Shubenacadie River; Virtual Reward 2.0 Virtual Cache

The Shubenacadie River is Nova Scotia's wildest, with headwaters and tributaries extending throughout the heart of the Nova Scotian peninsula. The Shubenacadie River meanders 72 kilometres (45 miles) from Grand Lake to the historic seaport village of Maitland on Cobequid Bay, where it enters the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy.

Twice a day, the Bay of Fundy’s famously high tides create a powerful tidal bore in the northern portion of the river. As the tide swells, water enters and surges up the river, sometimes reaching 12 km/h (7 mph) and up to 3.4 m (11 ft) in height. The lower 30 km of the river, from the point where the Stewiacke River empties into the Shubenacadie is tidal. Not every river on the Bay of Fundy has a tidal bore but one of the largest and most powerful is on the Shubenacadie river.

At low tide the river is lazy with magnificent sandbars, mudflats, old Acadian dykelands, and forests. At times the river is banked by cliffs towering 200 feet. Sand bars are numerous in the area, and the movement of the tides often makes the water turbulent and hard to predict. Often between seasons the sand bars can shift or move from the river action.

The river is home to a variety of fish and other wildlife. Its population of striped bass makes the area popular among anglers, and bald eagles are known to nest in the trees along the river. Other species of fish that can be found in the river include American shad, brook trout, Atlantic tomcod, and blueback herring.

The Shubenacadie River’s tidal bores are widely enjoyed today. Several lookoff spots on both sides of the river offer amazing views of the powerful waters, and a number of companies in the area offer tidal bore rafting, which involves riding the waves up the river on high-powered zodiacs.

The Mi’kmaq called their territory Mi’kma’ki and divided it into seven districts. The central district of what is now Nova Scotia, covering a wide swath of land from Halifax Harbour to Truro and beyond, was called Sipekne’katik, meaning “where the groundnuts grow”. The groundnut (Apios americana) was a staple food source for the Mi’kmaq in the area. When French settlers arrived in the 1600s, they transcribed Sipekne’katik as “Shubenacadie”, with this corrupted name appearing in print as early as 1689.

The Mi’kmaq have traversed the Shubenacadie River and the lakes to its south as a major transport route since time immemorial. This vital water highway served as the main route between their summer camps on the shores of Halifax and Dartmouth and their winter camps in Nova Scotia’s forested interior.

To log this virtual you must:

1 - Take a picture of your gps, or trackable or a piece of paper with the geocacher’s username with the river in the background.

2 – How wide is the river at this point?

3 – What is the major feature in the river at this park?

4 – Is the river tidal at this point?

Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.