Hirtle’s Beach

Long view of Hirtles Beach

Hirtle’s Beach, south of Lunenburg, is a popular destination year round for local residents, though it is less known to tourists than Rissers Beach or Crescent Beach.

It’s one of those beaches where the sand gets washed away for the winter and returns for the summer – soft beige sand deep enough to bury your brother in.

Fun in the sand

The waves can be big enough for fun body surfing. This is the North Atlantic and the water tends to be cold, but once in a while, warmer ocean currents will come by and surprise you. Not that these teenagers care that much.

body surfing in ocean waves

At the far end of Hirtle’s Beach is a wonderful hiking trail around Gaff Point.

Here’s some more scenery of Hirtle’s Beach featuring my brother and his dogs, Nixxy and Jake. These are Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers – yes, it’s an official breed. They are smart and fast, great agility dogs – these dogs have lots of ribbons at home.

Walking on thick ice

Making landfal
Making landfall on the island

Across from the tidal inlet near our house is a small island which is a symbolic destination for us, depending on the time of year. We celebrate spring, and the ice breaking up, by canoeing to it. In winter, if the ice is thick enough, we walk or skate to it. Today the ice was over 6 inches thick, the required minimum, and we walked there.

Scotian Hiker

A fun new site about hiking in Nova Scotia has just been launched by Don Crowell of Kentville.  He has videos, screensavers, high-resolution photos you can download and print, contests, a blog describing his adventures, etc.  Like me, he obviously loves living in Nova Scotia and getting close to nature, and he’s done a good job with his website. Check it out.