My Journey of Discovery
2010 Trip
May 22nd-25th , 10
55km
May 22nd-
Over the past few months I have talked to a lot of people about the history of Shelburne county and specifically northern Shelburne county. There are several things that peaked my interest. The first being the search for Boundary Rock, this is the location where 4 counties meet. The current location is easy to find but over the years the actual location has changed as the maps are redrawn, What several people are looking for is the Boundary Rock seen in pictures taken in 1899. I have talked to several people who have seen it in the 60’s & 70’s but have been back recently and could not find it.
The next piece of history out there is the location of Halfway house. It was located on the Annapolis Rd that went from Shelburne to Annapolis Royal. The road was first cut out in 1785 but never really amounted to much of a road. The only recent record I could find was in a letter Thomas Raddall wrote the the Shelburne Historical society in 1948 where he refers to loggers from Bowater Mersey who came across it while surveying the forest.
Another site that is also part of the Annapolis Rd and found reference to it in the Thomas Raddall letter is the Soldiers Rocks located between Roseway lake & Halfmoon Lake. It is two large rocks stacked one on top of the other.
The fourth site is from about the same period as the two previous ones and that is the location of the Wainwright farm. Donnie Bower has been there many years ago and gave me a good Idea where to look for it.
That was the beginning of a planned trip in to the Tobeatic for Ron Chute and myself for 2010. On Saturday May 22nd we drove up to Upset Falls where we made camp. Our plan was to start out Sunday Morning heading upstream. It was a great day to be on the water, very little wind. It did take us quite a bit longer then planned to make it to Mink Lake but at around 6:30pm we pulled up a place known as Keating’s Campsite. It is a great place to camp. After a good meal I was beat and climbed into my hammock and crashed. The next morning when I got up it was quite windy and I knew that we were going to have to stay put for the day, we did paddle across the lake and hiked to Silvery & Wainwright lake. The paddle back to the campsite was a bit nerve wracking in hind site we should have waited but we did make it back OK
After having lost a days travel we did not have enough time to make any more progress north so we headed back out.It was a bit disappointing not finding any of the sites I was looking for but spending time in the canoe is always time well spent and if I have to take another trip or two that is a bonus.
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