Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

The second Monday in October is Thanksgiving here in Canada. Just to confuse everyone this is on a quite different date to American Thanksgiving which occurs on the fourth Thursday in November. Given that they are both meant to celebrate the harvest there is some sense in this as the harvest can be later in the US than in cold Canada. Still it’s confusing. Anyway I took advantage of the long weekend and went off to explore Prince Edward Island – my first proper trip to another Canadian province. Toronto airport and a nearby hotel don’t count! I’ve started a new section of the website for reports about my longer trips in Canada away from Nova Scotia and put a report up here.

The weekend after Thanksgiving I’d been roped into going to a Scout camp as I was the only leader, sorry adviser, that could make it so if I couldn’t have gone the kids wouldn’t have been able to go and I didn’t want that. Thankfully it was a camp for multiple groups and so I didn’t have to do any organising beyond taking some of the scouts kit with me and being there in case anything went wrong. The scouts seemed to enjoy themselves and I also had a reasonably good time. I got to meet lots of other leaders and thankfully the weather turned out to be really good despite early forecasts of rain. All in all I’m glad I went even if it hadn’t been what I thought I’d be doing that weekend.

The camp finished about 11am on the Sunday and so I stopped off on the way home for a short hike in the afternoon to break up the three hour drive home. I’d hiked at Delap’s Cove much earlier in the year but had only had time to do one of the two loops there. At the time the second loop had also been “closed” due to a washed out bridge you had to walk down to reach it. Well the bridge was still washed out – I can’t see it ever being repaired – but the trail, and track, now obviously went across a ford. As a hiker you could step across on the rocks and not even get wet. The hike at the end was worthwhile and included a nice bit of coastline and a small, but interesting waterfall. Photos are here.

This weekend was again wet and miserable, as it had been for a large part of the week. It looks like autumn / fall has arrived with vengeance. With that in mind on the Saturday I drove down to Halifax to do some shopping. To make the trip slightly more worthwhile I also visited the Halifax Citadel, an old British fortification on a hill above Halifax. To be honest it was nothing exciting and I was quite glad that, due to my National Parks pass, I didn’t have to pay for it. As you can see from the photos the day had dried up which made looking round nicer although it did make me wonder if I could have squeezed climbing in.

Well that brings me up to date but as this is a short post I thought I’d comment on some of the everyday things in my life. Work is going well. I’ve finally submitted a paper for some software I wrote why I was doing my PhD. It did get updated a lot while I was in Kansas so that’s not (quite) as bad as it seems. I’ve also started writing a paper for the work I’ve done here and hope to have something submitted around the new year. Work on finishing up my Kansas stuff isn’t going as quickly as I’d like although it’s still ticking over.

I’ve started bouldering regularly on a Thursday evening and am starting to get to know the other people that go on that evening. They seem a good bunch, and for reasons I still don’t fully understand, they’re often allowed to stay late and they don’t mind if I join them, which is great. I’m also doing Scouts regularly on a Monday evening which I’m enjoying and am really glad I’ve got back into – seems I was right to miss it. I’m also still swimming regularly and am probably doing as well as I’ve ever done.

So all in all life here is going pretty well. I don’t think I’m quite as happy here as I was in Kansas but I’m definitely not unhappy. I also really like the field I’m currently working in and can see my trying to make a career in it so that’s a really big plus that’s come out of my move to Canada. Now I just need to find a permanent job!

Well things returned back to normal for me after my St. Louis trip. The weekend after I got back I didn’t get up to too much exciting, in part because I didn’t manage to arrange climbing. On the Saturday I went and hiked at the Gaspereau Canal. I’d started this hike not long after I arrived in Canada but a combination of the snow and my ankle meant I didn’t get very far. This time I got quite a bit further and quite enjoyed myself as it was a nice hike, if nothing special. The few photos I took are here. I honestly can’t remember what I did on the Sunday so it can’t have been anything exciting.

That Monday I finally attended my first Venturer Scout meeting as an adviser. We’re advisers rather than leaders at this level as the kids are meant to be responsible for their own program etc and we’re there to advise rather than lead. They seem a good group of kids and I still think I’ll enjoy being a scout leader again. That Thursday was a group committee meeting that I went along to so as to meet some of the other leaders. To be honest it wasn’t very exciting other than the continued discussion about selling popcorn. Selling popcorn is a national fund raising event and it’s fair to say that some of our leaders feel strongly that we shouldn’t do it, the main reason being because of how stupidly highly priced it is. Still in the end we decided we couldn’t really ignore Scouts Canada. That said I don’t see a lot of effort being put into the actual selling, at least by most of the leaders.

