Day 5 started out similar to most of our weekends, with me getting a free few hours in the morning while the female contingent slept in. This morning worked out especially well, since I got to do some advanced scouting at full low tide, giving me a solid 'before' view of the Bay.
This also allowed for some solo Jeep exploring, which is always fun after driving the Big Truck for 4 days straight.
I was 1 millisecond from driving across that creek, and then I remembered how quickly the tide can change (30-40feet over 6 hours), and thought about the situation I would create for us if I buried the Jeep 25 hours from home with very few recovery options. I decided to do it tomorrow about an hour earlier to make sure the tide was at it's absolute minimum.
Next I found a two track, with no signs about private property or No Trespassing. Assuming New Brunswick isn't full of a bunch of overly zealous gun worshippers like back home (not sure if that's safe assumption or not), I proceeded ahead, and was rewarded with a beautiful beach. It was adorned with a perfectly worded sign declaring it private property, but only restricting camping and stealing. Canadians seem like a reasonable folk.
We would return to this beach later to see the difference in tides, and it was pretty mind blowing. This is where I have successfully avoided attaching a bunch of nerdy tide charts (nice charts guys), graphs, and other supporting data that none of you care about. Just know that it was an internal debate.
After arriving back to a silent campsite, I suggested we head into town for a late breakfast/brunch/lunch. It was met with the most tepid of enthusiasm, but an hour later we were on the road.
The venue of choice was the Octopus Garden Cafe, a quaint little joint with some outdoor seating along a little stream and a lobster roll on the menu. Jackpot.
Fueled up, we headed into the Fundy National Park, our second Canadian National Park after visiting
Pukaskwa back in 2015 on our Lake Superior cirle tour. We decided on a couple of short hikes (both of them are now immediately suspicious when I say that, so I now make sure it comes directly from the park ranger or the park map - my reputation precedes me).
First up, Dickson Falls. A short loop with a waterfall as the main attraction.
Next, Shiphaven - a quick out & back with a covered bridge as the starting point.
Along this hike we found one of our favorite features of these Canadian National Parks - they place these red Adirondack chairs in the most interesting overlooks on randow trails or overlooks. I have a similar photo (on this blog somewhere) from the top of a granite overlook in Pukaskwa, so as soon as Jordan and Kimberly saw them, they made a mad dash to recreate the photo.
From there, we headed back toward the Bay, stopping for a quick photo op at the National Park visitors center.
Now it was time to retrace my steps from earlier this morning and see how the tide has changed. Here are a few before and after shots from similar vantage points. As always, photos don't do it justice, but having a 12+ meter difference in water levels in a 6 hour period is pretty jarring to see in person.
Cape Enrage beach (yes, it's real. And yes, Kimberly wants a pic by the sign in the worst way..._)
The private property beach from earlier
While we were back at this beach, the water was finally close enough for us to skip some of these perfectly formed rocks, a favorite pastime of ours.
At this point, we decided to do one last recon to the Hopewell Rocks before stopping for dinner. We were right on the edge of being done for the day or knocking out one more hike. I may or may not have been in favor of one more hike, so we headed for Hopewell. These 'flowerpot' rock formations are pretty iconic images in the Bay of Fundy promotional material, so we were a little hesitant about how touristy they would be.
Between us girls, it was pretty touristy. It was a Canadian Provincial Park (equivalent of a state park back home), so not only did we have to pay, but there were paths for the herds, including a disney-style shuttle, so those pics don't completely convey the amount of oblivious and self centered people we encountered. It was a stark contrast to the entire rest of the day we had experienced. I will now stop telling you to get off my lawn and refrain from blaming everything on TikTok and Instagram.
We then decided to hightail it back to town, grab some dinner and retire to the campsite. The remainder of our trip is a bit up in the air, as we are deciding where to go once our time is up in Bay of Fundy. As we were discussing dinner plans while ripping through the Canadian countryside, we noticed things got very quiet where they would normally be filled with jibber jabber.
We grabbed a quick dinner in town, stopped at
Holy Whale Brewing Co for a couple of takeout beers to power this blog entry, and called it a night.
Cheers!
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