canoeing the Pugwash estuary

[Dusan Soudek]

Yesterday my partner Heather and I took part in the annual Pugwash Estuary Flotilla, organized by the Friends of the Pugwash Estuary http://www.pugwashestuary.com/ .  Our start and finish were at Estuary House (2169 Crowley Rd., about 4 km south of the village of Pugwash) , located on tidal Dochertys Creek. Tides are everything in the estuarine environment, and our flotilla started about 80 minutes before high tide and finished nearly two hours after. At low tide the estuary shrinks considerably and some of the tidal creeks may not be navigable.

 

We managed to explore only a portion of the roughly 12 km estuarine Pugwash River, which also includes a number of tidal tributaries and tidal ponds. The Nature Conservancy of Canada has acquired a number of properties along the estuary’s shoreline, so that it is surprisingly wild, even though it had been heavily farmed in previous centuries. Its eastern shoreline sports a number of lovely hiking trails, one of which starts right at Estuary House.

 

We paddled upriver and up Canfields Creek as far as little Eel Lake. We had to duck to get under a footbridge on the Peace Trail, where we had a great swim. After the paddle we had a barbecue and a concert of the Abandoned House band, again at Estuary House. Finally, we drove to the village of Pugwash and then circumnavigated mysterious  Victoria Island, which is protected and which sports a lovely circumferential trail. Too bad about all the Poison Ivy in the area! The best beach on the island, the one with the picnic table, faces southeast, discreetly away from the village.

 

Dusan Soudek 

[Heather Leslie]

A wonderfully informative post, Dusan! I want to add that if anyone plans to swim at the nice large beach, you should plan to paddle to it, rather than hike on the island to it. A LOT of poison ivy between the trail and the sand at that location!

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