By: Steven Maly

As summer fast approaches I’d like to share with you the weekend that kicked off my 2006 summer on Victoria Day long weekend.  I’m sure many of you have traditions, whether with family or friends, that get you out and away from the hustle of life.  For me and my friends we started one last year with a canoe trip down the Mosquodoboit River. 

One of my friends was leaving for Australia the next week for a year and so we thought a last hurrah was in order.  For many years we’ve had a pretty tight crew of friends who drift periodically in and out of town, there were five of us in town for this trip.  First there was Joe, who takes on life like a bull in a china shop.  He was the one who was off to Australia.  Joe and I started the trip paddling Big Green, a nearly indestructible polyethylene canoe.  Paddling in the other canoe was Vicky, our resident athlete, in the bow, and Nick, an avid camper but evidently not a canoeist, in the stern.  Last and least to make up our group was Sandy, he started off in slacker position, middle seat of Nick and Vicky’s boat.  The three of them had hopped into Ol’ Blue, an older Kevlar prospector that had been chopped into three pieces by Hurricane Juan and rebuilt into a working canoe.

Early Saturday morning the five of us set our two canoes into the top of the Mosquodoboit, dividing up the people in what I now suspect may not have been the best of ways.  As Joe and I set off in our heavily laden canoe we looked back for Ol’ Blue.  They had pulled away from the shore and despite their lack of experience managed to get nearly 40 feet down the river before they turned 180 degrees and hit the bank.  From that point on our own canoe was known as Team Competent. 

The Mosquodoboit River is one of Nova Scotia’s longest inland canoe routes, and most likely the longest one without necessary portages.  The scenery is a mix of forest, cottage country, towns and farms certainly not a back country wilderness trip, but beautiful nonetheless. The huge amount of privately owned land on the river makes it a necessity to plan ahead for your camp sites.  The river meanders through central Nova Scotian farm country before cutting into a more rugged coastal forested area and emptying into Mosquodoboit Harbour and the Atlantic Ocean.  The final few kilometers are a whitewater maze only to be attempted by exceptionally strong paddlers, certainly beyond our reach on this trip.  Thankfully Canoe Kayak Nova Scotia has an excellent map available for the length of the river that allowed us to plan our entire trip before stepping foot outside. 

Luckily for us, Joe and Sandy’s folks had agreed to both drop us off at the put-in and pick us up at the end, meaning no shuttling of cars, and no long term parking.  We picked a spot about 3km down from the first possible starting point.  Highway 357 runs the entire length of the river allowing for many possible put-in and take-out points; this makes the Mosquodoboit a very accessible river for any length trip. 

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