We loaded the camper on to the truck on Friday evening so we could take it to the brand new dump station we installed next to the barn. We are still novices at loading the camper so it took us about an hour to get it in place. I say "we", but Brett does the hard part. I just keep an eye out and let him know if he is going to hit anything he isn't supposed to! I suspect that we will get faster at it once we have more practice, but one of the beauties of being retired is that we have the luxury of taking our time.
Saturday, June 7, was the 225th birthday celebration for our new home town of Gouldsboro, so we did not get on the road until Sunday morning. It is about a 4 1/2 to 5 hour drive from our house to Fundy, not including the time it takes to go through Canadian customs. This was our first time taking the camper to Canada, so we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be easy and quick. There was no wait even though there was only one lane open. I guess Sunday morning is a good time to cross, at least between Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. We showed the Customs Agent our passports, told her where we were going and for how long, answered a couple of questions, and we were on our way.
We stopped for lunch in Saint John. It was a bit of a challenge finding a place to park the camper as the one place that was marked on the map as RV parking did not actually allow us to park there. We ended up driving down to the water front and parking in one of the lots for the port. There were a couple of places that we wanted to check out but one of them, a microbrewery called Big Tide Brewing Company, was not open for lunch on Sunday. That made the choice easy, so we ended up at Saint John Ale House. The food was very good and they had a decent selection of Canadian beer.
After lunch we continued heading east toward Fundy National Park. There are two campgrounds in the park - Headquarters and Chignecto. Headquarters has the advantage of being in walking distance of the Visitors Center and the Village of Alma, but the sites were not particularly nice. We ended up in Chignecto in a nicely wooded site which was quite private but still had plenty of clearance for the camper. We got settled just in time to make dinner - which we ate inside because the black flies were plentiful and hungry! We did take a walk around after eating (and after pulling out the bug spray and head net). They have decent WiFi near the entry kiosk and the laundry and kitchen facilities, so we were able to send a message to Drew letting him know we had arrived.
Tuesday was bright and sunny. We started off the morning by taking the camper off the truck. Since we were planning to stay here for several nights, it was worth the effort so we could travel around without worrying about the overhead clearance we need when the camper is on. We then stopped by the Visitors Center where we picked up a hiking trail book for New Brunswick. We also took a quick trip in to Alma hoping to pick up some groceries. They only had very small camping stores which were not well stocked (probably because it is not yet the season for vacationers). We were able to fill the truck up. Fuel is much more expensive in Canada - it was $5.22/gal vs. $3.75 at home.
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| Lighthouse at Cape Enrage |
Since we had gotten a late start, it was time for lunch and we were hoping to find some place to stop along the drive, but nothing we saw was open. We ended up having a late lunch at the Log Cabin Restaurant near the entrance to the Hopewell Rocks Park. It was OK, but nothing special. The advantage to having gotten a late start was the timing was right to see the rocks at low tide. The tides in Bay of Fundy are the largest in the world, so where there is dry beach at low tide, there will be 35-40 feet of water 6 hours later. The low tide was at 4:07pm and the park had an interpretive walk scheduled for 3:00. We arrived just after 2:00 which gave us enough time to walk around the park a bit before heading over to the Flower Pot Rocks to meet up with the tour group.
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Since Hopewell Rocks was more than 1/2 way to Moncton from Fundy NP, we headed there for dinner so we could go to one of the few brewpubs in New Brunswick. We had dinner at Pumphouse Brewery. The beer was good. The pizza was good as well, but not as good as FireWorks in Leesburg. After dinner, it was almost time for the tidal bore to come up the river and we were parked near Tidal Bore Park so we thought we would check it out. We waited about 15 minutes past the time the bore was scheduled to arrive and saw... nothing. I guess the conditions were not right. Oh well...we will try again someday.
We started the drive back to Fundy with a stop at a real grocery store in Riverview.
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| Sunset over the river from grocery store parking lot |
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| Dickson Falls |
After Dickson Falls, it was time for lunch so we drove down to the Herring Cove picnic area. There was a very large, very old apple tree in full bloom. The area had been a farm at one point, the only things remaining are some apple trees and old foundations. We ate our lunch and then walked down the stairs to the beach, returning to the parking area via another set of stairs and a short section of the Coastal Trail. The weather forecast said we would have showers in the afternoon, but so far the day had been been beautiful. As we finished our lunch, we could see that some clouds were starting to move in.
We next headed to Point Wolfe Covered Bridge. The bridge crosses the river where there used to be a dam and very large saw mill. The lumber would be floated down the river to the mill pond and ships would use the high tide to to come up the river to load the lumber the mill produced. The covered bridge was rebuilt in 1992 based on the 1910 design. It was a very pretty site. After visiting the bridge, we drove to the end of the road near the Point Wolfe Campground (which had not yet opened for the season) to the trailhead for the Pointe Wolfe Beach and Coppermine trail. We tried heading down to the beach, but the trail was closed, so Coppermine was it. By this point, the sky was overcast, and it definitely looked like it would rain. We had raingear in our packs, so we decided to head out anyway. This was a bit longer of a hike than we had done earlier in the day - it took us a couple of hours. The trail was a loop that took us through the woods to the remains (mostly just the tailings) of an old copper mine. We started to get a few sprinkle just as we neared the end of the trail, but not enough to get wet. Just as we finished and got in the car to return to camp for supper, it started raining a bit heavier. Good timing! We had a quick and easy dinner of leftovers brought from home and were really glad to be inside listening to the rain. Once again, very grateful we were not tent camping!
It stopped raining during the night and we awoke to beautiful blue skies. Today was another day spent hiking in the park. The morning hike was Caribou Plain Trail which was led out to a peat bog with a pond in the middle.
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| Our lunch spot at Bennett Lake |
For the afternoon hike, we decided to head back down to the Herring Cove area to the Matthews Head Trail. This hike took us past the old Matthews homestead. There were foundations for at least a couple of buildings. It then went on to Matthews Head which had beautiful views of the Bay of Fundy and the village of Alma. We then walked a portion of the Coastal Trail which ran close to the coast with occasional views of the bay including one observation area for a sea stack called Squaw's Cap. We then turned onto a second section of the Matthews Head Trail which took us back to the parking area. The terrain and woods along this walk were really beautiful. This was my favorite of the trails we explored in Fundy.
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| Low tide in Alma |
We then headed back to the campground. We decided we would head home the next day (Thursday) instead of Friday as originally planned. There were a few other hikes were would have liked to do, but since the trails were closed, there was not that much else we wanted to do here. We loaded the camper back on to the truck so we would be able to get out more quickly in the morning. The loading process was made pretty miserable by the extremely large number of black flies. I donned my head net and ended up with several bites on my hands and wrists (which were the only things not covered with clothing or bug spray!). Brett did not do the bug spray or net and was chewed on pretty good.
Our drive home was mostly uneventful. We did learn a bit about carrying fruits and vegetables when going through US Customs. When they ask whether you have any, you need to tell them about everything you are carrying, not just the items purchased in Canada. They checked everything we had in the fridge and confiscated the one apple that I had washed and removed the sticker from (It was purchased in Canada). The ones that still had the stickers on them were OK. They took our word about which items were purchased in Maine vs which were purchased in Canada but if we had a large amount of food, they would prefer that we had a receipt proving that items were purchased in the States. They were much more concerned about the fruit and vegetables - we had also bought pork chops, but they did not seem worried about them at all. In any case, the border patrol folks were very nice and we came away with knowledge that will be helpful for future trips in and out of Canada.
We had an excellent lunch in Milbridge at the new Mexican restaurant and arrived home in the early afternoon. Another fun retirement adventure completed!
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