Mischievous Moonshine: Return To Desolation Sound 2011

Have moonshine will travel... from PEI to BC

You may recall, just a couple of months ago, I visited Calgary for a book event. There I was greeted by James, originally from Prince Edward Island, who had read Adventures in Solitude and took note of the many pioneering stories within that involved guzzling illegal moonshine. Seems this is still a tried and true tradition on PEI, and so James brought me a sample, disguised in a plastic Smart Water bottle, some 4,000 kilometres from PEI to Alberta.

At the book reading, I promised him I’d smuggle the moonshine the rest of the way, over the Rockies and down to the Pacific, into Desolation Sound. This past weekend I was able to do just that, as I set foot in the Sound for the first time in 2011. I swung by Lund and had lunch at Nancy’s Bakery, then picked up a cold six pack at the Lund General Store, then hopped into Big Buck$ and motored to the cabin.

It was awesome to be back up in the Sound… the weather was a mix of gorgeous and treacherous… spectacular, warm and sunny on Saturday but so bad on Sunday that it was all I could do just to get out of there before the storm trapped me. I saw eagles and mergansers and ravens and a very curious river otter, who was swimming along the rocks and stuck its head out right in front of me, eyeball to eyeball, before diving under.

And yes, I sampled the moonshine… on the rocks, literally. After that things become a little foggy… but I filmed it, and I’ll post that soon. Thanks James and the moonshiners of Watervale, PEI! You can check out more photos here from the first weekend back.

Hope to see you in Winnipeg this weekend!