Portland to Nova Scotia

[pedxing]

I hope this isn't too off topic, but I got a great deal on a short excursion by ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia (2 people + car on ferry, 2 meals each and 2 nights hotel for <300 US) and will do a little hiking there. I have four questions and one link to share.

Questions:

1) Does any one know of a gear store in Yarmouth (NS) or nearby?
2) What gear would be a really good buy in Canada?
3) Any good day hikes near Yarmouth or around the Bay of Fundy? (I'm likely to hike on Brier Island, prolly won't make it to Keiji)
4) Does anyone know of a web site I should take these questions to?

The link I used for the deal (I got the "Explorer", I think the ad should read Sunday - Wed, not Sat - Wed) is: http://www.scotiaprince.com/freecasinocruise.html (don't be put off by the "casino" the web page contains a casino oriented deal as well as the one I mention)

[Max]

4) Go to http://www.google.com and type in Hiking Nova Scotia. I just did and there's too much info to list here. Should be plenty of ideas if you've got the time to browse the various sites.

Max

Try this: http://www.canadatrails.ca/hiking/hike_ns.html

enjoy your trip.

[pedxing]

Max and LFoDNH: thanks for your replies.

The thing that was frustrating me was the difficulty finding critical evaluations of trails in the area I was visiting (St. Mary's Bay/Annapolis Valley). The web was full of Tourist board stuff and relatively uninformative mentions of trails.

I ended up doing some nice day hiking on Brier Island (fairly flat, but gorgeous) and ran into some backpackers there.

Since I couldn't make it to Halifax and didn't locate any good gear places in Yarmouth, I went and visited some gear at the Freeport outlets (e.g. Patagonia, TNF and LLBean).

[powerman]

Originally Posted by pedxing

I hope this isn't too off topic, but I got a great deal on a short excursion by ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia (2 people + car on ferry, 2 meals each and 2 nights hotel for <300 US) and will do a little hiking there. I have four questions and one link to share.

Questions:

1) Does any one know of a gear store in Yarmouth (NS) or nearby?
2) What gear would be a really good buy in Canada?
3) Any good day hikes near Yarmouth or around the Bay of Fundy? (I'm likely to hike on Brier Island, prolly won't make it to Keiji)
4) Does anyone know of a web site I should take these questions to?

The link I used for the deal (I got the "Explorer", I think the ad should read Sunday - Wed, not Sat - Wed) is: http://www.scotiaprince.com/freecasinocruise.html (don't be put off by the "casino" the web page contains a casino oriented deal as well as the one I mention)

http://yarmouth-novascotia.blogspot.com/

[ski_resort_observer]

The Scotia Prince is long gone...I think it's housing people in New Orleans. Just taking the trip on the Cat is well worth the time and is on my list.

[MichaelJ]

I took that ride back in the late 90's and like any cruise ship it was a bit campy, but a good trip and of course Nova Scotia is a beautiful place.

Thanks to you both for bringing up this old thread so we could update it.

[una_dogger]

Check out the Cape Chignecto Coastal Trail. Its awesome. I backpacked it last summer. It takes three days and its about 35 miles, a loop trail that circumnavigates the Bay of Fundy for about 20 miles. The park is new and the trails and campsites are extremely well designed.
http://www.outdoorns.com/features/chignectopark.htm

I actually drove to NS last year, because at that time, the Scotia Prince lines out of Portland were closed due to toxic mold in the terminal. Not sure if that's changed...

Sabrina

[MichaelJ]

Nothing's changed. The terminal fiasco led to the departure of the Scotia Prince.

[ski_resort_observer]

Thanks for the link but I don't feel it is a totally unbiased take on the situation. It failed to mention that the SP had some internal labor problems, employees accused the SP of abuse by management and they were very upset over the fact that the City of Portland was considering letting the CAT come in which would obviously cut into their marketshare.

They have both sued each other over the situation last I heard they were heading to arbitration sometime this fall. It's all pretty moot as the CAT has come in and people love the ride and the fact they get to Nova Scotia in half the time as it took the Scotia Prince.