Scraggy Lake/Fish River in Nova Scotia

Trip Overview

Water was high and fast. We had an awesome trip. Best paddling encountered in Nova Scotia so far, a nice blend of still water to rapid to still water to rapid.

Six of us started at Scraggy Lake, Mooseland Friday night at 5pm. Paddled to mouth of Fish River. Found a beautiful campsite set up tents had nice meals. Back on the water at 8am Saturday morning... rain, hail, etc... Water was about same temperature as air. There were approximately 15 runs of rapids, 20m-400m, into still waters. We ran all rapids except for two sets: in retrospect one of those could have been run. Lots of ledges/drops, rocks, boiling water, deadfalls, etc... But for the intermediate paddler, it was a lot of fun.

Of the 3 canoes, one made it through without any mishaps, one flipped twice, and one flipped 3-4 times. We arrived at Murchyville Rd Bridge at 5:30pm in front of a couple of fisherman who had walked 500m up-river fishing. They were pretty impressed with where we came from... they thought we were "mountain men".

We planned on continuing to Lake Charlotte then Ship Harbor but the heavy rain and cold killed that idea. No gear lost or injuries. All had an awesome time and we are looking forward to canoeing it again.

Accommodations:

A nice campsite at mouth of Fish River.

Outfitting:

2 Polylink-3, 1 fiberglass (don't bring fiberglass or Aluminum on NS rivers)

Fees:

None

Directions:

Head towards Mooseland. Enter the Lake Charlotte/Scott Paper Rd 2km on the Moose River side of Mooseland. Scraggy Lake Rd/Path is on right about 4km in.

Resources:

Topo map