Day 8 - 2013 East Coast Trip - Baie Sainte Anne to Halifax

Start: Baie Sainte Anne, near Miramichi, NB.
End: Halifax, NS
Distance: 555 km   Total to date: 2976 km
Gas:  Miramichi, NB; 14 litres @ $1.365; Total $19.11; Shediac, NB; 16.35 @1.339 Total: $21.89; Truro, NB 15.94 litres @ $1.410; total: $22.47
Weather: It was a beautiful morning at sunrise, with the sun rising over the bay. It was nice the skies clear up a bit as there was quite the electrical display of lightning over the bay when we were heading to sleep last night. This morning, it was clear, a bit windy but warm - about 72 degrees.
We headed out of Baie Sainte Anne and continued to follow the Acadian Trail, taking Hwy 117. It was a very patchy, bumpy road, such that you had to really focus on where you were riding and what patches to avoid. The road went inland abit, thru low, brushy areas, with little change in elevation. There were moose warnings everywhere.

After about 30km, we came back to the coast and headed south towards Shediac. This road was a lot nicer, flat and less patchy. There were not a lot of eye-catching or awe-inspiring sights, but we saw a lot of the Acadian flags and many of the fishing boats "on the hard", getting ready for the upcoming fishing season.
Also along the coastal route, I was watching my GPS and noted one time where my elevation was recorded as -2 meters above sea level, or 2 meters below sea level.
Along the route, we saw areas of clam harvesting were hundreds of clam or oyster traps were lined up in rows in the ocean bays. The clam fisherman plant clam eggs on the ocean floor and harvest them when they mature.
 Past Shediac, we saw some sandy beach areas and saw a glimpse of P.E.I. and the Confederation Bridge. We stopped at a small gas station and walked to the beach. As the tide was out, we took off our shoes and walked quite a distance out into the bay. The water in the bay was very warm, salty and the bay had a very sandy bottom, much like it would be at Batchewana Bay.

We could see small waves rolling in, indicating that the tide was coming in. Al didn't want to get his feet wet (or was afraid he would step on a little sea creature) and said the water advanced about 50 feet towards the shoreline as we were out standing on a small sandbar.
We could see the bridge in the distance and could see a small outline of P.E.I. from where we were.

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We dried our feet, hopped back on the bikes and headed toward Port Elgin. Along the way, we saw closer views of the 12.9 km bridge. It is quite a site.

We continued along the Acadian Trail to the border of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and took the windy Hwy 102 to just outside of Halifax. We decided to stay at a motel near the airport as Al was picking up his wife later in the evening. That would allow us to charge up all of our electrical gadgets and get some time to work on the blog.
Tomorrow, we will head along the east coast of Nova Scotia, heading towards the Cabot Trail.