When we last left off, I had determined that I would need three days to hike the Coastal loop, but would budget four just in case. So now I’ve started to consider the route. First things first, I need a map.
https://parks.novascotia.ca/park/cape-chignecto
If you go on the Parks Nova Scotia website and click on Cape Chignecto, you will find a wealth of information such as, entrance fees, booking availability and camping fees. Also, you can download a map of the park. The map contains a trail map, detailed maps of the various campgrounds and a topographic map of the park and surrounding area, all for FREE. Since I plan on going myself, I will be printing the downloaded map and getting it laminated at Staples, that way I can bring it with and it can stay weather resistant.
I have AllTrails plus, so I can also print out supplementary maps with satellite photos of the terrain and weather. I’ll use those print outs to mark out my path since I’ll be leaving my travel plan with my wife and dog.
Currently, in order to maximize my time, I am leaning towards hiking the trail in a counter clockwise direction, meaning from the entrance I’ll be headed north towards Eatonville and that campground rather than west towards Mill Brook. This means that distance traveled on day one will be about 12-15km.
The reason for this is that the starting route is mostly wooded forest area, not much for dramatic ocean views or particularly great pictures.
I personally don’t thing that it matters which way I decide to take the trail, since it’s a short trip, my pack weight will remain relatively consistent since the only thing I’ll be losing is a few grams every day in dried food, so I’d like to be in the home stretch at the ocean where I can take photos and perhaps stop more to take in the view.
Another advantage to going this way is that there are more campgrounds on the west side of the park, if the weather turns nasty there will be more opportunity to find shelter and refill my water canteen.
For the next day I will have to make a decision at booking time, whether to go from Eatonville to Little Bald rock (LBR), or to push on Refugee cove (RC). LBL looks to be about 8-10km from Eatonville with RC being another 4km past that. At LBR there are only 4 campsites whereas RC has 11, so it will be a booking day decision to see which fills up faster or if I’d rather be in a less populated space for the night, which is usually my preference.
This also changes the last hiking day from either a 3ish km journey to almost 8km journey. Either of these are doable considering I’ll only have emergency food provisions and enough water for the day, so not much to slow me down with weight in the bag.
Of course, these are all relative distances based on an estimation looking at the park map, when I print it out ill be able to make more detailed predictions about distances and travel times, and I’ll be able to supplement those estimations with trail reviews and AllTrails data.
The last question that I want to think about today is where my wife and dog will sleep, I may have mentioned before that they DO NOT want to come with, Toto would but my wife wants him to keep her company. So, I’m looking at Pet Friendly accommodations near the park entrance in West Advocate.
Fox Point Inn looks like a perfect place to keep my family, its pet friendly and only about 20 min away from the entrance, it’s also under $200 a night. The rooms look comfy and they look like they come with all the modern amenities, if I wasn’t headed out backpacking this would be a great place for us all to stay as its near Cape Chignecto, Five Islands and Cape D’or, all with hiking trails to explore. Its 20 min to Parrsboro, so close enough if Britt needs to run out for anything.
Next time I’ll start to focus on the gear I’ll need for the few days and creating a pack list, as well as figuring out booking day. See you then!
The Maritime Adventure 