Milford Lakes
An eye-opening book, the Canoe Annapolis County, has a variety of canoe routes within an hour’s drive of the Annapolis Valley. One area was the MilfordFisher Lakes. Although the book’s route description was a little lean, my brother and I were up for adventure.
We launched from Milford House on Highway 8 a few minutes north of the Kejimukujik National Park gates, or about 35 kilometres south of Annapolis Royal on Highway 8. Milford House is a lovely vacation resort with a restaurant and cute cabins. They were friendly and comfortable with us launching and leaving a car if necessary. We set off with Herman the dog balanced on top of our trusty red Mad River 16 foot Royalex canoe.
The water color is golden amber from the organic peats and the lakes rocky and shallow. It is easy to get lost among the rocky islands so bring a map.
We travelled north up Geier Lake and then south-east down Boot Lake to Pikes Runs. Boot Lake has a number of beautiful white sand beaches on the north side. Pikes Runs is a small, shallow brook that, in low water, would require some lift-overs.
We surprised two swimmers floating in the narrows of Pikes Runs. The current helps avoid the leeches that are in the adjoining lakes. Pikes Runs leads to Fisher Lake, which has a remote wilderness feel.
We camped on a beautiful sandy beach on the south east end of Fisher Lake. We enjoyed our traditional first night meal of steak and asparagus with hot chocolate for desert.
A gorgeous sunset concluded our amazing first day.
At first glance it appears that someone has aligned shore stones in some kind of linear pattern. However, a photo caption in the Annapolis Valley Canoe book showed how winter ice pushes boulders up the shoreline thereby creating “finger” trenches.
Mother Nature offered us a tailwind down Eleven Mile Lake to the southern most point of the trip where the Mersey River bears right, and our route towards Rocky Lake left. It is a bump and grind brook into First Branch Lake. A cautionary note - there is poison ivy on the rocks leading up to the bridge.
Rocky Lake lived up to its name. Beautiful and mysterious, we felt like explorers heading up an unknown area. Midway up there is an Inukshuk on a large boulder that confirms you are aiming in the right direction. At the north end of Rocky Lake is a Ranger Cabin and campsite. The cabin is fascinating and seems to be used by locals in summer and in winter. A log-book inside contained stories and pictures of family trips and fishing in the area, including a photo from 1955.
Supposedly, the cabin can be reached by bushwacking from a Mersey Logging road that lies to the north-east of the cabin about 2 kilometers away. It would be an interesting winter trip on skis or snowshoes.
We canoed to the north end of Rocky Lake to a small river run where we met a group of canoeists who were out on an outdoor survival course. When we told them which loop we were considering paddling, they informed us that it is not often done. The low water levels may make it very challenging and the portages are difficult to find.
Determined, we pressed on to Allison Lake to find an amazing campsite on a long peninsula at the north end. We built ourselves an evening fire and relaxed into a great night.
The next morning, we packed up and paddled due west to the portage over Hubley Runs. After the portage, we combed the left shore line for over an hour looking for the start of the portage. A piece of flagging tape (about the size of a loonie) on a maple shrub was our signal. The tape is about 100 meters upstream of the Hubley Runs. There was a faintly laid track into the bush, which could have easily been a deer trail.
The trail is nearly non-existent and a number of fallen trees needed to be circumvented. We knew that Little Sundown Lake was less than 1000 meters away. With a compass bearing from the map we took our chances and portaged all-in-one go. I went ahead with the pack and paddles, while Dave took the second pack and the canoe. The faint trail led to a small swamp/creek leading to Sundown Lake.
The 1.5 kilometer section from Little Sundown Lake to Elder Lake is described in the book as ‘navigable in moderate to high-water levels. Low water will require a 100m to 200m carry out of Little Sundown Lake to a wider portion of brook’. However, we noted the brook is about 30 inches wide between banked hummocks.
Even in our moderate to moderately high water, we still had to haul and yank the boat for nearly 1 kilometer until the brook widened enough to fit the boat in.
We hopped from hummocky mound to mound while pulling the boat (thankful of the bow and stern ropes). In my opinion, only very high spring season waters would make this section navigable.
Soaked to the bone, we were glad to reach Elder Lake. We took lunch on one of the islands and noted that Elder Lake may be a nice fishing lake. There were no obvious places to camp on Elder Lake, however, we made a mental note to come back and explore the lake further on another trip.
Given the challenges of Little Sundown brook, we did not have high hopes for the Elder Lake Runs that flow west from Elder Lake into Fisher Lake.
The first 150 meters showed a bolder garden with no clear channel. Rather than risk 1.5 kilometers of grinding down Elder Runs, we opted for the 1 kilometer portage to the south. The portage is well used and a small aluminum boat at the start suggests fishers frequent Elder Lake.
The portage travels through hardwood forests and an upland bog that is reminiscent of the willow tundra in the Yukon. Happily back in Fisher Lake, we decided to camp on McKibbons Beach (famous for being used by guides and Mi’kmaq for centuries).
Firewood is scarce on this site given its popularity. This was our first evening of rain and we crawled into bed listening to the pitter-patter on the tent fly.
Up early the next morning, we packed up and paddled back through Pikes Runs into Boot Lake. We explored the sandy beach at the north end and noted the excellent fishing rock in the middle of the bay. We paddled into Geier Lake and returned to the beginning of our trip at Milford House.
It was an excellent trip through Nova Scotia’s rugged and remote landscape that only served to whet our appetites for more.
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