Battery Provincial Park

Hurricane Dorian is making some changes to our plans.  

This morning we headed south and west from Cape Breton Highlands NP. The plan was to find a sheltered spot to wait out the storm if it were to actually hit Nova Scotia.  That is still the plan, but the provincial parks have been closed so we will be looking for a sheltered spot in one of the cities on the north side of Nova Scotia.  Will see what tomorrow brings.

In the meantime we shopped in North Sydney for groceries and ended up in Battery Provincial Park on the southerly end of Bras D’OrLake.  It’s an absolutely gorgeous park with sites with water view.  Some, particularly the non-electric sites, are very private, nestled in among the trees.

It was a beautiful afternoon — warm and just slightly breezy. There are a few walking trails in the woods around the campground and a trail to the locks that connect the ocean to the lake.  Since they had not yet announced the decision to close the parks, we were also looking to see which were the most protected sites in which to weather the storm.  But that option is now off the table.

The trails here are primarily mowed grass through “weeds” and patches of forests.  One would not want to bushwhacked here as a lot of the weeds are wild rose and hog weed (aka poison parsnip).  The later is really an attractive plant, but can be very irritating to the skin — almost like poison ivy.

When we returned to the van we sat outside and enjoyed looking out over the bay for a while, then had dinner on the picnic table.  Such a beautiful evening — the lull before the storm.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)