Travels with haRVy

We were up before the sun to catch the first ferry back to the mainland. In fact, we were the first in line, arriving at the terminal before the gates were even open. Since we’d had a couple of trailer hitch scrapes boarding other ferries, we checked the tides for this one and made sure we crossed when the tide was high so the boarding ramp would be level. This planning worked out well.

Drove to St. John (New Brunswick) to provision, do a bit of business, fill up the diesel tank, and get a Canadian SIM card for my cell phone. It was a bit of a shock to be in a big shopping mall after so much time in the natural world, but it was also nice to have everything we needed all in one place. We even lucked into a healthy lunch spot so I got a relatively rare break from food fixin’.

Once we got everything done we got back on the road heading towards St. Martins on the Bay of Fundy coast. We had a bit of start when we came up on a covered bridge with a sign stating it had just 4 meters clearance. We did some very quick math and decided our 12+ foot height was probably OK, but I go out to watch just in case. We made it with a few inches to spare and I was glad we did because we had gone 50 miles out of our way, on a pretty lousy road, to experience the Fundy Trail Parkway.

Per the brochure, “this magnificent parkway traverses a rugged section of what has been called the only remaining coastal wilderness between Florida and Newfoundland.” The 11 km parkway has a dozen viewpoints and an adjacent hiking/biking trail. I had envisioned riding some of the trail on our bicycles, but it turned out to be much too mountainous and rough for us. It was a delightful 3-hour experience anyway as we took several brief side hikes to view waterfalls, a suspension bridge, geologic formations, and panoramic vistas. At the Salmon River Interpretive Center we learned that William Randolph Hearst once owned a logging and lumber company here as a material source to print his newspapers on. There is even a “cabin-on-steroids” he built that guests with advance reservations can spend the night in for $99. You can’t go there or even see it unless you stay there and I was sort of wishing I had planned that into our itinerary. The natural beauty of this area is striking.

Anyway, we then drove down more terrible roads to set-up camp at the Fundy National Park near Alma. After a very long day, we arrived with just enough time and energy to consume a quick dinner of leftover Grand Manan scallops and hit the sack early.

Partly cloudy. Cool morning to warm afternoon and evening. 223 miles