A picnic in Kejimkujik. Photo courtesy Parks Canada

If the early bookings are any indication, it’s going to be a busy year at Kejimkujik.

Almost 10,000 campers raced to book their favourite spots at the National Park and Historic Site when the online reservation system opened on March 31, a nine percent increase over last year.

The feat is more remarkable considering Parks Canada rolled out a new online booking system this year, requiring all users to create new accounts.

Visitor Experience Manager at Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site Sophie Borcoman says Keji is consistently one of the most popular parks in Canada.

“Kejimkujik, every year we have such a loyal fan base of 85 percent repeat visitation who come back year after year, multiple generations,” said Borcoman. “And we’ve for, between Jasper and Banff, as being the most popular site.”

The park, which straddles Queens and Annapolis Counties features a variety of sites for tents trailers and RVs, located near services and washrooms, or in the backcountry, far away from anyone.

In recent years, many roofed accommodations have been added including rustic cabins, oTENTiks and Oasis all within an easy walk of inclusive washrooms.

The washrooms were completely renovated just two years ago to provide a toilet and sink behind a private door in the washroom facilities and private individual showers, making them more inclusive and eliminating the need for traditional separate male and female facilities.

Borcoman says despite the large number of bookings there are still lots of sites available between the May long weekend and the end of October when the park closes.

In fact, the park is offering a new service that will make it easier to book last minute.

Every Tuesday, staff will post how many sites are available in the coming week on their Facebook page, listing unbooked sites as well as any last-minute cancellations.

Borcoman says staff at Kejimkujik are constantly looking for ways to highlight the attributes of the park and historic site and encourages people to visit their web page for dates and times of several special events taking place including an ultra-marathon and the dark-sky weekend.

Kejimkujik also hosts many interpretive programs honouring the Mi’kmaw, the First People of the area.

Visitors can take a guided petroglyph tour, visit a Mi’kmaw encampment or watch and talk to master-builder Todd Labrador as he builds birchbark canoes.

Kejimkujik will open for camping May 19.

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Ginette Petitpas Taylor at Queens Place in Liverpool February 24, 2022 to announce $2.4 million in ACOA funding for South Shore. Photo Ed Halverson

The Government of Canada has spent over $2.4 million on 23 projects across the South Shore that will benefit communities while helping kickstart an economic recovery from COVID.

Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the Minister responsible for ACOA was at Queens Place in Liverpool on Thursday to announce the list of recipients.

Queens saw funding for several projects including: $100,000 to Autism Nova Scotia and Region of Queens for the universally designed playpark, $79,462 for efficiency upgrades to the Liverpool Curling Club, $77,073 for safety and accessibility improvements at the Queens County fairgrounds, $53,369 to Medway Community Forest Cooperative to build new trails between Kejimkujik National Park and Annapolis Royal and $100,000 to White Point Beach Resort to build their Oceanfront Treehouse accommodations.

Petitpas Taylor says as pandemic restrictions lift, the projects being funded are really making a difference in their communities.

“The purpose of the projects and the purpose of these investments is really to make sure that people can get out there again and just be amongst people,” said Petitpas Taylor.

She says for some of the community groups the funding is the last piece to get them across the line and meet their goals.

“That’s exciting that you’re able to do that. It may not sound like a huge amount but for the community and for the people that have put this project together, it’s really, it is huge.”

The money comes from two sources, the $500 million Canada Community Revitalization Fund (CCRF) which helps make shared spaces greener, safer, and more accessible; and the half a billion dollars Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) which helps the tourism sector adapt to meet public health requirements while promoting growth.

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One of the test holes at Kejimkujik Seaside. Photo Ed Halverson

Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia are working together to preserve Mi’kmaq heritage before renovations begin at Kejimkujik Seaside Park.

The park has been closed since October 20 to repair infrastructure damage as a result of Hurricane Dorian.

Some trails will be repaired, and others rerouted.

Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, as represented by Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO) along with Boreas Heritage Consultants have planned all aspects of the archaeological dig together to ensure the Mi’kmaq perspective is at the forefront.

KMKNO staff archaeologist Kait MacLean says it’s important to preserve and protect Mi’kmaq heritage.

“One of the ways that we can protect Mi’kmaq heritage is to locate it. We know that Mi’kmaq people were here, we know that Mi’kmaq people would have used this landscape. Being able to protect that heritage before infrastructure goes in is really important to us. The work that we’re doing with Parks Canada allows us to have that Mi’kmaq perspective into how the work is planned and how it is undertaken,” said MacLean.