The following Saturday I did manage to get out climbing again. Everyone was heading to Main Face again and I joined them. Some people were camping there that night but I decided not to as I had generally not like Main Face that well. Amanda had said, before I ever went, that I should like it there and having been there I really should but I had never had a good climbing day there. That changed this day however. As I was walking down I passed a couple of people I knew and they ended up having the second person up at the top with no way to clean the anchors so I said I’d get on it. It was a hard 10c (11a according to some) but I somehow managed to dog my way to the top and clean the anchors. Given that it was my warm up and at the very top of end of my grade, well probably beyond it, I was definitely not unhappy with my performance.

Next up was a sport route that shared the same incredibly hard (for the grade) start of a trad route that I’d argued with a couple of times before – I’d get it clean on top rope but never on lead. I was rather pleased to find a different way of doing it that went a lot easier for me than it had in the past. Still hard for the grade though! The rest of the route went well as well. My final climb of the day was a new sports route that it had been put up that day. I got dissuaded from leading it as the top was the crux of the route – generally reckoned to be about 5.8 – and was run out (well at least for a sports route) due to suspect rock. I did it clean on top rope and think I’d have been alright on lead although I agree it definitely has a sting in the tail as it is currently bolted being steep and trickly a fairish way above the bolt.

So I’d finally had a really pretty good day at Main Face. I’d also managed to arrange to go to G-spot the next day with some of the people there that I’d met before but hadn’t seen out quite so often. As I hadn’t brought camping stuff this involved a drive back to Wolfville only to return the next day. 🙁

My day at G-spot didn’t start wonderfully well as we somehow arranged that as I was a one and there was a three we’d instead make two twos. Which would have been great if we’d had a second rope, which we only realised we didn’t rather late in the day. So instead they stayed a three and I went off and joined another pair to make a second three. After that faffing the day went well and I led two sports route and top-roped a third, as everyone else was leaving and so we wanted it done quick. I’d done climbing by the middle of the afternoon and as I’d driven down I decided to go for a short walk nearby so as to make the trip more worthwhile. I kept a guidebook to Halifax hikes in my car for just such an eventuality! I had a rather enjoyed short, but in places steep, hike (photos) before heading home.

The next weekend the weather again got in the way of doing anything too exciting. On the Saturday I went for a reasonably long walk around Wolfville and along the dykes in the opposite direction to normal (photos) but that was the only interesting thing I did that weekend.

After my parents left I didn’t really have any time to relax before heading away myself. Monday and Tuesday were mainly spent at work, checking e-mails, catching up on other stuff from my week off, and preparing for my trip. Wednesday morning saw me heading down to the airport (again) to fly to St Louis for a plant genomics conference. Other than arriving in the middle of a mid-west thunder storm nothing much exciting happened on the trip. When I got the hotel I found out they’d upgraded me to a suite. But to be honest, with the exception of a hot tub, it didn’t seem that different to what a normal room would have been like – maybe a little bigger but that was about it. That said I did briefly use the hot tub before I left just because it was there but it wasn’t anything too great.

The conference itself was nothing too exciting. There was one talk that was really quite relevant to my current work and being still rather new to plant genomics I found it really useful to see what other people were up to. The posters were really badly organised as there was no defined poster sessions and I saw hardly any discussions about a poster. Certainly no one discussed mine with me. The last conference session had been changed from something that should have been of interest to me to something that really wasn’t so I left a little early and started the drive down to Arkansas via a nice beer store I’d found, REI and a grocery store. After stopping for food I arrived at HCR at a quite reasonable time, long before others would be turning up, so I ended up pitching my tent, having a couple of beers by myself and going to sleep.

