Moominmama in Kejimkujik National Park

Of baby turtles and petroglyphs...

The first morning after Moominmama arrived in Kejimkujik National Park in southwestern Nova Scotia, calm waters on Jeremy's Bay off Lake Kejimkujik invited her to break out her folding kayak.

Clear, calm mornings have proved ideal for exploring by boat, which is how the Mi'kmaq traveled here for thousands of years. In addition to being a national park, this is a historic site because it has been a crossroads for First Nation's people traveling between the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic and this large interior lake. 

The smaller lakes and rivers, combined with a couple portage points make it possible to travel across the land from the bay to the open Atlantic. It's also interesting for being different when it comes to foliage. On the coast are wind-battered spruce. Here inland it's white pine, beech and lots of birch.

Petroglyphs can be found on certain rocks that jut into the water. One has four compass points and an arrow pointing toward the route to the Atlantic. Others features drawings, possibly warnings, of the boats of the white men on the ocean, a symbol of a missionary and a detailed drawing of what's believed to be a caribou.

Some of these petroglyphs are clearly representational, not symbolic like the ones I've seen in the southwest or western U.S. which typically appear on cliff faces.

Here, the images are designed to be seen by canoers passing through, and they include images of Europeans ships with the sails, the cannon portals and the rigging. But my favorite was this caribou with the big rack of antlers. It's believed to be a caribou because white-tailed deer are not native to the area and weren't found in Nova Scotia until the late 19th century. While it's hard to date these petroglyphs, they're believed to range from 200-800 years old.

One petroglyph appears to remind canoers of the importance of the North Star for navigation. Another shows a canoe that the Mi'kmaq rigged with a sail of their own, inspired by Europeans. Our Mi'kmaq guide says these petroglyphs show the history of his people in Kejimkujik as their lives changed. 

Europeans made their marks on these rocks as well. The year 1877 is carved in several locations, the work of one man who did charcoal rubbings of the petroglyphs and carved the year he made the rubbings beside each one.

But there are names and initials, basically grafitti, from more modern times that make it hard to see the underlying images in some cases. Hiking boots and metal canoes pulled up on the rocks have also scuffed the images over time.

The area I saw is off limits now to visitors unless they've signed up for a tour. When we walked out on the rocks, we were required to go barefoot. The location of three other petroglyph sites are not shared. 

Ultimately, water will erode the petroglyphs which have been carved on relatively soft slate, according to our Mi'kmaq guides, Jonathan and Lisa. Molds help preserve the record, and he showed us one mold taken of a petroglyph showing two men in a birch bark canoe.

Moominmama had hoped to see a demonstration of birch bark canoe building by another Mi'kmaq guide, but that program was cancelled due to a family emergency. Still, I was grateful to have my own humble, plastic kayak to get out on the water to see it as the Mi'kmaq had done.

It was when I was out that first morning that I crossed paths with two volunteers who invited me to join them as they visited several nests where Blanding's turtles were expected to hatch. The turtles are endangered in Canada and qualify for special protection.

In May and June, my friendly volunteers, an older couple, spent time on the rocky, sandy shore where the turtles traditionally lay their eggs. The humans watch closely, and after the turtles dig a nest, lay eggs and cover it up with rocks (a process that takes a couple hours), the volunteers tie an orange ribbon at the top and alert parks services to the location

Parks service people then bring a wood rack with a metal grate to lay over the the top to prevent raccoons from digging up the eggs before they hatch. In early September, the volunteers return to see if there are baby turtles who've appeared under the protective rack. On the day I was there, we found two or three in each of five nests! More will likely hatch in the coming days.

Once the parks services people comes by, they will weigh and measure each one, marking its shell to indicate the mother turtle. Then the turtles will be freed to leave the rocky shore and find an inland swamp, where they will stay for two years before they move to the lake itself. 

It will be at least 15-20 years before any will be ready to lay their own eggs. And hopefully another volunteer will be there to watch and protect them! One of the unique markers of a Blanding's turtle is its yellow undershell, which you can see a bit better in this photo.

This was a completely unexpected field trip for Moominmama and a delightful one. Unfortunately, the wind began to pick up in Jeremy's Bay, and my kayak is not made for choppy water. I returned home while my friends visited a couple more turtle hatching grounds.

Moominmama did a bit more hiking around the area in the days that followed, but my stay in Keji wasn't a long one. As I write this, I've left Nova Scotia and crossed by ferry back to New Brunswick. I'll be back in New Hampshire in a couple days. Looking forward to seeing many of my friends in person! I leave you with a photo of the Mersey River, which extends all the way from the Bay of Fundy to the lake and was one of the major highways for travelers long ago.