A 10-person team from Boreas Heritage consultants is digging test holes at five metre intervals along the proposed trails to ensure nothing of significance is being disturbed.

Archaeologists Rebecca Dunham and Kait MacLean at Keji Seaside. Photo Ed Halverson

Parks Canada Terrestrial Archaeologist Rebecca Dunham says construction crews won’t have to wait too long to begin their work.

“Things are moving along pretty quickly. Probably will be another couple of weeks. If something is found though, things change. They’ll be more tested required and that may prolong the actual testing timeline a bit. It will be a few weeks anyway,” said Dunham. “The construction crews will move along as the archaeology is completed. It will be a progressive process.”

MacLean says by working together, Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia have ended up with what she calls, better archaeology.

“Through this process we’ve found sites in areas where Parks [Canada] previously wouldn’t have necessarily thought were high risk areas or would’ve necessarily looked,” said MacLean. “I think that’s a real positive outcome of this, is that we’ve been able to see real achievements from it. We have found sites that previously would’ve been unrecorded. I think that’s a great success.”

Crews will continue to work on the trails through the end of the year.

Keji Seaside is expected to reopen in January.

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One of the many views along the trails at Kejimkujik Seaside Park. Photo Parks Canada

Anyone looking to enjoy the fall colours at Keji Seaside will be sadly disappointed.

Kejimkujik National Park Seaside will be closed starting Wednesday October 20 to repair damage the park suffered during Hurricane Dorian.

Site Superintendent Jonathan Sheppard says extensive trail washouts and coastal erosion from the 2019 storm has forced Parks Canada to close off the Port Joli Head Trail since it hit.

“For us it just really bought into clear picture the challenges that we face with coastal infrastructure in a time of increased, both frequency and also, intensity, of storms,” said Sheppard.

Kejimkujik received just over $1 million dollars in federal funding last year to help rebuild parts of the inland park and the seaside.

Sheppard estimates the number of visitors to Keji Seaside at between 15 and 20 thousand every year.

He says waiting until after the main tourist season had ended to begin work made sense to lessen the impact on visitors.

It also gave the park time to develop a plan that didn’t just rebuild what was already in place but one that also considers the impact climate changes will have on the visitor experience in years to come.

“We’re not just filling the potholes and putting like with like,” said Sheppard. “We are really looking at what it means to build a climate resilient trail network in a coastal area.”

Sheppard says parts of the trail will be moved further inland to avoid erosion, the routing will shift to avoid some hills, making it more accessible and some areas will be reinforced with rock to keep the trail from being washed away by storms.

This is not the first time part of Kejimkujik has been closed for repair in recent years.

Jeremy’s Bay Campground in the inland park was shut for all of 2020 to refresh facilities and infrastructure that had been used since the 1970s.

Sheppard says during that shut-down, Kejimkujik staff learned it was easier and safer to complete large-scale renovations without visitors around.

Sheppard expects work on Keji Seaside to wrap up near the end of December.

Visitors will once again be welcome to walk the trails and explore the coast early in the new year.

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Melissa Labrador with one of her paintings on display at the Astor Theatre. Photo Ed Halverson

An Art exhibit at The Astor Theatre hopes to educate visitors about the need to connect with our natural environment.

Artist and Indigenous Guardian Melissa Labrador calls the show “N’in L’nu”.

“So it’s N’in L’nu which [means] I’m L’nu. L’nu is who we are as Mi’kmaq people and then I did North, South, East and West because regardless of where I am on the earth, I am who I am and that doesn’t change,’ said Labrador.

A self-taught painter whose work is inspired by her relationship with Mother Earth, Labrador said, “A lot of my art focuses on that connection. It incorporates stories and traditions of my ancestors, my family, my people and also things that are important that we pay mind to as our climate is changing and the world that world that we know is changing everyday.”

Labrador says she tries to balance the negative messages of climate change with the positive experience of getting out and connecting of nature.

Some of the paintings on display at the Astor Theatre as part of Melissa Labrador’s N’in L’nu art show. Photo Ed Halverson

Many of the figures in this show are inspired by the petroglyphs found in Kejimkujik and images of whales and stars also feature heavily in the collection.

So much of what is happening in artist’s life goes into their work and Labrador tries to ensure when a piece of art finds its forever home the owner has the best impression.

“With everything that I create, I try to have a positive message there,” said Labrador, “So when the person or persons are taking that piece with them, they will feel that positive energy that went into creating that.”

