Mira River South of Victoria Bridge

North of MacArthurs Lake, the Grand Mira North Road passes by the Figure of Eight Lake (also called Campbell Lake on the Nova Scotia Groundwater Interactive Map). I have no photos of this lake as, except for two points, doubtless shrouded from view by trees along the road, the road lies somewhat west of the lake. This lake, however, is certainly the source of the Mira River. Roughly 1.6 km (1 mi) south of Victoria Bridge, the outlet of the Figure of Eight Lake, joined by another stream coming down from an unnamed pond in the hills above, widens into the waters that are from then on the Mira River, though the topographical map labels them as MacMullins Lake (not connected to MacMullin Lake further south). I have no photo at this point, as the Grand Mira Road North road does not pass near by; however, MacEachern Road, which runs into Grand Mira Road North 2.1 km (1.3 mi) south of Victoria Bridge, which I saw but did not take, does pass by this uppermost part of the Mira. Fed by brooks from the adjacent hills, the terrain soon forces these waters through a narrow passage over a short distance but then falls back to form the wide river one sees in this view, which the topographical map labels as Walkers Lake, taken from the road south of Victoria Bridge and looking to the south. So, almost from its outset, the Mira is no mere stream, but already quite wide as it starts its journey to the sea.

Even so early in its flow, houses and summer homes are already present, though the evidence is hard to see in this reduced view. At the far right of the photo on the farther shore, one can (barely) see a boat dock in the water; there is a house nearby outside the scope of the photo. Another house is near the green lawn one sees at the centre right of the photo on the far shore. If memory serves, there are a couple more along this stretch of the road. One can surely see why such a beautiful place would attract people to spend time there! And on this beautiful spring day, when one might expect to be attacked by black flies or mosquitoes, there wasn’t an insect around.