New Brunswick, Canada June 2024

What were we thinking driving from DC to Maine in one day, on a Friday, no less. Multiple traffic stoppages. The 527 mile trip should have taken 8 hours but instead it took almost 12 hours and we just arrived at the Harvest Host Brewery missing the band and beer for the evening. Luckily the parking area was well marked and very flat so we parked in the rain that had started and slept until 9am when the sun came blaring in. I had spent two of the last three weeks sleeping in a tent on the June Gloom cool coast of California on various cushioning devices for these old bones. Highlights were of course life long learning lessons with the Radlers and seeing my Vista Family and Duke, but also riding on the beach and up close and personal with a hang glider. We did one or two nice weather days.

It is always a nice thing to be in one’s own bed, even if it is like a cave since all our gear is hung about. Vinny is home! We have no other but we are happy. John also says he sleeps the best within Vinny.

Our decision to visit with Jazmine and Tony in Alexandria caused us to have to beeline to Canada as Bay of Fundy National Park reservations are not to be taken lightly. Maine, Acadia and rest of New England will be undertaken on the way back as we do our “Chasing Colors Tour” in the Fall. We made it over the border with a 30 minute wait in line with no issues and into the beautiful green rolling country with no traffic on this Saturday. It always exciting to waking up to a new place when you have arrived to your campground in the dark. The humid 85 degree weather of Virginia went into low 50’s last night when we arrived to the grassy huge tree Headquarters Campground at the Bay of Fundy.

Bay of Fundy NP, New Brunswick Canada

Headquarters Campground

Full HookUps with beautiful huge trees and grass on all sites, very hot nice showers and laundry facilities that may come in handy with the chocolate mud hike in the Bay. A 200 yard zip down into the town where we found our Kayak Tour, general store, restaurants and even the Holy Whale, a church turned brewery. All our needs met. There is a set of steps half-way up the incline that leads right to the Campground so this is really convenient if you want to get out a bit and not walk your bike up the short but steep incline.

Matthews Head at the Bay of Fundy

It’s a kayak tour. When I went looking this was the only afternoon one and double bonus it was going to be sunny too. Matthews Head as seen in this photo of a some Matthew that was a conservationalist and just really well loved person in the town was honored when the people decided to rename this rock trail after him. We landed on the stony beach for a talk and a snack (homemade chocolate chip cookies). The wind was blowing fiercely and the tide was coming in so there were very little photo shooting from the forward kayak position. I had to help keep us going and this was definitely the hardest sustained kayak experience I have had. And coming out from the beach there were waves to boat and luckily the wind had not changed and we blew back to our launch site.

We also learned about Sasha, Amanda’s service dog. Amanda is severely allergic to scents from products and Sasha is trained to sniff people and inform Amanda if they are such perpetrators. Since she has had Sasha and trained her, she has only been in the ER once whereas she was in multiple times per year for extended stays prior. And what a sweet German Shepherd. As with most tours, guides, both two and four legged were delightful.

Matthew Head Trail

We never did see Matthew Head silhouette from the trail above, only from the water when we went kayaking. We must have been standing on his head because we never saw the little flower pot island in the distance from the shore when we kayaked.

This was my favorite trail because it had spots of grass and sun where we saw no moose, but then it got quite cold and misty at the bluff and then there were canopy covered soft dirt and roots with that really green cover to which you could get up close. It was a lovely 2 ½ mile hike and I didn’t even trip on all those roots.

Holy Whale Brewery in Alma

Time for a beer at this church turned Brewery, we also experienced this phenomenon on Vancouver Island.

Luckily they had a Milk Stout and we exchanged phone numbers with Diane and Ed, their adorable dogs Hank and Gus, who were Eagle Fans originally from PA, and now living in Florida. They were out to see all the National Parks and were going to take the ferry to Newfoundland. They had been to 50 National Parks in the last 3 years even though Diane was still teaching. Looking forward to hearing about Newfoundland experience it is really far up there and I heard it rains a lot so decided not to undertake this time. Also we stopped where we had launched, there was a beautiful huge public pool overlooking the Bay of Fundy, but it was not opened yet although it looked perfectly inviting. But good new we found a taxi parked here (Uber Lyft don’t seem to be available). Evidently it a nationwide Canada thing with an App. John has it securely downloaded for when we have cell service and we should take a tumble and need a ride home. We are preparing for everything.

