Simple beauty and mosquito conversations

Trees, salt marsh, beaches, waterfalls

Morning, time to start my day. My first awake act was to peer through the window. I saw a gray sky, and wet pavement. The air was dry though, good news. There was rain predicted, but you never know, do you?

Before I decided whether I'd travel on two wheels or two feet today, I headed down to breakfast. Jacques prepared a true treat, a crepe folded around wonderful fruit, with the fruit extending well beyod the edges. Jacques said he gets carried away with the fruit; as I'm sure you expected, I did eat it all! What a wonderful combination of tastes... mango, peaches, pinapple, bananas, pears, apples raspberries, wild blueberries, passion fruit, some edible flowers, and... (And yes, by the afternoon when I was writing, I did need to ask Jacques and Diane for a list of my breakfast fruits, too many to remember!)

Jacques also took the time to share a mushroom book with me. We looked at photos, and looked at the characteristics of some of the mushrooms that he and Diane picked last night. The one name that jumps to mind is the chanterelle. What a beautiful mushroom, amazing colors.

And then, ideas for wandering...

My initial thought was that I would ride first, and then do some walking. But there were a couple of places I wanted to walk while there wasn't rain falling from the sky. Rather than take a chance with the weather, I decided to head out walking first. As you might have figured from seeing the new home of my journal, I ended up walking and not riding today. I needed a day to recover from that long drive, and walking through different places just felt right.

I started with a visit to the Daly Point Nature Reserve. The reserve contains 100 acres of land, salt marsh, beaches, woodlands. Jacques even gave me some sunflower seeds that I could hold out for the chickadees, but the mosquitos were so persistent that I couldn't manage to stand still long enough to hold a handful of seeds for those little birds. That may be more of a non-summer activity; it would be fun to come back and try to attract them.

I followed some trails in a full circle, others I chose to do an out-and-back walk. There were boardwalks through the salt marsh, usually a good place to walk, but occasionally almost totally overgrown with beach grass.

Oh, and then there was the snake! I'm not sure who was more surprsed, me or the snake... I saw him sunning on the boardwalk. I was surprised enough that I could have jumped back - although I don't think I did... At the same time I saw the snake, it apparently saw (or heard?) me, because the next thing I knew he had slithered away. Even though I had a camera in my hand, the picture of that snake is only in my mind.

There were water birds, sea gulls and other beach walkers, tall birds too. Animals were scampering in the brush, not showing their faces to me. I heard them, and I suspect that they heard me too.

Daly Point is a park that I'd love to see in other seasons. Too bad it's so far from home!

Silly me, I ventured out into the nature preserve without bug goop. I'm not sure that it really works anyway, since I did apply some before continuing to my other wandering spots. And the mosquitoes still attacked along one of the beaches.

Next stop - Pabineau Falls (or Chutes Pabineau if you prefer French). I headed south of Bathurst, veering to the east on the road leading through Pabineau First Nation. Just as the road turned to rubble (OK, OK, dirt! but the sign showing the end of pavement makes it look like rubble), there was rocky terrain edging the river. The water dropped across several levels as the river curved. Fast water, deep water. flowing, falling...

One of the other people enjoying the view told me that the water is a lot higher than normal. New Brunwick has been experiencing the same very wet summer that I've had at home, not too surprising. After all, we do share a spot - however far apart - in the northeatern corrner of the continent.

My next activity? Beach walking... I started at Younghall Beach on the spit of land that helps to form Bathurst Harbor while also looking out on Nepisguit Bay. Heading north, I walked the boardwalk across the salt marsh at Beresford Beach. And then, yes, I did walk a bit along the beach. Funny, the beaches I walked earlier were all sand, but Beresford Beach was lined with purple sea shells. Closer to the water there were rounded rocks, and then some sand along the edge. It could very well have been high tide when I was there...

One of Beresford's claims to fame is that it is one of the only known homes of the Maritime Ringlet butterfly, a small butterfly that lives almost exclusively in the salt marshes of the Chaleur Bay region. I would have loved to see one of these butterflies, but they must have been hiding today.

My last stop for the day was at the quay of Petit-Rocher. It was a good spot for communing with cormorants and gulls.

I was still toying with the idea of going out for a quick ride, but it was close to 4 by the time i got back to my home away from home, the wind was howling, and I was ready to sit for a bit. And the front porch of the B&B was a perfect spot to relax and write.

As I was sitting, Jacques & Diane returned from their own day out. They offered me a late afternoon treat of maple ice cream and wild blueberries, and of course I accepted. It was a case of having desert before dinner, a happy snack!

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Today's weather? Almost perfection! It was gray in the morning, there was a lttle bit of rain, and then the sky turned a clear blue decorated with white.

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Tomorrow? I'm heading to the easternmost point of this trip, to the tip of the Acadian Peninsula. And yes, it's time to ride!