Miscou Island

"It's value to us is in getting there, breathing for a while, feeling the waves, looking at the distant vista that is Gaspe and the Gulf and leaving. Leaving is as important as getting there."

Miscou Island's charm is its remoteness. It's not on the way to anywhere. You have to want to go there.

Miscou Island draws us. Once a year we've made our pilgrimage to New Brunswick's most northeastern point. There have been years when we felt we didn't have the time to go but once on the road north we'd find ourselves at Inkerman, Shippigan, Lameque and then crossing the bridge to Miscou. Now, even when we set out to go somewhere else, we know where we're really going. This year, though, the little island had more pull than usual.

This time we had set out to explore Val Comeau Beach near Tracadie-Sheila, which is about mid-way between our cottage and the island. We weren't up for a long trip since it was the first day of an all too brief holiday and commuting to work had been taking its toll on us, as was being away from each other during the week. Much of the trip would be highway driving, but in my little Echo with the wind blowing loudly in the windows — no air-conditioning — conversation is impossible, so we may as well have been travelling separately. Given all that, Val Comeau seemed a reasonable destination.

Val Comeau's great. It's has a great beach and a picnic spot by the beach that will be our lunch spot from now on whenever we go to Miscou, but halfway through the meal I knew we weren't going to linger here. I knew that we were going to Miscou. I'm sure Elaine did, too. "How far is it to Miscou?" I asked her while we checking out Tracadie later. So we were on our way; as if we ever doubted it; as if we even had a choice. I don't even remember asking her if we were going. We just went.

Sometimes it feels like all roads lead to the lighthouse at Miscou.

What pulls us there? The beaches at Cap-Lumiere, another remote spot, are better. It's not the restaurants. Miscou Lighthouse has only an ice cream stand which wasn't there two years ago and last year didn't even have any ice cream. Locals have started to put some effort into making the area more of a tourist destination, but we got hooked when there was only the lighthouse. What draws us? Elaine says you have to want to go to Miscou and she's right because it's not en route to anywhere you're likely to be heading. But once you're there, once you passed that lighthouse something happens.

Stepping beyond Miscou's lighthouse is like stepping into someplace sacred. Stark, blown clean by the wind, most everything inland from the beach is flat, scrubby bog. It's the edge of the province. Walking past the lighthouse is like walking through a membrane out of my own harried world and into some other state of mind. Most days the surf is serious ocean surf, the wind almost relentless, the beach going on too far for us to reach the end. On a clear day, across the Baie des Chaleurs you can see the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, another province, a whole other world. When you look east you're looking into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And always the wind blows. It's an edge of the world.

To the lighthouse

Getting to Miscou is a relief. The drive isn't easy. You have to really want to get there. But then, at the end, I see the very tall, massive, octagonal shaped, red and white lighthouse. Read more Lighthouse...