Explorations--A Trail, Two Waterfalls, Three Ferries

Tuesday, May 22, 2018--Moncton to Fredericton

Today was one that I've looked forward to experiencing during the whole trip.  It had two major components--driving the Fundy Trail Parkway and also driving the Lower St. John River Scenic Drive. 

We had to leave Moncton early because of the length of time the activities would take.  It took 3 hours to reach St. Martins, a former shipbuilding quaint old town with a small port and a couple of old covered bridges as well as the beginning of the Fundy Trail Parkway.  From its start there, it wanders up the Fundy Bay coast covering the largest section of natural coastal landscape between Florida and Labrador.  There is a fee for the drive which is associated with the nearby Fundy National Park.  Along the route are many pull offs/lookouts,  hiking trails, and natural features to see.  We stopped many times to see views up and down the coast.  And we stopped three times to take hikes.  Two of the hikes went through the woods near creeks and brought us to waterfalls.  The trails themselves were so soft from years and years of fir tree needles which had fallen.  Some points were quite steep, so they had unique "cable stairs" at points.  These were steps of wood held in the air slightly above the ground by cables; think of it as an angled ladder that wobbles like a suspension bridge.  On every trail, we were completely alone; we never met anyone!  On our last hike, a sign said the trail was closed but also said that persons going beyond that point did so at their own risk.  We took the risk.  It wasn't marked as well as the other trails, but we wanted to see the gorge and another waterfall.  We never found them, and we had to really concentrate to find our way back out of the woods, but it was exciting and fun.

Driving the trail with all our stops and hikes took about 3 1/2 hours, so it was already early afternoon before we headed up the Lower St. John River Scenic Drive.  It consists of narrow 2-lane highways following the sides of the St. John River that were the main route along that way before the expressways were built.  There are a series of cable ferries (small ferries that carry 6-9 cars and pull themselves from side to side via a metal cable strung from one side of the river to the other). 

It was fascinating driving the route.  The river is wide, and many people live along it.  The sad thing is that there was major flooding on the river a month ago.  The motel where we stayed in St. John two weeks ago was filled with food refuges waiting to be able to return to their homes.  Today, almost every home on the first part of the route we drove had piles of debris stacked outside--sofas, chairs, mattresses, wall boards, flooring, etc.--they were having to replace because of the floods.

The route we followed was Hwy 119 to the Gondola Point Ferry, Hwy 845 to Kingston followed by Hwy 850 to the Belleisle Bay Ferry, Hwy 124 to the Evandale Ferry, and Hwy 102 through Gagetown to Oromocto where our Days Inn where we are staying is located.  It's a very pleasant trip that is threatened by the possibility that the ferries may be discontinued.  One at Gagetown already is gone. 

We are actually just outside the capital city of New Brunswick, Fredericton, for the night.  We drove into town tonight to eat.  While there, we walked through the downtown area which is active with citizens and university students--partying, attending concerts, etc.  We drove through two adjacent campuses--the University of New Brunswick and the University of St. Thomas.  The city is small, but it is a nice and pretty one.  Because we were tired from the long day, we then retreated to our hotel to relax until bedtime.