Photo by Sheena Masson

After many trips to the Lahave Islands, paddling and camping, the one last year had a few new surprises. Our group of three chose Cape Lahave Island for a three day September trip. The fire ban was still on so no fires or going in the woods. 

The Lahave Islands  – about 16 in all – are a paddlers dream with sand beaches, colourful old homes and numerous channels to explore. No doubt many CKNS members have been there. Cape LaHave Island (by far the biggest at 2608 acres) is one of the Nova Scotia’s largest remaining undeveloped islands. It is named after Cap de la Hève in France, the departure port for an early expedition in 1604.

The island remained common land with no settlement. Shaped roughly like a horse shoe, it has sand beaches backed by dunes, softwood forests, marshes and long rock ridges. Last year, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust agreed to a conservation easement to protect the islands. Good news for all the wildlife and paddlers. To learn more, check out the Nature Trust web site at nsnt.ca.

Now back to our trip. We camped on a beach on the west side of the island, a short paddle from our launch site at the government wharf.  After setting up camp, we paddled off to explore the shoreline up to Macleod Cove.

You can just see our tents lower middle. Photo by Dan Hutt. 

That evening the mosquitos were out but manageable. We watched a slow sunset and went off to bed. A few hours later, we woke up to howling and yipping quite close by. I love hearing coyotes sing and this was a first for me on the Lahaves. In the morning, tracks were all around our tents. 

The next day, I wanted to show my fellow paddlers Cape Bay Beach, a kilometer long wide beach backed by big dunes. We dragged our boats over the sand bar into the Creek not wasting any time. Last summer was exceptionally dry, perfect conditions for late summer “salt water “ mosquitos and they had found us. 

Rare cliffs at the entrance to the Creek. Photo Dan Hutt

We paddled up the inside of the “horse shoe” to the back side of the dunes and thrashed our way through the bushes to the big beach, lunch in hand. We were quickly swarmed by hordes of mosquitos. Another first for me after decades of visiting these islands. ( I don’t want to discourage anyone –  it was the dry summer). We forgot about lunch and wandered up and down the sand hoping to catch a breeze.

We found many tracks somewhat hard to identify in the soft sand. Other animals trying to avoid the bugs? One was huge and we all wondered if it was a moose though I have never seen a moose on any offshore islands. 

Back at our kayaks, we paddled off into the wide bay expecting some relief. But no matter how fast we paddled, the swarms stayed with us. Paddle swat paddle swat. We finally got back to camp and reluctantly decided that one night was enough. Still an excellent trip and wonderful to see wild Cape Lahave again.