Next morning I, thankfully, managed to bump into Mary Ahsley before I’d even started looking for her, which was convenient! Somewhat less convenient, for me at least, was that she was almost ready to go climbing so I ended up skipping breakfast. I climbed reasonably well that day but boy was I lacking stamina. Although it was on top-rope and dogged I was pleased with doing all the moves on a 11b. Not so much because of the grade but more because there were at least a couple of moves on it I know I wouldn’t have been able to do even a year or so ago. Just a shame I have no stamina so currently have no chance of stringing all the moves together on something that hard. Indeed by the end of the day I was struggling to string all the moves together on some really quite easy stuff.

That evening we went into Jasper, and to a cafe I’d never been before, for dinner. It was certainly an experience! There were posters for sale of “Space Jesus” and they were deadly serious not some sort of joke. They had a little shrine that said that Jesus was the fifth (I think) notable alien visit to Earth. To each their own I suppose. Still it did good food, including things like Elk burgers and sausages. I had the all-day breakfast and it was good. All in all an odd but enjoyable experience.

Sunday the plan had been to go somewhere else to climb as I didn’t really fancy a second day at HCR. However Taras – Mary Ashley’s significant other – and his climbing partner wanted to get on something first. They were meant to be done by about ten but actually weren’t for another hour or so. Given my own uselessness at time keeping I could hardly explain but it did just mean we climbed at HCR again. Things went much the same as the day before – pleased with the moves I was doing and how I was doing them but really lacking stamina and the ability to string moves together.

By mid-afternoon they were all wanting to head back home but I had decided to stay down for an extra night and head up towards KC the next day so I headed towards Sam’s to camp for the night. After stopping at the overlook I’ve stopped at several times before, and taking more photos. I got to Sam’s and went for a walk to the bluffs. Then I set up camp before heading back to the bluffs just as the sun was setting. Sam’s is very definitely still one of my favourite places and I took even more photos. All of the photos from the day are here.

Next day I woke up to the sound of rain falling on my tent so I got up, quickly packed up and started to head towards KC. When I got there I headed to Rob’s parent’s house where Jess and he were currently living while they worked on their new home. Their new home being a converted Sprinter van. They have a blog about the conversion here. It was cool to be able to catch up with them as I hadn’t been planning on it not really expecting them to be in the area.

After leaving Rob and Jess I headed over to Lawrence to catch up with Carol. It was great catching up but there’s nothing that exciting to report. We went to Free State for some food and a couple of beers before heading back to hers where I stayed the night. Next morning I up about the same time as Carol, i.e. nice and early, to start the drive back to St Louis to get my afternoon flight back to Halifax. At one point it looked like I wouldn’t be making it back to Halifax as there was a problem with the plane. Just as we were being ordered off so they could carry on trying to find the hydraulic leak they managed to find it and so we were all told to sit back down again. Made it quite a tight connection in Chicago but I made it so by that evening I was back home and looking forward to work the next day. Or something like that.

Continuing the exciting drama from Part 1…

Wednesday saw us exploring the rest of the Cabot Trail before heading to Sydney to stay the night. After stopping in Tim Horton’s for breakfast again we quickly drove the bit of the trail we had explored to the day before and headed to the out of the way beach I’d found my last visit. Despite the slightly overcast weather both my mum and I went for a paddle (I wonder if that’s a Britishism?). My parent’s were rather more impressed with the beaches in this part of Nova Scotia as they had sand and were rather more like what they would consider a beach! Next up we drove to Middle Head, had a picnic lunch at the parking before going for a short hike. Photos from the beach and Middle Head.

After driving some more of the trail we drove up to Mary Ann Falls which I think my parents enjoyed. We got very lucky with the weather as just as we got back to the car it started to rain and it wouldn’t stop until we reached Sydney a few hours later. I had planned on showing my parents the views from Cape Smokey park but as we were in the clouds at that point and couldn’t see a hundred meters there seemed no point so we just kept on driving. This was the only point during the whole time my parents were here that my plans got derailed by the weather – we were extremely lucky! Photos from the falls are here and general driving photos are here. That description makes it sound like we didn’t get up to a lot that day, and I suppose we did get up to less than the day before. Still my parents enjoyed themselves and it led to some discussion of what side of the trail they enjoyed more. My personal opinion is that they’re both nice in their own different ways.