Dickson Falls

This outing began with a bike ride that 1 ½ mile bike ride to the train head. The hills here are a bit high for our quad only powered bikes, I think I will start a thing and call them Q-Bikes. This was one of the first times I really though that an E-Bike would be handy as we had to dismount and push for about 300 yards up a doozie of a hill. I’m sure it took some brake life off these old Q-Bikes on the way down. The most remarkable thing was the bright green moss plant, looked like a mini clover type plant. It really was a stark contrast to the natural colors.

The hike was quite the manicured trail, up wooded steps and the part of the trail to get closer was closed off.

Tipsy Tail Restaurant, Alma

Time to ride back into Alma and try some lobster at the Tipsy Tail. I had a lobster roll which was quite good, but since it is like a tuna salad only with lobster meat, I am not so sure the extra expense of lobster was better than chicken. Definitely better than tuna in my book because it did not have that yucky tuna smell that I refuse to let loose in Vinny.

They had a nice Radler beer that was not so sweet like others we have experienced. But the most notable was this corn on the cob that was grilled then dipped in a curry coating and deep fried with some white queso type drizzling. Now that was something I have never eaten before. Back to the Holy Whale where John was hoping to get a Decaf Coffee as they had a coffee bar their too, but it seems like decaf is not a Canadian thing because they didn’t have it at the Tipsy Tail either. Well didn’t that cup of coffee keep us awake all night.

Moosehorn to Laverty Falls Hike

Some people we had met at Dickson Falls recommended this hike and to make sure and take it counterclockwise if you don’t want the uphill rocky scramble. That means at the trailhead doing the Moosehorn first as it intersects with Laverty. Down, Down over many rocks and tons of roots. The erosion of the water has created several natural swimming holes for a summer cool off. Never tripped but one time while getting down from a higher boulder I did a little butt plant only about a foot boom on the dirt so didn’t even hurt. A six mile hike beautiful hike and we were tired.

Hopewell Rocks

Flower Pots and the milk chocolate sea is the thing that goes on. Here the tide is over 50 feet and the large amount of sea water the ebbs and flows over 6 hours or so stirs up the sandstone dirt that washes back and forth to sea.

Seems like the net effect is dirt out as one can see the erosion from the sea floor at low tide and the expansive milk chocolate water.

This is certainly much more dramatic and beautiful than the erosion when there are no bluffs like in the places like Florida or Louisiana. And then there are places that just won’t erode creating these tiny islands that have trees and vegetation and look like flower pots at low tide.

It is a privately run tourist attraction ($15 a head) and our Canada National Park Pass is no good here. They place a safety rope across many of the bluffs at low tide so you don’t stand right under some falling dirt that could happen or more dramatically a branch or tree that could come crashing to the sea floor while people are wandering.

They are planning on a slow process for this because the tourist facility has a huge parking lot and our June Wednesday seemed to be less than half capacity. The visitor center and restaurant is huge and quite nice with an outdoor deck. Really nice new facilities so hopefully mother nature will keep this economy rolling for many more years. The $15 covers two days so you can come back a second day if you have missed one of the tide times. Certainly an interesting experience. At high tide, there is a kayaking tour that one can take through the chocolate sea. yuck!

Camping at Fundy

The people here are quite nice and yesterday met 2 couples at the group fire pit (no site firepits here). The Bay of Fundy National Park has loads of 2 – 5 mile hikes that are beautiful and suitable for us, but we had to drive to get most trailheads. The town of Alma, although cute with a general store and fuel, is suffering from lack of servers and there are plenty of help wanted signs out. It was nice being able to ride and there or you could take the about 9 flights of steps from Headquarter Campground that put you right near town. Going into restaurants it seems like there are only about 2 servers running around like crazy and the brewery only had one. The pizza place closes at 6pm so make sure to grab one early and take it to the brewery is the plan for next time. Next time we would try the Alma Lobster Shop which was off the main street near the water, but you need to BYOB, so stop at the Holy Whale first. The outdoor porch looked lovely. The bugs in general weren’t too bad except in the evening and Off did the trick. We were able to get decent coverage with our cell booster and evidently the Rec Area at Chignecto Campground has Starlink Wifi. Lake Bennet Campground may be a nice alternative too and would we could paddle there. The Wolfe Campground was closed for the shoulder season, but opened up the day we left. The camping facilities were excellent. We still have found no moose in Canada !! but cute little red squirrel decided he wanted to ride with us

South Kouchibouguac National Park,

Road Bikers paradise with over 60 km of flat gravel paths many tree covered that go in the woods and along the Kouchibouguac River with no cars driving along side for the most part. The paths weave in and out several parking areas where there are bathrooms and usually some type of covered building with a wood stove that would be perfect for a downpour or warming during snow shoeing, cross country skiing and fat-tire biking in the winter months.

