CelticCowpokes

Backpacking the Fundy Footpath

Between May 21 and 26th, Kris, Matt and I had our annual backpacking trip, this time heading to the Fundy coast in New Brunswick.  Our goal this year was to hike the Fundy Footpath, a seaside trail that leads you from the St. Martins area to Fundy National Park at Alma, NB. This trip was a special one, as Matt now returned to our hiking group after his repatriation from Central America.  It was the first time we all hiked together since 2003. 

The Fundy Footpath is part of the Fundy Trail Parkway Provincial Park, a relatively newly designated park.  The area is the site of new development and a roadway which is supposedly planned to link the Saint John region with Fundy National Park to increase the tourist traffic to the area.  The Fundy Footpath is a 41km trail (and now vulnerable due to the close proximity of the development), which leads through varying types of forest, landscape and terrain.   For instance, a day's travel could bring you through old growth birch and maple trees, descend into numerous gullies and valleys surrounding rivers, brooks and coves.  You're also treated with views of the surrounding hills, river valleys, beaches and of course, the Bay of Fundy. There are many stream and river crossings, and your boots are wet for the entire trip.  One of the more interesting features of the trip was the need to plan for high tide.  There are two sections of the trail that particularly depend on what time you travel across the river or cove, which are only passable at low tide.  This consideration makes for a neat change in planning and depending on the time of year.  Also, a bonus aspect of the Fundy Footpath are the options for side trips.  Many sections of the main trail have access, lookoff and day trip trails, not to mention there are quite a few waterfalls to visit along the way. See my waterfall site for photos of the ones we visited.  Of note, the 41 kilometre trail doesn't count the 8 kilometres of trail in Fundy National park that leads you to your vehicle. When you're at the end of the Fundy Footpath, you have more travel to your car unless you planned on leaving via zodiac!

As for difficulty, I would have to say the trail is extremely challenging, due in part to the condition of the trail, the choice of route and the frequent changes in elevation.  The days are long and it would be challenge to travel more than 12 kilometers in one day.  In some sections, the trail lacks yearly maintenance and deadfalls are plentiful.  The most difficult section of trail due to deterioration is between Martin Head and Centurion Point.  In this area, the trail has eroded to the point where if additional trees fall or are uprooted, this part will be impassable without a treacherous sidesloping bushwack traverse.  Caution should be taken particularly in this section as a tumble would easily lead to a fall a hundred metres down to the shoreline.

In general, the routing of the overall trail in some sections is also somewhat questionable, as it seems to stay near the shoreline at all costs, including a succession of steep descents and ascents to maintain the route.  During our trip, we took a couple of cut offs to lessen the constant ups and downs, most evidently at Quiddy River.  If you arrive at Quiddy River during low tide, scout ahead to take a route that hugs the east side of the river to go around the peninsula.  It is a beautiful trip up river along the grassy islands that divide it as it flows to Martin Head.

Our trip was mostly as planned. Day 1: we began around 10am, leaving from the west the Big Salmon River interpretive centre.  From there, it was a quick intro to the hills we'd experience for the rest of the following 5 days, as we began our ascents and descents to Tuft Point, around Seely Beach and camping at Cradle Brook. 

Day 2: Was a short day for us, as we planned to hike to Eye of the Needle and the falls beyond it at Little Salmon River. After making the short trip between Cradle Brook and Little Salmon river, we set up camp at the luxurious campground there.  When I say luxurious, I mean in a backcountry way, with a shared-use relaxation chair, brick oven and plywood table! After setting up camp, I headed upriver for the Eye of the Needle.  The Eye is a geologicall formation caused by a river that eroded the ground over time.  At its narrowest point, it is about 4 meters wide and 60-100 metres high. From the Eye, I continued further on to reach Walton Glen Brook Falls, which were spectacular.  After backpacking for the morning and spending the afternoon on a day trip, we were quite tuckered out by the evening.

Day 3: With wet feet, we had an epic day, traveling from Little Salmon River to Brandy Brook, a resulting in 13 hour day.  Our concern was that as the tides were high during the middle of the day, we wanted to put ourselves in good position for days 4 and 5, which depended on an early crossing of Goose Creek and Goose River. It has just happened that our long day ended with the  most difficult section between Martin Head and Brandy Brook.  I barely was able to take a photo of Brandy   Falls before colapsing into bed just after dark. 