Thursday would mainly be spent driving back to Wolfville with a few stops on the way. This time I managed to get the right road out of Sydney towards Iona – this time the scenic one – and it was an enjoyable drive. After showing my parents the weird “island” at Iona (see my previous trip to Cape Breton) we headed to Baddeck. We had a walk around the town before getting some lunch. It really is quite a nice little town and my parents agreed. Photos from Baddeck are here. As we continued our drive of the island we drove past a house with cut-outs of lots of Simpsons characters in their front garden / yard, and that resulted in several more photos.

We continued the drive as far as Truro with nothing of notice happening. As we had enough of the day left to take a slow way back to Wolfville we decided to take the coastal road back from Truro to Windsor, something I’d been meaning to do for a while but had never got round to. It’s a reasonably scenic drive and our first proper stop was at Anthony Park, which rather unexpectedly had a pier out into the bay. What with the cool light at the time it was all rather scenic and so there are more photos. We next stopped at Walton lighthouse. I’d seen signs for this on the drive to and from Halifax and wondered what was so special about it, especially as we drove up and it was just another small Nova Scotia lighthouse. However this one you can go in and up to the top and there are also several history displays inside. All in all rather cool, and of course there’s more photos.

As the weather was nice Friday we headed over to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg. It was nice to look round both in the warm weather – the last time I’d properly visited both it’d been far too bitter to spend too long out of the car! I think my parents enjoyed both but there’s not too much exciting to report. the most interesting thing to report was probably quite how much my Dad hated the gothic church in Lunenburg, which was a little unexpected. Still I took photos in both Mahone Bay and Lunenburg. We got back to Wolfville in time for our second barbeque which went better than the first but still required some grilling (sorry my American friends – broiling).

When coming up with a vague plan of what to do while they were here my parents and I had left one day with nothing really planned in case we had a day with bad weather. This hadn’t happened so I didn’t really have a plan for the Saturday. My mum was quite keen to see Baxters Harbour again so we headed there (photos) before heading to Halls Harbour again, where the highlight was seeing a gull eating an eel. We’re not entirely sure it went entirely to plan for the gull as he seemed to be having problems swallowing it as you may be able to see from the photos. We had planned on eating there but my parents didn’t like the menu so we headed to the Port Pub in Port Williams – the normal pub of choice for my lab – instead.

After that we headed to a winery tour which was pretty cool. They certainly seemed determined to get you drunk. You could get four small tasting glasses in the main building and if you did the tour they gave you another seven tastings. I definitely had to refrain from some of them as I was driving. If any of my friends visit at the right time of year I definitely recommend it. After that we headed into New Minas to get food for the third barbeque of my parents visit which, while not perfect, was still really enjoyable.

Sunday was the day my parents flew out so we decided to do things around Halifax. On the way I showed them Mount Uniacke and took more photos – because I don’t have enough photos of there already. Next we headed into Halifax and wondered around the waterfront for a bit which involved more photos, including some of a tug boat tourist attraction – it had a face on it! The last place I took my parent’s was Peggy’s Cove. Again this was another case for me of being nice to visit in good weather as the only other time I’d been there it had been cold and raining and again I took lots of photos. After that we started heading towards the airport, getting dinner on the way. We sat chatting for a while I burned photos to a DVD for them before I saw them on their way.

It had been a great week and it had been really nice to see my parents and have them visit me here. However there would be little chance for a rest for me after the hectic week – I’d driven 1,500 miles – as I flew to the US on the following Wednesday for a conference and then seeing friends.

Saturday 30 August saw me heading towards Halifax to pick up my parents from the airport. They hadn’t come to visit me in Kansas – I think the traveling had put them off – but had decided to come and see me in Halifax (I suspect direct flights helped). I was both excited to see them and a little nervous at how we’d get in while they visited me at my place for a week. I’d obviously visited them for longer in the past but the longest they’d ever visited me for was a weekend. Regardless it would be good to see them.

On the way to the airport I finally finished hiking the trails at Mount Uniacke at my third attempt – having previously been defeated by snow and running out of time. Unsurprisingly I took photos. After that I headed into Halifax to do a little shopping at the outdoor store, MEC, as I was in the area anyway before heading towards the airport. My parents flight was delayed a little so I had a little bit of time which I spent at Oakfield Provincial Park. It has a really nice beach on a lake, which unfortunately was closed due to bacteria! It appears that despite it’s attractiveness I never took any photos. I next drove to the airport and eventually my parents emerged from customs and immigration. It was great to see them. We decided to head back to Wolfville where we walked into town and got some dinner and then headed to bed with a vague plan of showing them the local area the next day.

