
the trees and stumps while backing into my campsite. It would be
impossible with anything larger. The trees will also mean that getting
a satellite Internet or TV signal is completely impossible, and the
campground does not offer WiFi as an alternative. My site only has a
a single 15-amp outlet (attached to a decaying stump), protected by a
fuse (does anyone remember those?!) inside a box which is padlocked
closed. Outside the washrooms were rusty sinks that looked 50 years
old (and didn't seem to have any hot water), and a laundry room which
was padlocked shut, and missing part of a wall. Across from my site
was a rusty trailer frame, which (judging from the weeds growing
through it) appears to have been there for a very long time. Some of
the street lights in the campground don't have any bulbs in them.
Despite all this, they are charging $30 (with no off-season discounts);
I've paid $20 for sites with 30-amp hookups and free Internet access.
They don't even have the ability to do credit card transactions (or so
they claim; maybe they don't want to report some income to the IRS),
nor do they have a dumping station! I'll put up with this for one
night, but no more.
That's Better!
Current Location: Site 121,
Circle 9 Ranch Campground,
Epsom, New Hampshire
Dates: Oct. 27-31, 2007
Services: E/W/S/WiFi; Cost: $18.00;
Nights: 4
Today's campground is quite a contrast from yesterday's! This place is
only $18 (off-season rates; New Hampshire doesn't have sales tax) for
full hookups, good roads and free WiFi Internet access. I later found
out that the good rate was because I had requested an electric-only
site, but that area of the campground was closed due to construction.
I was therefore put in an E/W/S site, but only changed the lower rate.
The campground has heated water lines to some of the sites, so that
they can be open all year. There was even a weekly country music dance
tonight for only $5. Although I'm not a big fan of country music, it
was a good show, with a few songs that I recognized. There were about
50 people in attendance, although I was probably the only single person
there. Based on the good attendance, I suspect that the dance is open
to the local community, not just to campers.
Since I'm getting tired of traveling every day, I will stay here for a
few days. Food and RV supplies seem to be reasonably priced here
(there's a Camping World
just down the road), so I'm stocking up on a few items. I haven't
tried to convert gas prices from US gallons into Litres, so I've no
idea whether the prices here are better than in Canada, although it
seems so. There does seem to be more variation in gas prices; often
back home, it seems like every gas station in Toronto has the exact
same prices.
Plans that Fail
Current Location: Site D10,
Kenolie Village
Campground, Newfane, Vermont
Dates: Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $18.75;
Nights: 2
Since I don't have a detailed map of Vermont, I tend to let the GPS
find my way from one campground to another. However, today I learned
not to trust it. It took me on a series of country back-roads, when I
saw a sign warning of a covered bridge ahead. The sign indicated a
maximum height of 11 feet; my trailer is supposed to be 10 foot 6
inches high -- much too close to attempt going through the bridge.
Instead, I managed to turn around at a 4-way stop, and find someone at
the local municipal office (hopefully they know the area!) to give me
better directions. I did make it here safely, but I wish this GPS had
a “height restrictions” and/or “weight
restrictions” routing mode.
Although the road from Newfane to this campground was winding and very
narrow, the campground itself is spacious and peaceful. It's mostly
filled with seasonal campers who have left for the year, so (once
again!) I seem to have the place to myself. However, there is
absolutely no cell phone signal -- not even analog. I have to drive
about 10 miles towards Brattleboro (the nearest town) to get any
reception.
Once again, I've discovered the benefit of phoning ahead. The Trailer
Life directory claims that the next campground on my route is open
year-round. However, when I called, I got a recording,
“Thank-you for calling Alps Family Campground. We are closed
until Nov. 5...”. At this point, I have three choices: skip this
campground and drive over 5 hours to the next one, wait until it
re-opens on November 5, or find another one in the area. There appears
to be another one near I-87; I'll try to head there tomorrow.
While driving around this morning trying to find a gas station, I
happened to drive past Tom and
Sally's Handmade Chocolates near Brattleboro. Figuring that some
chocolate might improve my grumpy mood, I stopped and bought some
marshmallow-, raspberry- and cherry-filled chocolates. They were
tasty, but rather pricey!
Too Late for Colour
