Since the summer of 2016, I have been making trips deep into Percival Bay to check-up on the Inverness Nature Reserve owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). As the official steward volunteer, I try to make at least two trips to the property – one in the spring (May/June) and one in late summer (Sep). The property visits are mostly to observe for human disturbances (e.g. garbage dumping, ATVs, lumbering, etc.). Other duties include watching for natural disturbances (e.g. erosion), rare species, invasive species, checking on signage, and dealing with small garbage items.
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| Percival Bay (today's 16 km track) |
There are multiple access points available for a trip to Inverness, but the closest one to the property is Leard Mill Road (i.e. McKie shore). And on June 18th (around 9 am), that's where I launched the MYS15 for a sail up the bay. As usual, the wind was out of the SW, so it was easy to progress up the bay towards Inverness Reserve. After going by the ever-expanding oyster farms, my first stop was on a nice sandy beach on the west side of Percival Bay -- just before Black Point (probably the last sandy beach before the bay's northern end). I had a nice walk on the beach, had a small snack, and snapped a few pics, including one of a broken-up wooden oyster boat.
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 | Sandy beach near Black Point
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 | | Broken-up oyster boat, west shore |
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I set sail again towards the Inverness Reserve on the bay's east side (1.5 km). After a little detour further north to check out the oyster barge anchored in the bay, I came ashore in a small bay at the south end of the reserve. I did my usual walk around while taking a few pics and collecting some small debris items. There were some mosquitoes but not enough to disturb my walk. More risky on the shores of Percival Bay is all the Poison Ivy. On this trip, I surveyed the poison ivy patches and captured the areas with my GPS.
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 | | Abandoned oyster boat (Inverness) |
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 | Poison Ivy
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 | Map of poison ivy in Inverness (red areas)
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Soon it was time to load the garbage collected in the MYS15 and sail back to McKie shore. The return trip was a bit slower, but I got there after a few tacks (around 1 pm). All in all, a great trip! Luckily I didn't have to row since my right shoulder may not have been up to it. My right shoulder was still recovering from a fall while taking the MYS15 out of the workshop a week earlier.
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 | Blue Flag Iris
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| MYS skiff at Inverness Reserve, Percival Bay |
