Lawrencetown Beach – Atlantic View Trail

Earlier this week it was so hot that we took an afternoon off and went to the beach. Here on the North East Coast you have to take it when you get it and we decided to take it!

There are several great beaches nearby to where we live that sometimes it’s hard to choose which one to go to. This time we decided to go to the Lawrencetown Beach on Highway 207, the Marine Drive. Usually the temperature at this beach is considerably cooler than here at home and sometimes the fog can roll in quickly but since it was so hot here with such a beautiful blue sky we thought that we would take the chance. We were not disappointed. It was just cool enough to be enjoyable, the surf was rolling and we got to do some Geocaching!

Since we are not the ‘lay on the beach’ type (oh sure, there are times when we’ve been known to rest our weary bones (nap), or to read a book (nap) while protecting our selves from the sun by laying under a beach umbrella (nap)) we decided that today we would walk a section of the Atlantic View Trail. The Atlantic View Trail extends approximately 10kms (6 miles) from the Eastern end of the Salt Marsh Trail and past Lawrencetown Beach, following an old railroad bed. However, today we only walked a small section from the beach to where the trail crosses Highway 207.

We began from the boardwalk near the parking lot and crossed the road to the trail. Although the trail is across the road and below the beach dunes it still picked up enough of a breeze off the ocean to make it a pleasurable walk. There is a bit of forest on the left and the Lawrencetown Lake, a salt and freshwater mix, to the right. There are a couple of benches along the way that offer a place to sit and view the spectacular scenery and wildlife.

Once we reached the end, where the trail crosses the 207, we crossed the highway and turned left, instead of following the trail, and walked about 100 meters and then went off to the right, heading toward the beach. From there we walked along the beach and headed up a steep bluff where a strong breeze was blowing. This route brought us once again back to the boardwalk on the beach. The total distance for this hike was about 7kms (4 miles).

Here are some pictures taken enroute:

In addition to Geocaching at Lawrencetown Beach it is also a popular place for surfing with competitions like the September Storm Classic and kiting where a festival is also held in September. The beach is about 2kms (1.2 miles) long with a mix of sand and rock. Although it still shows the effect of Hurricane Juan the damaged boardwalks are almost all replaced and the sand has almost all returned.

This was a great beach day! We had a great walk, enjoyed the Nova Scotia coastline and picked up a half dozen caches!

Keep on cachin’!