Perfectly balanced

Prince Edward Island National Park extends 25 miles along the island's northern shore along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There are long stretches of sandy beaches, sweeping sand dunes, ponds and woodlands. Many years of wind and wave erosion have carved the park's sand dunes, beaches, and red sandstone cliffs. There are six entrances, one right here in Cavendish.

Our first stop was at the Cavendish Destination Centre, which also serves as the Visitor Center for the Park. We spoke with a young woman who was very familiar with the park trails and, when we told her we were interested in geologic formations, told us about a spot, about 45 minutes from Cavendish, called Thunder Cove. She recommend a couple of hikes and a place where we could get great local seafood. PEI is know for its seafood, especially lobster and shellfish, and I had not yet had any PEI potatoes. I remember from the last time I was here how absolutely out-of-this-world PEI potatoes are (it's the red soil). 

Oceanview Lookoff on the Gulf Shore Way trail. There were a couple of interpretive panels here that said the French and Acadian settlers began to arrive on the Island in the 1720's when it was a French Colony, Isle Saint Jean. 

Orby Head is one of the overlooks along the Gulf Shore Way. That white stuff is bird droppings, guano. 

We wanted something a little more dramatic, so we thought we would check out Thunder Cove. The drive out to Thunder Cove was through some of the island's extraordinary farmland. PEI inland seems mostly agricultural and the farms are exceptionally beautiful, at least to this Indiana farm girl.

I've tried to capture some of the farm landscape. Fields in the background and this lovely field of potatoes in the foreground.

This is a famous viewpoint at French River, "Where the farms meet the waves." Of course, in addition to farming, PEI is about fishing. This little inlet is typical. See the rolling fields in the background?

Another view of the fields. They seem so precise and smooth. It is also wheat harvesting time and there are huge rolls of hay in the fields. The farms are all well kept and farming must be profitable because the farm houses are large and look fairly new.

We had a little difficulty finding Thunder Cove because the sign for the red gravel road had been taken down. We stopped at a store and they were able to tell us right where to go.

In order to get to this section of the beach we had to climb up a sandstone cliff to the top. We almost didn't make the effort, but I'm glad we did otherwise we would have missed this formation.

Then, going on a little further, again we almost didn't go on, we hit the jack-pot with this extraordinary sea stack or "flower pot."

How does it stay up?

This picture should have come first. This is where we walked to the end of the beach and then couldn't go any further and had to climb up the cliff. There are sea caves at the base of this cliff.

After we explored the west end of the beach we walked about 3 km to the east. There were huge sand dunes most of the way until we came to another set of red cliffs. Notice the big blocks that have eroded off the cliff? I have no idea what the driftwood structure is all about.

This evening we had a lobster supper at Fisherman's Wharf in North Rustico. Lobster, PEI new potatoes, a 60 foot long salad bar, and coconut cream pie for dessert. Yum!

Saint Anne

Prince Edward Island is divided, geographically, into three sections, each with its own named scenic drive. Today we took the North Cape Coastal Drive, the Canadian Oyster Coast. We didn't see any oysters, maybe because we declined to visit the PEI Shellfish Museum, but we did visit Lennox Island, a First Nation (Mi'kmaq) territory.

Located on beautiful Malpeque Bay, Lennox Island, now no longer an island since it is joined to the mainland by a causeway, was purchased by the Aborigines Protection Society of London for the Mi'kmaq of PEI in 1840. By 1760, the British had allocated all lands on PEI to their colonists, completely excluding the Mi'kmaq from their ancestral homeland. With the purchase of Lennox Island, this became the permanent Mi'kmaq settlement.

Is it Micmac or Mi'kmaq? Both spellings are correct depending on the individual and regional preference. The Smith-Francis spelling Mi'kmaq, has been generally adopted throughout Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and parts of PEI and New Brunswick.

In the early 1600's, French missionaries introduced Christianity to the Mi'kmaq. On June 14, 1610, at Port-Roayl, Nova Scotia, Grand Chief Memberton became the first Mi'kmaq to be baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. His people followed his lead, including adopting St. Anne as their patron Saint. The Mi'kmaq have a great respect for their elders, with the most honors being reserved for grandmothers. St. Anne is especially revered because she was the Grandmother of Christ. The current St. Anne's church, above, was built in 1898. 

Glooscap brings Epekwitk to the People.

Creation - Many thousands of years ago, the Creator made the universe and all life. He chose Glooscap to take a portion of the heavens to make a homeland for the Mi'kmaq. Guided by Loon the water messenger, Glooscap placed a crescent shaped piece of red clay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Glooscap, as instructed by the Creator, brought forth the Mi'kmaq by shooting an arrow into a tree. The tree split downward toward the earth, allowing two human forms to emerge. Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island) became a sparkling jewel or a cradle in the waves, a home for the Mi'kmaq people.

After Glooscap completed his work he returned to the Creator.

