6- 7 day Canoe trip

[Dave Greene]

Greetings Folks,

I think I know the answer to my question here - there is no water anywhere - but I ll ask anyways.  Your input is appreciated.

My wife and I have time for 6 - 7 day canoe trip next week and would love to see parts of NS we've never seen before.  Where could we go.  

1. How is the Tobeatic this time of year?  Do you think there would be any water in the Shelburne/ Mersey rivers?

2.  How about the Tangier Grand Lake Wilderness Area, could we fit 6 days in there, perhaps include the Tangier river and Borgles island?

3.  Does the Liscombe have any water left?

Thanks in Advance.

[Dave Greene]

Greetings Folks,

Well, My wife, dog and I took nobodies advice and headed into the Tangier Grand Lake Wilderness area for an amazing 5 day canoe trip.  Our route took us from Moose river Gold Mines - all the way down to Tangier Harbour.  It was an incredibly diverse trip that had lots of white water, portaging and big lake paddling.  Trout were still biting and lots of yellow perch. We did not see another soul the whole time we were back there.  We camped on Scraggy, Grand Lake Tangier, O'Brien and Tangier Lakes.

From Moose river Gold Mines we (thanks to some heavy rain) had no problem getting down the Moose River.  The access is still good, the PP is decommissioned but still there.  It was a full day of portaging from Scraggy - Grand Lake Tangier.  We could not locate the campsite at Fox point but the beach campsite west of there was perfect, so we back tracked.  From Grand Lake Tangier (outflow Pic 1) to O'Brien Lake was a full day of awesome! Didn't have to carry the canoe once but it was filled with plenty of lining, wading, pushing, pulling and running the boat solo down sets.  Did not see any sign of portages along this section.  

O'Brien Lake - Tangier Lake was another solid half day of paddling with lots of fun swifts, ledges and drops.  The Mason falls portage does indeed exist and is pretty good but is the only mandatory portage between Grand Lake tangier and the ocean, make sure to take it!

Tangier Lake (pic 3) is incredibly beautiful, worth the effort to get in and see.  We took the portage around the last set of rapids due to its difficulty to scout, being solo, leaving my wife hanging/waiting nervously but in hindsight I would have ran that one too.  Next time perhaps.  

Highly recommended, IF there is water and you are an adventurous team that works well together.