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check the weather in East
Kemptville
From the backwoods of the Tobeatic Wilderness, Trout Point
offers serenity & comfort without pretension, yet lies close enough to
various coastal areas and beaches to fill days with glorious exploration.
Stillness and the enjoyment of nature are the essence of the Trout Point Lodge
guest experience. The Great Lodge and surrounding grounds offer plenty of space
to sit, converse with others, curl up with a book, or simply take in the beauty
of nature. After parking your car upon arrival, you will find no other motorized
vehicles on land or water at Trout Point or in the adjoining Tobeatic Wilderness Area.
Each day will
be as active or still as you desire. Hear the Tusket River rapids from your room
as you recline in hand-made Acadian log & twig furniture. Outdoor recreation
beckons, including river & lake swimming, canoeing, kayaking, mountain
bikes, & catch-and-release fishing. Hike the woodland trails of our 100 acre
estate & the adjoining public wilderness, which has rugged,
wilderness-standard trails for either guided hikes or venturing on your own with
the Lodge's GPS units in hand. At the convergence of the Tusket & Napier
Rivers, the Lodge borders the last pristine nature area in Nova Scotia. You may
see bear, turtles, flying squirels, grouse, deer, beaver, owls, loons, eagles,
and if you're in luck, moose (5 sightings in the 2008 season). Relax, stroll a
nature path, soak in the cedar hot tub by the river, or simply read a book on the porch.
"Trout
Point Lodge is a place to nestle."
Millie Ball, travel editor, New
Orleans Times-Picayune
Wilderness Paradise: The
Tobeatic
Spanning parts
of 5 counties, the Tobeatic Wilderness Area remains the largest wild area in the
Maritimes. Unique barren and semi-barren landscapes with outstanding undisturbed
glacial landforms characterize the area, including esker fields, moraines,
kettles and outwash plains. It protects remote and undisturbed wildlife habitat,
protects expansive wetlands, pockets of old-growth pine and hemlock forest, and
the headwaters of 9 major river systems flowing to both the Atlantic and Fundy
coasts.
Taken together with the
neighbouring Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site the Tobeatic Wilderness
Area forms the central core of an expansive protected landscape within interior
southwestern Nova Scotia.The Tobeatic Wilderness Area contributes significantly
biodiversity protection in Nova Scotia. An historic refuge for wildlife, today the Tobeatic Wilderness Area protects native biodiversity, with
undisturbed wildlife habitat for many species, including a small but
provincially significant remnant native Nova Scotia moose population, healthy
and abundant black bear, and a re-introduced population of American marten.
"Into the Tobeatic" Guide
Tobeatic Map
The Tobeatic is a storied
region of the province known best for its moose herd, trout streams, and rugged
canoe routes through rocky lakes and wild rivers. These routes, first traveled
by Mi'kmaq, supported a world-class "sportman's" guiding tradition through the
late 19th and early 20th
century.
A Brief History of the Tobeatic by Andy Smith
In the late 1930s, Chief Sanctuary Warden, Chester Gray of Kemptville, Yarmouth Co., led Burton Spiller, a writer for the American magazine Field & Stream, on a 10-day fishing trip into the newly created Tobeatic Game Sanctuary. In his account of the trip, Spiller described portaging his canoe in the area of Siskech Lake:
"I was struggling along . . . when I suddenly heard a great organ playing. The sound came from somewhere before me and I went on eagerly, for organ music has a strange power to stir my soul. Presently I found myself in a great cathedral. Towering hemlock trunks rose all around me, stretching upward of fifty - sixty - seventy feet to where the lofty and interwoven branches barred the sunlight. Among these branches the winds stirred, and the effect was one of celestial music. Soft, resonant, deep, it sang of a time when God walked in the cool of the forest. Then as the wind played upon muted pipes, the chorus rose, full, swelling, triumphant, a mighty diapason of sound that held me breathless." [Burton L. Spiller, Fishin' Around, New York: Winchester Press, 1974, p. 53.]
What Spiller described was a remnant of what the Mi'kmaq
called "Tupsie'katik," or "place of the alder, known today as "the
Tobeatic." more
Canoe, Kayak, Fish, Bike, & Hike the Tusket &
Napier Rivers
Daily canoe and kayak outfitting and guided tours with one
of our on-staff naturalists can be arranged. Just ask.
The Tusket River system is
the most significant watershed in the area, flowing through boreal, Acadian
forest, eskers, multitudinous lakes, barrens, & bogs. The area forms a
veritable playground for paddling and swimming, celebrated in books like The
Tent Dwellers and Paddling the Tobeatic.
Trout Point is an ecologically minded guest lodge where our
guests can enjoy this incredible ecosystem without disturbing it. Relax in an
outdoor wood-fired hot tub or cedar barrel sauna as the Tusket River rushes near
by. Forage for wild mushrooms and then cook them up in our teaching kitchen. Or
take a leisurely nature walk, a strenuous hike, canoe towards the Atlantic
ocean, or perch on a granite boulder to read a book.
"Then away to the heart of the
deep unknown, where the trout and the wild moose are. Where the fire burns
bright, and the tents gleam white, under the northern star" (Albert Bigelow
Paine, The Tent Dwellers, 1908). I had long dreamed of staying in a log cabin in
the backwoods of North America, Jack London-style, idling my days away flicking
out a fly in search of brook trout. The Tusket River lies in the Tobeatic
wilderness: deep, deep forest and home to black bear as well as moose. Take a
guide - you do not want to get lost here. Accommodation is modelled on the great
hunting lodges of the turn of the century - huge spruce logs and chiselled
granite. Andy Pietrasik, travel editor of the London
Guardian
At Left: The Southern Nova Scotia Biosphere
Reserve
Trout Point offers
guests the following activities and services:
Cooking lessons
Guided hiking and kayak trips
Guided fishing excursions
On-site catch-and-release fishing
Canoes and kayaks
Mountain bikes for short journeys on the country roads
In-room Massage
Nature trails and hiking trails in the Tobeatic Wilderness
Lake & river swimming, including a
defined Tusket River lap "pool" and floating dock
