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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
Cape Chignecto Provincial Park, Nova Scotia
Posted By: Greg Steeves
Date: Friday, 1 October 1999, at 12:19 a.m.
I must start this small trip report with a big thank you to Nick for writing his book that inspired me to build the Guillemot and also to all who answered my many questions over the past year.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to paddle a small section of coast on the Bay of Fundy in the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park (Nova Scotia) with my good friend Joe O'Blenis. Due to weather conditions, we were forced to make it a short trip, paddling from the Red Rocks put in to Refugee Cove, just under 6Km. Short but sweet, the scenery was fantastic. Unfortunately, we could only take pictures from shore, From now on, a disposable waterproof camera will be on my pack list.
On Saturday, due to flooding we had to turn back to find other roads twice. (Flash floods on Thursday). We finally arrived at the put in a half hour before high tide, by the time we got the boats unloaded and packed we were facing three foot waves on a steep gravel beach, after waiting 15 minutes to launch at the same time, we finally were forced to launch singlely so that only one of us had to get scratches on the boats hull. Once away from shore it was easy going. Paddling west along the fog shrouded coast, we were treated to 600 ft cliffs, many small waterfalls, caves and rock gardens. When we arrived at refugee cove, we found that a submerged rock formation was causing a large eddy just before the cove that we were heading for. The current was very strong, later we would watch large trees that had been washed from the top of the cliffs in the recent rain storm, being swept alogn as fast as we had been paddling and maybe faster on the outgoing tide. The evening cleared off just before sunset, revealing the true beauty of the cove that we were camping at. The cliffs were composed of two different colored rock, one reddish, the other dark gray. Mixing in layers, the gray rock looked like lava, where it was exposed, you could see that it looked like it flowed in waves when first it formed. To the west is an island (Isle de Hout)that looked very close but is actually 13 Km from the nearest point of land (another 3km up the coast). At low tide, you couls see long steep beaches on all visibe sides but at high tide, there is nothing in sight to show a possible landing site. As the tide started to come in again, we could see large waves forming off the tip of Cape Chignecto. The higher the tide got the closer the waves got also. Rather then wait for them to overtake our position before we launched, we left an hour earlier then planned and paddled against the tide. It was a tense 20 minutes paddling out of the gaint eddy, 4' to 5' waves that had a tendency to turn you towards the partially submerged rock formation that was causing them. Once past that though, it was easy paddling next to the cliffs where we could get a better look at the coast up close, check the caves out, play in the smaller rock gardens. At one point a larger waterfall cascaded down three feet out from the cliff forming a nice little rainbow over the bow of Joe's boat while a seal watched us. We stopped for lunch at McGahey Brook where two water falls spilled out on the beach. By this time the tide was going out again so we explored some of the coast from the beach. Here the clifs were made up of what looked like black shale with thin layers of semi transparent white rock(quartz??). An hour later we finally land at Red Rocks, named so for the two large fingers of red rock protruding up through the beach.
Later Sunday evening I was informed that there was a small craft warning for the whole of the Bay of Fundy. Glad we decided to make it a short trip. It was long enough to get my first taste of paddling in strong tidal currents, paddling through a rock garden and landing on a gravel beach with a loaded boat.
For more information on the park go to www.capechignecto.net
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