Luckily the Canadian summer days are long and we rode right out to Kelly’s beach and saw the most beautiful sky reflecting on the marsh. There is a 200 yd boardwalk that crosses the dunes and gets you to the dunes on the Atlantic Ocean where you walked on the beach.

Beautiful sunset that evening with the many birds and an egret that was just hanging out for hours.

Wow, does that eastern Canadian wood burn really good. Unlike a visit to the woodpile to pick up in the west, we bought plastic wrapped sacks that were water protected and super dry.

The rain was coming in the afternoon so we slipped in a bike ride and walk along the river going more inland with the mosquito population growing too. Off and keep moving is the ticket. The drizzle started just as we got back. The campground is huge and with our cell signal booster we have some decent coverage and I actually streamed a youtube channel about RV travelers in Nova Scotia. It rained pretty much all Sunday and into Monday morning. By afternoon there was clearing and onto the bike path once again. Stopping again to go across the dunes at Kelly Beach for a 1 mile beach walk.

Continuing onto the the Salt Marshes and finally to where there is the best SUP launching spot at Callanders Beach. Yeah the evening was perfect for a fire which seems so rare these days.

The next day we waited several hours at Callanders Beach, St Louis Lagoon, today for the blue sky that was to appear at 5pm.

We had started having faith in the weather reporting because last night, didn’t it say at 9pm the rain would start again, and at 8:57 it did just that ! There was still much June gloom on the ocean all day, but inland the sky has been blue for many hours and we just need to put our patience pants on.

The St Louis Lagoon was very windy and not ideal for 60+ stand up paddlers. So we loaded the blown up paddle boards in the van and went to Major Kollock’s creek where we had a nice paddle down, but it was low tide and we didn’t want to go flipping over into the muddy water upon running aground or into a root, so we turned around after a kilometer.

Headed back out under the bridge to the Lagoon, it was still quite windy and still not pleasant SUP weather. The takeaway is low tide is not optimal for small streams.

The weather has been rather cool and there is no desire to splash around, but paddling is quite pleasant without sun beating down.

We had one last chance to paddle, before the next day of rain that was forecasted, and we had planned to leave. Trying to paddle up the Kouchibouguac River against the wind and tide and waves was tough, although the weather was warmer. We landed on a nice sandy beach less than 200 yards from where we put in. The water was surprisingly warm, but the wind and the waves were getting worse.

It was time to call it quits and do the laundry instead which was conveniently located near where we had parked.

The Kouchibouguac Park is really nice for sunsets, bike riding and the camping spots are huge. Some are wooded, some a few trees and some full sun(not that we saw much of that). We had decided to cut our week stay to five days as we found a brewery enroute to the Kitchenfesting that we were planning for Cape Breton at the end of the week. There are no towns nearby so all must not be forgotten. The goal of riding to a restaurant or brewery was not possible as many paths just went to small mosquito ridden trails. The boardwalk over the marches and onto the dunes to do a beach walk was nice and the sunsets were beautiful.

Although we see a lot of Canadian Park Cars rolling all over the campground, Canoe/Kayak rentals and Snack Bars seem to be closed at least during the week with nor sign saying when they are open. The washrooms were excellent. The mosquitos were particularly bad and it is safe to say I would probably not return to this park again in the summer. Snowshoeing or cross country would be interesting, but I doubt we would ever come to Canada in the winter. Oh well onto Cape Breton, but first a stop at the Giant Lobster

We were heading to Nova Scotia to a Harvest Host called Half Cocked Brewing (the cocked refers to chicken as it used to be a chicken farm).

The owners were extremely nice and the place was dog filled. They had a wonderful stout and the food truck had excellent french fries and burgers. This was the first time we ordered french fries and a long time. They were delicious and better yet the Wi-Fi was excellent for backing up our devices and finishing my blog post. There were several other Harvest hosts camping, and we had a delightful view of the countryside.