Day 4: We rose early to hike the hour and a half to Goose Creek, where we had our much earned breakfast after crossing the cove at low tide.  There were lots of old wooden structures there, which seemed to be the remnants of docks, dams and a loading area.  At one time, there must have been a small inlet community there.  The rest of the day our travel was slow, as we were still feeling the previous long day of hiking.  We did however reach Goose River with some time for an afternoon nap, only interrupted by a thunderstorm and subsequent downpour. 

Day 5: This day was a true denouement and only 2 hours of travel along a grassy cartpath.  It was almost relaxing to finish on such a trail, as for the past 4 days, we were used to a narrow trail, necessitating careful one to one steps over roots, rock and mud.  Finishing early made for a nice mid-afternoon big meal at Mama Georges in Springfield, a needed feast after 5 days in the woods. 

I'd recommend doing the Fundy Footpath at least once as the scenery and sheer difficulty and challenge of backpacking the coastline hills is worth the adventure.  I'd also recommend travelling in May as there were relatively no bugs! After enduring the backpacking portion, we may return via some of the access trails for a day trip to one of the waterfalls we missed along the way.

Laverty & 45

Last weekend, Rebecca and I headed to Fundy again to take in more waterfalls found in the park.  This time, we drove along the outskirts of the park along the 45 mile Road and visited Forty-Five River Falls, just off the dirt road.  A neat covered bridge framed the falls, which flow under the roadway. 

After some lunch (Rebecca enjoys ham sandwiches), we drove to the Dobson Link Trailhead near the north end of the park.  From there, it was only a 45 minute, 3 km hike to Laverty Falls, including a little river ford just near the end.  As always, Rebecca went crazy as soon as she saw the falls, wanting to head down to the water right away and throw rocks.  The weather was overcast, but stayed a perfect temperature for hiking.  Fall hiking is the best!

Visiting Elgin and its waterfalls

This weekend, we headed to the Petticodiac  area for a bit of an adventure in finding a few waterfalls along the Pollett River.  Our trip lead us Elgin, a small village south of Petticodiac.  In a fortunate pit-stop, we came across the Elgin Country Market and  we were suprised to see this little hub of activity on a Saturday.  Inside the market,  it was neat to see a country general store, restaurant and music stage all in one.  We stopped for a bite to eat of hamburgs and corn on the cob and Rebecca surely enjoyed our little rest-stop.

Later, we headed to the Pollett River, which follows highway 905, and found Gordon Falls just off the roadway.  I couldn't get over the great architecture of the 60 year old stone bridge overlooking the falls.  The falls were small in height, but had quite a bit of flow in the river.   After checking out for a bit and a few photos, we continued upstream to Gibson Brook Falls, which was a small but neat brook, amidst outcroppings of cliffs and forest.  Rebecca had quite a good time playing among the rocks while Sheena and I took a few photos.  I couldn't help but notice all the swimming holes around the area, but the colder weather kept us from getting too wet. 

More Fundy water

Last week, Rebecca and I took a trip to Fundy National Park to explore more waterfalls in the area.  We headed to Dickson Falls for our first excursion.  Rebecca really enjoys the backpack, but likes exploring wherever we stop even more.  Dickson Falls was very quaint, with a boardwalk for the majority of the trip.  Some of it was fairly steep stairs, but I was wishing there was access to the falls.  The second falls we visited were Herring Cove Falls.  They were fairly small and a short distance from the fielded picnic area.  When you continue along the trail to Herring Cove,  the view from the barnicled beach was quite nice.   The strong wind did keep us from exploring much on foot in the cove area, however  I think I still have some of the Fundy mud on my hiking shoes!  A great outing, both hikes were in the 'kid bringing distance' with about 2kms return each trip. 

By the way, these pictures were taking with my "used to be broken" camera.  A few months ago, after we moved home, our Sony DsC-S90 went on the fritz.  The lens would not extract from the camera after it was turned on.  After taking it apart and having an unsuccessful attempt to fix it, I decided to give it to Rebecca to play with.  She took it everywhere and loved dropping it, throwing it and basically doing what kids do to toys.  Then magically, last week, Sheena noticed that the camera lens was actually working again.   She managed to sneak it away from Rebecca -- and it is the standard hiking camera now.  Who'da thought it would work after being smashed around so much and take normal photos!