The Mi'kmaq hold that they did not move to the Maritime region but that they originated here. As one Mi'kmaq Chief explained it to a British Colonel in 1765, "The land you sleep on is ours, we sprang out of the earth like trees, the grass and the flowers." Before Europeans arrived, the Creator and his messenger Glooscap, guided the Mi'kmaq.

After visiting Lennox Island we drove to the very northern tip of the North Cape Coastal Drive, North Cape. Along the way we saw this sign in front of a Community Chruch - "Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to see Him."

North Cape has this very large lighthouse.

We took a brief nature hike at North Cape. At the very tip of the point, on the beach, we found this collection of Inukchuk-like structures. We did not build one ourselves.

North Cape boasts the longest rock reef in North America. The reef, which you can almost see in the picture above (it was close to high tide), extends from the point, and is a strip of segmentary rock extending from the low sandstone cliffs. It stretches approximately two kilometers off shore and marks the convergence of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Strait. We could see the waves coming from the west and the east, converging on the reef.

It was very windy at North Cape and there was a huge wind turbine project there.

Ceilidh

Last night we went to the neighboring town's, Stanley Bridge, Women's Institute Hall for a ceilidh (pronounced kay- lee). A ceilidh is similar to a Kitchen Party. Local people come with their instruments and play music for one another. The music was Celtic Maritime with a song from Newfoundland thrown in. 

This group is a family affair. Mike Pendergast, on the accordion, and his uncle, Tom, had the main speaking and playing parts. Tom would interleave the songs with Irish jokes.

The other two musicians that you can see in this picture include Mike's son Shane, playing guitar behind the step dancer, Veronica, and Nathan, on the fiddle, who was not related. Nathan also played the bass guitar.

This morning was cloudy and very windy but by 1:30 pm we ventured out, first to find a grocery store (not easy), and next to go to the Green Gables Heritage Place operated by Parks Canada. 

On the drive to North Rustico, just down the road, there was this view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the waves crashing on the shore because of the wind. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery's  Anne of Green Gables, used this farm as inspiration for the setting of the classic tale. In real life, it was the farm and home of David and his sitter Margaret, cousins of Montgomery's grandfather. Although Montgomery never lived at Green Gables, she came to know her cousin's farm through her explorations of the surrounding woodlands. Places she discovered and named, such as the Haunted Wood and Lover's Lane still exist at Green Gables. The house and grounds have been restored and decorated as Montgomery described in her novel, and depict a typical Prince Edward Island farm of the late 1800's.

This is Charlene who was our tour guide to the Green Gables park. She gave an introduction to the farm and the house that are the center of the park presentation. (She lived in Narragansett, Rhode Island for a period of time.)

To get to the house and the rest of the park you go through the barn where this young woman was playing period music.

The beautiful vegetable garden at the side of the house.

The back of Green Gables house.

The pantry of the kitchen.

Upstairs, Anne's room.  See the slate that Anne broke over Gilbert's head.

Anne's bedroom with the dress with puffy sleeves that Matthew bought for her.

The farmyard - barn on the right, then the chicken coop, granary and the woodshed.

Green Gables Farm.

We took a walk on Lovers' Lane - there's my lover in the Lane.

Gradens at the front of the house.

The front of Green Gables.

We had such a good time last night at the ceilidh that we went back tonight for a performance by Leon Gallant and his group which also contained two of his cousins and Mike Pendergast, from last night. They played a lot of PEI songs and jigs; very lively with lots of foot stomping.

The Stanley Bridge Women's Institute Hall.

Leon Gallant on the left, his two cousins, Nick and Chris, on the right, and Brendan Peters playing snare drum and the spoons. 

There's Mike Pendergast, from last night, on the left.

The Gentle Island

The big adventure today was leaving Nova Scotia, traveling across a bit of New Brunswick and crossing the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, PEI. It wasn't that much of an adventure, except for crossing the bridge. Built in 1997, the bridge is eight miles long - the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water (everything is famous for something!). It is quite an engineering accomplishment; at its highest, it is 197 feet about sea level. The last time I visited PEI the only way to the Island was by ferry. It's a toll bridge, but you only pay when you leave the Island.

Approaching the Confederation Bridge that crosses the Northumberland Strait to PEI.

I was surprised to find that it is only two lanes wide, although they are wide lanes. The speed limit is 50 miles per hour.

Nearing the end of the crossing, Frederick took this picture of the PEI approach.

Exiting the bridge, we immediately stopped at the PEI Visitor and Information Center where we learned that the motto for the PEI is The Gentle Island. We then drove to our campground in Cavendish, on the north coast.

We were amused by this trailer being pulled by a Harley-Davidson bike.

Joggins

Joggins, Nova Scotia, had been on our radar screen since we came into Canada. We had originally planned on visiting back in July, but Hurricane Arthur kept us in New Brunswick an extra day so we had to postpone our visit until our return trip through Nova Scotia. Almost two years ago, Peter spent a few weeks at Joggins during his Watson Year.