Next day I started out showing my parents where I worked, New Minas and Kentville. Not the most exciting places ever but my parents had expressed a desire to see what my life was like out here! That done we drove out to Cape Blomidon park where, after a couple of false starts over rather rougher ground than my parent would have liked, I managed to find the view point I wished to show them. I then showed them the waterfall in the park which was, sadly, a lot less impressive than last time I visited as there was a lot less water flowing over it. Next up we went to the “disappointing” beach, well as least as far as my parents are concerned. I think they were expecting something rather more sandy than the rocky beach that is actually there. Photos are here.

We then drove to Baxter’s Harbour and here my parents were rather more impressed with the waterfall and generally scenery. My mum was particularly taken by it. So taken by it indeed that we went back later in the week. After some time there, during which my parents chatted to an old man who had emigrated to Canada some time ago while I tried (and failed) to take good photos of the waterfall, we headed on to Hall’s Harbour. I think my parents rather liked it there as well although not as much as Baxter’s Harbour. We then headed home and had a barbeque on my $15 Walmart special – my first of the year. Getting enough heat in the coals was difficult but with some grilling we got there and the barbeque was effective enough to add some taste. I took photos at both Baxter’s Harbour and Hall’s Harbour. Not the longest day but we’d planned that as we were heading to Cape Breton the next day.

Next day we were up and about reasonably early so as to have time to take a nice leisurely drive up to Cape Breton. I went the back way from Windsor to Truro to show them some more of rural Nova Scotia although we didn’t stop anywhere on the way. I had a vague plan to explore Cape George on the way to Cape Breton as it was somewhere I’d not been and it sounded worth seeing, the drive being described as a mini-version of Cape Breton’s Cabot Trail. Our first stop on our mini-tour was Big Island where we stopped at the end of the road to have a picnic lunch. It was quite a misty day but still quite scenic. There were also some totem poles in someones front garden / yard, which was a little odd. Photos of the totem poles as well as some others from the island are here.

Next we stopped at Arisaig Park which was totally worth the stop and the small amount of walking we did for the really attractive small waterfall and the cool fungi on the trail – both of these would become recurring themes on our visit to Cape Breton. Photos of both are here. Continuing the drive we call briefly at Arisaig Harbour before continuing to Cape George Lighthouse. This was meant to be on a scenic headland but it didn’t seem that scenic – perhaps because of the mist. After that the road did start to more resemble the Cabot Trail as up to that point it hadn’t really been anything like it. Photos from the rest of the drive are here. After stopping for something to eat in Antogonish we continue the drive to our hotel, arriving a little after dark. The hotel had had somewhat mixed reviews on the internet but thankfully was absolutely fine.

Tuesday saw us exploring the Western and Northern bits of the Cabot Trail. After stopping for Breakfast at the Tim Hortons in Cheticamp – my parents had already become quite the fan – we hiked the Skyline trail. Given the very good state of this trail I though my parents would be quite happy doing it and thankfully I wasn’t wrong even if they didn’t go down all the steps at the end of it. Unfortunately for them we saw no moose, unlike on my previous visit, but I think they still enjoyed the hike. Photos are here. Not long after the hike we stopped for another picnic lunch at a deserted, and reasonably scenic pull out, before continuing round the trail.

After a slow drive, taking in the scenery, I asked my parents whether they wanted to do the MacIntosh Brook hike to the waterfall at the end. They consented and, despite the uneven ground, I think they’ll glad they did as they enjoyed both the waterfall and the fungi we saw from the trail. Seeing the people hiking the trail on the other side of the river I think they were rather glad I had been before and knew not to take them on that side! Still they did tell me they were done with hiking for the day! Photos are here. Next we stopped at a crofter’s hut which had been a gift from someone of Scottish descent but otherwise was nothing of note – I’d seen it on my previous trip and wondered what it was and now I knew. After driving across the northern bit of the Cabort Trail I showed my parents Meat Cove, showing them Bay St. Lawrence on the way. The links are to photos while photos taken while we were driving around are here. We then headed back to Cheticamp for dinner and then back to our hotel for the night.

Well that’s already quite a long post and as that’s half way through my parents visit this seems a reasonably place to end this post. More in Part 2!