Rainy Kouchibouguac Day

It rained over night continuing into the early afternoon. Not a heavy rain unfortunately as it is very dry here. In any place where there is grass it is brown straw.

When things cleared up a bit we drove to Ryans beach and then Kellys beach. At the former you can rent paddle boards, kayaks, and bikes. At the latter there is a board walk that takes you out to a 7-km sandbar. The sand is quite white and fine. The water temperature here is 66-degrees; they advertise that they have the warmest beaches here north of Virginia. Actually, I think that the provincial park in Shediac actually has slightly warmer beaches, but why quibble. The beaches are warm because the water is shallow and the Gulf Stream passes very close to shore on its way north.

We walked the beach for about a mile. A fair amount of sea life on these beaches — crabs, clams, and jelly fish. Some gulls diving. Dozens of kids playing and digging in the sand.

We have seen little wildlife on this trip so far. A few squirrels and chipmunks, some birds, but surprisingly few shore birds, and lots of signs warning us about moose. I have no desire to run into a moose while driving, but it would be nice to see one. They were one of the highlights of our Alaskan summer.

Before returning to our campsite, we also walked the Salt Marsh trail — a short boardwalk loop that took us out into a salt marsh with good views of the dune we had just walked on.

Soon after we returned to the campsite the sky cleared and sun came out. Gorgeous dinner hour.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)