What an extraordinary place! The magnificently exposed rock layers of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reveal the world's most complete fossil record of life in the Carboniferous Period, or the period in which coal formed. Embedded in almost 10 miles of coastal cliffs, which are eroded twice a day by the highest tides in the world (the Bay of Fundy), rare plant and animal fossils are revealed, preserved where they once lived. And, because the erosion is continuing, more fossils are revealed on almost a daily basis. People from all over the globe continue to visit and study this special place.

Last night Frederick did research and downloaded a tides table because, in order to walk on the beach and view the cliffs up close, you have to visit during low tide. Since low tide was at 8:11 this morning, that meant an early start for us; Joggins is about 20 miles from our campground.

We arrived about 9 am and, since the Joggins Fossil Centre doesn't open until 9:30 am, we headed right for the beach and the cliffs. We climbed down to the beach and walked along taking some pictures of the cliffs, fully realizing that we didn't know what we were looking at or seeing.

I took this picture on our first tour down the beach and learned later that the two lines that you see going out to meet the waves are limestone "reefs". The cliffs that were above these "reefs" eroded more quickly and left this layer. One is lighter because there is no seaweed growing on it because it has a high alkaline content. 

At 9:30 we entered the Centre and signed up for the Explorer Tour, a two hour guided tour of the cliffs along the beach.  The tour began at 9:45 am, just time enough for us to get a good picture of the fossil beds before the tide came in and claimed the beach. 

David, our tour guide, is a third year biology student who grew up about 5 miles from the cliffs. Here he is pointing out a Lepidodendron fossil. At the Carboniferous time, Joggins was a tropical rain forest located near the equator. Together with Sigillaria, Lepidodendron were the most common tree in the Joggins swamps. Lepidodendron were tall trees reaching the height of a 10 story building. These forests, in the lush equatorial environment, decomposed and formed the coal veins for which this geologic period is known. 

David pointed out two interesting facts in this picture. First, the house, which is about a quarter mile down the beach from the Joggins Centre, used to have a large, foot-ball-field sized garden between the house and the beach. Second, the reddish colored rock above the layers on this point is glacial till, scraped off the Canadian Shield. Deposited by a glacier, this soft and loose rock erodes at a rapid rate and is one of the contributing factors that leads to the exposed layers in the Joggins cliffs.

Here David is describing a rock called "clam coal." Not coal at all, it is limestone that contains small white specs of fossilized fish bones and clam shells. 

David has his foot on a fossil tree, Lepidodendron, that was first exposed in the cliff two years ago. It continued to erode and broke free of the cliff and has been pulled down the beach by the Fundy tides. Joggins will not remove this fossil or "save" it because they do not alter the natural progression of the erosion. (The tide is getting closer.)

David is kneeling between the "twin trees". You can clearly see the large fossil the he is looking at but there is also one just to the left of his right shoulder. It was in just such a fossil tree that the oldest known reptile fossil, Hylonomus, was found, by John William Dawson, in 1860, here at Joggins. Living 75 million years before the dinosaurs, it now resides in the British Museum of Natural History. 

David is pointing out the fossilized, diamond-shaped tree bark of the Sigillaria tree.

This rock excited David because it has number of fossilized trees indicating a log jam at the time the fossils were formed. All of these fossils are just lying out on the beach. Everywhere you look you can spot a fossil of one kind or another and this diversity of fossils, and their pristine condition, is what draws scientists from all over the world.

We returned to the Joggins Fossil Centre about noon, had our lunch, and then visited the indoor exhibits.

These tall pillar-like structures are replicas of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria trees. If you look closely you can see the diamond-shped pattern on the bark.

Look closely and you can see the little lizard in the hollow tree. This shows how Dawson found Hylonomus, the oldest know reptile fossil.

At high tide, 2:01 pm, we returned to the beach to see the height of the tides. Here is the walk-way down to the beach with the final stairs completely coved by water.

Looking down the beach towards the house. No beach!

And this is the view down the beach towards the cliffs. Contrast this view with the first picture.

Leaving Joggins Fossil Cliffs, we headed to Parrsboro and the Fundy Geological Museum.

This Museum is geared more to the student which made it quite accessible for me. 

There were descriptions for each geologic period and examples of rocks or fossils from that period. For instance, this is the description of the Precambrian period showing a Stromatolite.

This is gypsum from the Early Carboniferous period.

And here is the late Carboniferous, the Joggins period, when coal was being formed. These fossils are from Joggins, and the reptile is Hylonomus.

This is a replica of the oldest dinosaur found in Nova Scotia. Fossilized remains were found in 1984 at Wasson Bluff, just down the road from Parrsboro.

These are some of the actual fossil remains - tail vertebrae; articulated hind foot; tooth; and, scapula.

More fossils of the Prosauropod - femur; articulated front foot; and, dorsal vertebrae.