Card Lake Signage

I was excited to find this lake, as I packed up and headed down Highway #14 towards Chester. Starting at the Windsor entrance to Highway #14, Card Lake is about 32kms in. Don’t blink though when you’re near, because you might miss the weather beaten signage indicting you’ve arrived at your destination. I entered the park and drove into the campsite looking for the boat launch, but this only looped me back to the campsite entrance. Leaving, I turned right and this brought me to the boat launch.

Card Lake Boat Launch

This wasn’t an easy space to maneuver. The dirt road is narrow and the small spot for parking is for both hikers and boaters, not leaving a lot of room for boat trailers. I was fortunate this day, including myself there were three vehicles taking almost all the parking space. At the water, the launch site is tight, with a lot of rocks that I wasn’t comfortable moving my trailer over. I had to put my Jeep in 4 wheel drive to prevent getting stuck while maneuvering the tight space. It was a slow and steady success.

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Launching

Winds were noticeable, and into my face as I started out. Without a chart, I decided to handrail the left shore of Card Lake, to see if that would bring me to what looked to be a beautiful beach across the cove.

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Bald Eagles

As I pushed off, I immediately noticed a bald eagle noticing me as the magnificent bird took flight from a nearby tree. Soon, way above it, I could see another circling overhead. My iPhone takes pretty good pictures, but it’s no Canon camera! The brown dot in the sky is the eagle who took flight from the nearby tree.

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Loon Sounds

As I came to the entrance of the inlet, to make my left turn along the shoreline, I noticed a loon looking at me, who then started making sounds as we distanced ourselves from each other.

Sights Along the Way

I immediately came across a small beach, but didn’t stop as I had my eye on the one across the cove. Further along were two houses. One was noticeable by its float plane garage, the other very small and private, almost blending into the trees.

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The Beach

This was exciting as I approached the beach I had noticed from the boat launch! It was as nice as I hoped it would be! The water was so warm and clear. The sand was this curious pebble mixture, easy to walk on but more comfortable with water shoes. There was little trace of human interaction, except one fire pit that looked relatively new. I took a screen shot of my location as I walked to a point behind the beach. Here, wind and water funneled into the cove bringing two kayakers past me at a good speed as they headed across the cove, back to the boat launch.

Again, there was very little trace of human interaction on the beach. The only garbage was a glass pop bottle fashioned from a few years ago that I collected to put in the garbage. Cell phone reception was good, as I was able to FaceTime my husband to show him this little gem of a beach I discovered!

After I explored the area, I settled down to relax on the beach. It was so peaceful as I watched the clouds overhead and listened to the wind as it whistled through the trees.

Winds were significant. I was in a sheltered area, and looking out beyond the beach, I was tentative to go any further on my own. Here, in the safety of this cove – with the float plane garage across the way where I could hear someone working, I felt I had reached my adventure limit for the day. I would enjoy returning for another paddle, and exploring further, but I don’t know if the lake is populated or not. So, with high winds being a constant possibility, I’d rather wait and paddle with a friend for more exploring.

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Paddle Back to the Boat Launch

This was a nice and easy surf back to the boat launch as the wind and waves brought me in. Along the way, thick clouds rolled in and a loon with their small offspring made an appearance, calling out when they noticed me. Then, soon afterwards, eagles somewhere nearby started calling out to each other. It was magical.

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Loon Sounds

Packing Up

I departed at 1:00pm and arrived back at the boat launch a bit after 4:00pm.

I had a bit of a time getting my Jeep back down and turned around to position as such, to put my boat on the trailer. If you’ve a big truck you will notice the tightness of the boat launch and the number of larger rocks scattered about that make navigating vehicles and trailers, tricky.

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South Canoe Wind Farm

I stopped to take this photo as I left the boat launch. According to the signage, Card Lake boat launch is where you can see “…a portion of the largest wind energy project in Nova Scotia.”

Knowing this, maybe it is always windy at this lake?

S, 🌼

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