Celyna, Dustin, Alex, and I all piled into Alex's car to head out to the Chester Area for a fun camping trip. We stayed in tents at Doug's boss's place. There we lots of mosquitoes, and we all forgot bug spray. But, then Doug's boss came across the stream from her cabin with some chips and salsa, and bug spray! It was amazing. We got a roaring fire going, and ate our suppers and the chips, and drank (slightly too warm) beer into the night. I, unfortunately, forgot to take a single picture the whole time we were there... Oh well.
What an amazing weekend!! It was just a blast, start to finish. What did we get up to? Well, let me tell you!
Alex has his radio operator’s licence, and the club often volunteers for rally car races, and this weekend, there was a race! It was happening up near Noel, so we drove up Friday afternoon to get a night in, and save us driving up early Saturday morning to get there in time. We drove around for a bit, looking at the backroads map and satellite imagery to find a good place. Eventually, we decided to just head down an abandoned logging road and see if we could find a good spot. Boy, did we ever! The location wasn’t particularly scenic, we camped just off the road where we had some flat room, but the starts were some of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s also perfect (well, we’re a bit late for the peak, but close enough) timing for the Perseides meteor shower! Two things happened the moment I stepped out of the car and started going for my backpack. One, I saw a shooting star, and two, I heard something howl. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a coyote or a wolf, but it was definitely something! It sounded close, but not too close, and since neither species is particularly prone to attacking people in tents, we carried on. We decided to forgo the fly. I had seen the weather report, and knew that the temperature was going to dip well below the dew point, but I was ok with getting a little soggy to get to watch the meteor shower, and stars in general, as I was falling asleep. This was delayed slightly by a round of lots of howling and yipping (leading us to conclude that it was a group of coyotes) but only temporarily. When we woke up, we were indeed slightly wet. Good thing it was supposed to be (and was) warm and sunny all day! Actually, make that hot and sunny. I was sweltering all day long. I actually accepted one of the bottled waters they had for volunteers, just because it was cold! Fortunately, the bugs weren’t bad at all. There were tonnes of deer flies, but for whatever reason, none of them were biting. I was a also little worried I would get a bad sunburn, especially on my legs, but I was fine. (For reference, I was biking a few days ago and got a slight burn on my thighs, which has now left a really intense tan line. I had racing stipes on my thighs from the more-opaque reflective bits of my shorts for a few hours! (Un)Fortunately, that has since faded… That, in combination with the fact that the only shorts I own are shorter than my bike shorts, I was worried either the old burn would burn again, or I’d burn the bit that hadn’t yet tanned much.) And, the upside to all of this is that everything that was wet from the night before dried out really quickly! I had a bunch of fun at the race. I didn’t get to watch any of it, since we were positioned at the end of one stage, but I did get to see the starts, and the cars. I also got free lunch, and then dinner at the community hall, which was a welcome surprise! I did pack food, but cookies and a burger and fries were much more appetizing. They even had extra cookies and sandwiches, some of which Alex and I got to take for the next day! After supper, we had to decide where to camp that night. We wanted to stay out that way, but maybe head a little closer to Halifax, to shorten the ride the next morning. We did pretty much the same thing as the night before, and ended up camping in an open area on top of a hill. It was really great!! The stars were incredible, again, though this time we did use the fly. Upon waking up bright and early, we headed back to town, feeling very successful. Yesterday, we decided to do some more exploring. Neither of us have been camping at Duncan’s Cove before, so we figured we should check it out! There is lots of crown land, and some roads for the small communities in the areas, so it was pretty easy to get to. This area is very similar to the area just down the coast a bit (near Sambro). The coast line is a little steeper, but that’s one of the few differences. There are also a couple abandoned war buildings, so that’s kinda neat!
It’s a really beautiful area, I love this place too! We could see up the coast a bit, and I’d love to explore there too, but unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to do that this go round. We both had to work this morning… Fortunately, we have a ways to go yet in this adventure, so I’m sure we’ll get around to it eventually! CAPE SPLIT!! I have been living in this province for four years, and somehow never made it out to the best cape ever. I am in love with this place. We drove out, and as we were getting organized, we saw a text from our friend which said she was thinking about going. We told her we were already there and that she should head on over! It's too bad we didn't plan that, since it is quite the drive, but alas. Alex and I hiked out to the point, which didn't take too long. It's a nice, open trail and there is really only one small hill. After reaching the point and spending a considerable-but-still-too-short amount of time looking at everything, we headed back a ways to hit up the trail down to the beach, and walk back to the point, this time from below! The boulders were such a pain to walk on, and my ankles and calves are definitely feeling that now, but it was so much fun. The view from down there is quite different, and I got to check out all the rocks! We were fortunate that the tides lined up well with when we wanted to be down there. (For those of you wondering, yes, we did check the tide charts before heading that way!) Alex climbed up one of the sea stacks, but my knee was a bit sore by that point and I just hung out and took pictures of all the beautiful things instead. The sun was also setting and the tide was coming in, so I wanted to head back. So, after his adventure to the guano covered sea stack, we headed back to the beach and back to the main trail to meet up with our friend, who was quickly approaching! We only had to wait for a couple minutes for her to arrive, which was very nice! We then walked the 10 min to our future campsite, and then started setting up and cooking. We had some fun with my star chart, and I learned a couple new constellations, which is exciting! We slept without the fly, which was really great. I love doing that, when the dew point cooperates anyhow. Boy, was this place ever gorgeous! Morning time came and we lazed around for a bit, baking in the sun. After a quick bite, we were on the trail again. It had been our plan to do another hike that day, but my knees were not happy about the rocky beach the day before, and Alex's feet weren't happy in his plan B boots (his regular ones are in the process of having the rand glued back on, for the fourth(?) time). As such, we decided to hit up a snack-shack and get poutine and ice cream. What a great decision! In lieu of the long hike and camp we'd planned, we spent night 11 out by Sambro (definitely now a go-to place!) It was beautiful, as always, and I couldn't see a thing because of all the fog. Now, back to work...
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AuthorCarmen has successfully camped for 100 nights out of 365. This blog is a record of those nights outside! Archives
July 2016
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