Labrador’s N’in L’nu art show is on display at the Astor Theatre until the end of August.

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Front country rustic cabin at Kejimkujik National Park. Photo Parks Canada

Campers looking forward to booking their summer excursions in Canada’s national parks will have to wait until spring to do so.

Parks Canada has announced campsite bookings, which normally open in January have been pushed back to April due to COVID-19.

Visitor Experience Manager at Kejimkujik National Park Sophie Borcoman says they want to give campers flexibility in their planning because of the uncertainty around what the pandemic precautions may look like next year.

“This year, across the country, we’re giving visitors the opportunity to make more informed decisions for their vacation plans for 2021 by not opening the reservation system until April,” said Borcoman.

The pandemic has been a bit a boon to Kejimkujik as people looked for ways to get out of the house.

“We had a lot of people coming out, especially from Halifax, who wanted to have an experience outdoors and be outside, and for many of them, it was the first time for them to experience Keji, this summer,” said Borcoman.

That experience looked different this year as Keji’s main camping area, Jeremy’s Bay, was closed for extensive renovations.

Washrooms, wastewater management and water treatment plants and the accompanying infrastructure that had been in place since the 1970s was torn down, dug up and replaced with modern facilities.

Borcoman says because most of the renos were being done outside, their contractors were able to work through the lockdowns and they’re on track to re-open the campground this spring.

New water treatment facility at Kejimkujik. Photo credit Parks Canada

The number of visitors to Keji was about a third of what the park would normally see in the summer season, but Borcoman is impressed that many people came out to enjoy the national park even without facilities.

“The fact that the front-country campground was closed, it didn’t seem to affect the backcountry at all,” said Borcoman. “So we had really good visitation in our backcountry this season. People had lots of space to do their own thing in a socially distanced way.”

Borcoman said the park will close for the winter but the gates will be open and people can still enjoy the trails for hiking, skiing and snowshoeing.

The reservation system will be open for summer bookings at 8:00am Friday, April 23.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

Three generations of the Labrador family paddle the newly finished canoe. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

A gathering of friends and selected media were on hand to watch a master Mi’kmaq canoe builder launch his biggest vessel to date.

Todd Labrador spent the summer at Kejimkujik National Park crafting a 21 and a half foot long birch bark canoe along with his daughter Melissa, her husband Corbin Hart and grandchildren Nakuset and Tepkunaset.

Labrador said the high-sided canoe is three feet wide, and even at 21 feet long, doesn’t come close to those his ancestors built, some of which reached up to 30 feet in length.

“You know they would’ve paddled across the Bay of Fundy, along the Atlantic coast to Prince Edward Island and to Newfoundland in birch bark canoes,” said Labrador.

The canoe has no seats but is built to fit five adults sitting or kneeling low, which helps to keep it stable.

“If you put lots of weight in a canoe it also makes it very stable,” said Labrador. “So this canoe, you know, I always say it will take the mother, the father, the grandparents, the children and a moose.”

It’s that ability to transport a large number of people and supplies along the regions many waterways that made the birch bark canoe the equivalent of the modern day station wagon.

Labrador family members daughter Melissa, grandchildren Tepkunaset and Nakuset and Todd with canoe. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

Building a canoe of this size was a learning experience for Labrador.

While he still used traditional materials such as birch bark, spruce root and cedar, most of which are sourced locally, he needed to learn how to apply heat in just the right way to make the thicker bark bend the way he needed.

Before he took up the craft, Labrador said it was over a hundred years since the last birch bark canoe was made in Kejimkujik.

He has built a dozen canoes ranging in size from two feet up to seven feet. Many of those are in museums or on display on First Nations. He is not sure yet where this canoe will make its home.

“We always say in the end the canoe will end up where it’s meant to be. But I’m going to paddle this canoe as often as I can and eventually it may end up in a museum or a First Nations community,” said Labrador. “That would be really nice if it did, where more people can enjoy it and see what their ancestors did. Maybe bring some good energy into the community that it goes into.”

He has a close connection to Kejimkujik national park having grown up about 20 minutes away on the Wildcat First Nation.

Todd Labrador and his grandson Tepkunaset smudge the canoe before launch. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

“It’s very special. It’s always a very powerful, spiritual feeling when you paddle a birch bark canoe. But to paddle it here where my ancestors were, actually my family for generations going back, they lived here. They would’ve been on the same beach that we’re standing on today. It’s very, very powerful and special,” said Labrador.

He is pleased to be able to share the experience of building canoes with his family so they can continue to carry on the tradition.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson