Day 108: Halifax, NS -> Sheet Harbour, NS

Date: Thursday, August 31, 2023
Start: Halifax, NS (Staying with a friend)
End: Sheet Harbour, NS (East River Campground)
Distance: 133km

It occurs to me that - if the rest of this trip unfolds the way I expect it to - this is the last morning I'll be waking up in a bed until I reach St. John's, Newfoundland!  So I took a few extra minutes to savour the feeling.  I showered, packed, and went downstairs.  Stephen and Adam were already eating breakfast and I busied myself with getting my bike ready to go.  They offered me breakfast, but I had other plans!

I left at around 9am.  Adam was biking to work and offered to go with me as far as he could.  I gave Stephen a hug, said goodbye, and we headed off.  The storms of the previous day had given way to clouds, but the sun broke through as we biked along the tree lined streets of Halifax.  As always, it felt great to bike with someone else!

We emerged at large park known as The Commons and stopped to say our goodbyes.  I gave Adam a hug and thanked him for being such a wonderful host!

My first destination was The Hali Deli, the restaurant I'd tried to go to the day before and been turned back by the rain.  I found it and was the first one in for the day.  I ordered the hash and sat contemplating my day, researching what was ahead, and imagining the end of the trip which is only about two weeks away!  My food came and while I was eating Stephen walked in!  Turns out that I'd forgot my body wash at his house and he'd walked it over while out doing errands.  I thanked him again for hosting, walking this trifle over, and being a wonderful friend.  He walked off and that was the last I would see of him this trip.

The Hali Deli is an authentic Jewish delicatessen.  Smoked meat, lox, bagles, it's all there!  The hash was great and the day was the place was exactly what I expected.  It felt like a 1940s diner.

Before leaving I walked to the bakery next door - Luke's - and grabbed a pastry.  I ate it before jumping on my bike and heading into downtown Halifax.

Why downtown you ask?  Because I was about to take a another ferry ride!  That's right, a surprise extra ferry for the trip!  This is ferry #8 so far.  One more to get me to Newfoundland before the trip is done.

As I stood at the ferry terminal dock I watched the boats in the harbour.  Growing up, there was a TV show called Theodore Tugboat that was essentially a Shining Time Station/Thomas The Tank Engine clone that was set in Halifax Harbour.  The ferry I was taking was a character in the show.  I was - once again - transported back to being a kid!  It arrived and we loaded up to take the short trip across the harbour to Dartmouth (Woodside technically).

As I crossed the water I took many pictures of Halifax.  I also popped on another Joel Plaskett tune to serenade me across the water.  In 2005 he wrote a song that was a love letter to Halifax called "I Love This Town."

Nobody cares how much money you have
If you’ve got enough to get in a cab
There’ll be drinks on the house if your house burns down
There’s a reason that I love this town

Once across I took another minute to regard Halifax and be happy that I had the chance to visit.  It was a detour, but I had been looking for a reason to make the detour when I started the trip and I was happy Stephen had happened to live there to allow me to add Halifax to the list of Canadian cities I went through.  Halifax is a mighty good town.

I jumped on my bike and headed down a major road to Shearwater where I found the Shearwater Flyer Trail.  I jumped on the trail, a well maintained rail-to-trail conversion that allowed me to ride without traffic in the forest.  After about 10km it ended and the Salt Marsh Trail began.  Adam had recommended this route, and despite the fact that it was longer than just taking the highway it sounded beautiful so I took it!

The Salt Marsh Trail went through the woods before opening up to a huge marshland on both sides of the raised trail.  At times the trail ran WAAAAY out in the middle of the water.  It was really incredible.  The water level seemed high, but the combination of a full moon and a lot of rain the day before are mostly to blame I think!

After the Salt Marsh Trail finished, the Atlantic View Trail began.  I rode along listening to Joel Plaskett and that's when the emotions came welling up inside of me.  Two days previous I received word that a friend had died from cancer.  I'd been waiting for this news since I started this bike ride.  She has been dealing with it for almost two years and was finally out of treatment options in the early part of the year.  She was a mentor to me when I worked at Calgary 911 and one of those extraordinary people that made me rest easy knowing people like her were out there working for the government and keeping the train on the rails.  She was funny, whip smart, driven, and would not let people get away with being lazy.  As she coached me we also became friends.  I'll never forget the day she was coaching me and we both went on our lunch break.  I'd downloaded Pokemon Go (it was new that week) and walked to a nearby spot to play the game only to find her there.  She pretended to take a phone call when she saw me.  And I just stared at her and waited for the fake call to be over and said, "Are you actually just here to play Pokemon Go?" and she heaved a sigh of relief and said "I can't stop playing it!"  I laughed a lot at her attempt at hiding it.

She died on August 27th.  I found out the next day but didn't think of it as I wanted to spend time with a friend I hadn't seen in years.  But now, on the trail alone in the woods I remembered what had happened.  As Joel Plaskett played Hard Times Come Again No More - a favourite of mine by the American songwriter Stephen Foster - the tears found me. I rode along and remembered my friend,

It’s the sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
It’s the wail that is heard upon the shore
It’s the dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times, come again no more

It’s the song, it’s the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh, hard times come again no more

I eventually came out at a place where a long earthen wall was covered with people, all with their backs to me.  I wondered what it was they were all staring at.  I quickly found out.

As promised, Atlantic View Trail opened up to a stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean.  I stopped and brought my bike down to the rocky beach.  I felt something in my hair that I thought was a drop of sweat, and when I tried to brush it off I felt the drop of sweat was kind of fuzzy.  And that's when the drop of sweat stung me on the forehead.  Yup...it was a bee or a wasp or something.  I never saw it, but it made its presence - and anger at being misidentified - felt.  I had a small goose egg on my forehead.

But I was staring out at the Atlantic Ocean.  The waves crashed on the shore.  Huge waves.  And the water was filled with surfers waiting for the right time to catch a wave and ride along the crest.  When I rode into Halifax I realized that plenty of people end their cross-Canada rides there and that I could have done the same.  It never really crossed my mind to seriously do it...but it was tempting.  Now I was standing and staring out at the Atlantic Ocean and realized that if I dipped my tire here I'd be done.  Pacific to Atlantic.  And then realized just how tired I was feeling and how much I wanted the ride to be done if I was thinking about these things!

I took some pictures.  My phone rang and my mother called.  I excitedly told her I was standing on a beach staring at the Atlantic Ocean.  But there's still well over 1500km to go, and this is not the end.  Still...I stood there to appreciate just how far I had come.  The smell of the salt water spray and the seaweed on the rocks.  The cry of the gulls.  And the endless water stretching out before me.  I walked down and put my hand in the water just to experience it.

I have to thank Adam again for recommending this route.  Without him, I likely would have spent the day on the highway and missed all of this!

I hauled my bike off the beach and continued on.  I pushed along coastline with dunes and grasses stretching out between me and the water.  I enjoyed the smell of the ocean as I rode along the pathway.  More beaches were in the offing and in places the highway would be lined with parked cars on the side of the road with surf boards hanging out of the back.  Clearly this was a well known area.

At some point the pathway disappeared into the water and it was time to return to the road.  So I did.  And pushed up and down hills for hours along the coastline as I passed through small towns.

At least a few of these town were Acadian.  How did I know?  That flag was EVERYWHERE!

My goal was a town called Sheet Harbour and as I rode back to the highway I was still 80km from it.  I had to get to work if I wanted to get there before sundown and so I rode on.  Just outside of Musquodoboit Harbour I jumped back onto a local trail and rode into town.

In town I stopped at a bakery and had a snack.  I then found a restaurant and ate a incredible black bean wrap.  It was now 3pm and I had 60km still to ride so I set out.

The ride was beautiful.  Coastline almost the entire way.  So many times I would come out of the woods to a scene that could be put under the definition of "East Coast Coastline."  It was rocky, rolling, red earth in places, grey rocks sticking out of the water, seaweed and water plants draping the rocks as the tide was out, bird sunning themselves on rocks, islands just offshore and covered with scrubby pine and spruce.  Occasionally there would be a dock with small or medium sized fishing boats and lobster traps stacked on the shore.  The homes were built on slopes overlooking the bays and inlets.

I pushed on and on and on.  The hills kept going up and down, and the road curved endlessly around the inlets and bays.  The constant turning meant tailwinds and headwinds depending on which direction I was riding.

At about 6:00pm I reached Sheet Harbour.  I rode into town and enjoyed the sights of churches on hills and houses on slopes overlooking the beautiful bay.  I stopped at the grocery store for a snack before going to the campground.

At the campground I registered and setup near the East River.  This was the site of a pulp and paper mill at one point and it was marked with a giant monument.  Someone clearly wanted this to be remembered.  But the spot on the water was pleasant.  I setup my tent, showered, and ate.  The sun set faster than I was expecting...but it is the last day of August.  Tomorrow is September and the autumn weather is starting.  The air was already cold before the sun set and though I wanted to try to write a blog post I didn't think my fingers were warm enough to type it out!

So I decided to tuck in at 9pm.  It had been a difficult day for headwinds and hills and I thought the next day was going to promise as much or even more.  I had seen some incredible sights on the ride and am thankful I got the chance to see Halifax and ride along the Southeastern shore of Nova Scotia!