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Photo by Walter Anderson...Title: View from the Highland Heights Inn, Iona, Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where the IAT/SIA Annual General Meeting was held.
The Bras d'Or Lakes is the large body of water. It is the largest saltwater lake in the world.
Report Written By: Maine Chapter Board Member, Thomas Urquhart
Our international,Annual General Meeting(AGM) celebrated the formal addition of Nova Scotia to the IAT/SIA. Appropriately, it was held at the Highland Heights Inn in Iona on Cape Breton,, Nova Scotia. Jim Vance (outgoing president of Hike Nova Scotia) and IAT/SIA thru-hiker Ellen Wilcox put together a splendid program, ending with a formal presentation of the Nova Scotia flag to IAT/SIA President Dick Anderson by Keith Bain, member of the Legislative Assembly for Victoria, on behalf of Premier Rodney MacDonald. By the time we had to head for home, we had unofficially inaugurated the first stretch of the Nova Scotia
IAT/SIA by hiking what once was the road across Lewis Mountain, now a path “through a yellow wood” that Robert Frost would have admired.
A record turnout—over 50 members—came from Maine and every Maritime province, including Prince Edward Island, represented by Allan MacKenzie and Els Schurman. Maine Chapter Board member and Emeritus Maine State Geologist Walter Anderson confirmed that the island consisted of debris from the ancient Appalachians, all agreed that some association with PEI should be considered.
After dinner our first evening, Jim Vance made sure that the next forty-eight hours would be convivial ones by inducting everyone into the Order of the Good Time, “the oldest social club in North America.” We happily took on the four obligations of L’Ordre (it was founded in 1606 by Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts): to have a good time, to remember Nova Scotians fondly, to speak of them kindly, and to come back again(see a copy of the certificate and the history of the Order of Good Time that accompanies this article).
Next morning, Dick Anderson set an excellent tone for the meeting, saying that “we don’t worry about quorums and that kind of stuff. We just talk stuff over and come to consensus.” Every chapter had something good to report. Maine now has twenty-seven miles of trail east of Katahdin, much of it thanks to the encouragement of Roxanne Quimby through whose land it passes. Speaking as “the” New Brunswick chapter, Denise Zyveniuk is building a strong relationship with New Brunswick Trails. In Quebec, Eric Chouinard told of securing corporate partnerships to assist with trail and campsite maintenance. Newfoundland’s Paul Wylezol—no longer “the new kid on the block” as he mock ruefully pointed out—reported a $300,000 grant to hire a coordinator, plus
trail building progress north of Gros Morne National Park, a great place to see caribou.
The afternoon presentations offered a Nova Scotia smorgasbord. Vance described progress in identifying the route of the trail through the province, much of it shared with Nova Scotia Trails. David Williams from the provincial government introduced us to some mouth-watering Nova Scotia Wilderness Protected Areas. Volunteer trail builder Norris Whiston shared his fascination with the cultural history of “his” section of the trail, around Mt. Nutby and Gully Lake. Darrell Taylor, representing Cape Breton Pathways, described rail-to-trail and multi-use sections his group is working on. Only Jim O’Brien from the Bras d’Or Lakes Stewardship Society struck a somber note. Inviting as they looked out our meeting room window, the Lakes are in trouble. Virtually land-locked and surrounded by
settlement, in places over 900 feet deep, the Bras d’Or Lakes have very little current or tide. It takes forty years for water to cycle through them.
A recurring theme was longevity. In the morning session, Wylezol had topped Champlain’s 1606 Ordre, citing Jacques Cartier’s “hike” down the west coast of Newfoundland in 1534. That was nothing to James St. Clair. Before mesmerizing his audience with wonderful tales of Cape Bretoners past, he referred us to his forebear Prince Henry who may (or may not) have reached Nova Scotia in 1398! But this was chronological chump change to Dr. Warren Ervine who had already led a romp through the ferny swamps of Nova Scotia some 350 million years ago.
After the final banquet, while official photographer Will Richard summed up our work with a slide-show, Keith Keating, the owner of the Highland Height Inn, was preparing his own surprise, a party of fresh-boiled snow crabs and Alexander Keith IPA!-brewed only in Nova Scotia. It was a great way to end a memorable meeting, and typical of the warm, comfortable and delicious care he and his wife Marie and waitress extraordinaire, Holly—took of us during our stay.
A bonus for those from Maine was the chance to explore a little of Cape Breton. Before the meeting, we spent a fascinating morning at the Fortress of Louisbourg, once the stronghold of the King of France, destroyed by the English (with considerable help from the New England colonies), and now rebuilt as a national heritage site. Next to our hotel, another “living” museum explained Cape Breton’s Scottish heritage.
Before leaving Nova Scotia, we stopped at the Salmon Museum on the Margaree so that Dick Anderson could donate a hand-tinted photograph of the river that had belonged to his mother. Then, after a reverent pint of draft IPA at the Coal Miner’s Café in Inverness—scene of much of the initial contact between Nova Scotia Trails and the IAT/SIA—we were on our way. To break the twelve-hour drive home, we checked out those 350 million-year old ferns at Joggins Beach. And keeping the drivers awake there and back, we counted forty-two species of bird over the course of the trip!
Attached to this report are the following documents:
- Order of Good Time Certificate
- History of the Order of Good Times
- Cape Breton Newspaper Heading
- Cape Breton News Story
Photos:
- AGM Attendees
- Nova Scotia Flag
- AGM Banquet
- Dick Anderson
- Louisborg Breadmaker
- Louisborg Troubador
- Ellen Wilcox
- Torrey & Jennifer Sylvester
- Greg and Arnie
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