Exploring Fundy Waterfalls

On Sunday, Kris and I headed to Fundy National Park to explore some waterfalls on the eastern side of the park.  Our goal was to visit five waterfalls in the area of the Moosehorn Trail and the Broad River.  After an hour and a bit drive from Moncton, we headed into the park and up the Laverty Road toward the trail-head.  We began our trip by taking the Moosehorn Trail about 2 kilometres to where it meets the Broad River.  From there, we visited two falls just off the trail.  The Moosehorn Fall was fairly tall, although had a little bit of flowage.  The second fall was on the Broad River, with a short drop into a large and clear pool.  Both of us were amazed at the clearness of the water and we were half wishing it was a hot sunny day. 

We continued our trek southeast along the Broad River, eventually finding that we were following an old unmaintained trail.  The trail wove between the east riverbank and into the trees, but actually still had signage and a few metal rungs for climbing in and around the large rocks by the river.  We stopped at Broad River Falls for a couple leaps and a cold dip.  Keeping moving along the Broad River, we stopped to take photos of a few smaller falls along the way.  The river had quite a few little drops in it and many pools for swimming.  After reaching the junction with The Forks trail and 45 Mile Creek, we stopped for lunch by the river and continued northeast this time to reach Match Factory Falls, about a half hour upstream.  This section was by far the most challenging and technical rockhopping of the day's travel, mostly due to how tired we were getting after 3 hours of fairly tricky riverside travel.  We reached Match Factory Falls and were greeted with a fairly big swimming area and a generally neat looking falls -- with two spouts of water converging in the middle.  I had tried to swim underneath them, but the current was too strong and the water was fairly deep.  From there, the day began to wear on us...and we headed back to the Forks trail for our return climb to the parking lot. 

Although I had hiked in Fundy before, I was generally impressed by the beauty of the forest we had traveled through (there was quite a canopy of leaves) and the almost untouched sections of trail.  It was a beautiful area, and in some places didn't seem to get many visitors -- which is just the way we like it! 

Thanks to Kris for the photos,  my camera died. Literally.

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Yamnuska Scree

  I took Jeff up Mt. Yamnuska during easter weekend, just so he could try out the scree.  We had planned to do a traverse of Mt. Allan, but recent snowfall (visible from Yam that day) kept us from heading up there.  It was my second trip to the summit and I had forgotten how much scree there was on the return trip.  I took a couple of bouncy videos just for fun.  There's a few more photos on flickr, including some of a group that seemed to be doing a straight line traverse of the ridge.  While we were on the summit, we could see them around the crux, but they had skipped the cable section entirely only to scramble the airy ridge.  Interesting!

Here's a video or three:  Download front_face.wmv , Download cable_section.wmv , Download summit_descent.wmv

Snowshoe Hiking Cox Hill

Last weekend, I went up to the Sibbald Creek area to hike  & snowshoe up Cox Hill. You'll know when  you're at the trailhead as the Powderface Trail (road) is closed this time of year right by the parking lot at the trailhead.  As for the hike, its a long affair, usually about 9 kilometers to the junction with Jumpingpound ridge.  (I guess this area is perfect for mountain biking.) The views are nice though, with forest views mixed with rolling foothills and a peak here and there, including Moose Mountain.  We ended up making it to a lookoff just before the summit, which was good travel given the snow. 

Hummingbird Plume Fire Lookout

I went with a few friends to Hummingbird Plume Lookout, located in the Nakiska area of Kananaskis Country.  The lookout lies atop a ridge along the trail system to Skogan Pass and is part of the cross-country ski trails in the area.   Hiking to the lookout is very straight forward, although somewhat onerous due to the constant switchbacking of the ski trail.  The trail system is pristine with a great trackset for the skiers.  On our trip, we were against the grain, taking snowshoes and one snow skate.  The snow skate came in useful as a diversion for the return trip -- with each of us taking turns trying it out (I really need a steady-cam: Download chase_skate.wmv).    Good views from the top and a cool historical lookout as well.

Limestone Mountain Lookout

(This lookout hike was planned to be one of many during a camping trip, but as I'll talk about later -- it turned out to be a bit of a bust due to road conditions.)

Limestone Mountain Lookout is located in the Clearwater area west of Caroline, with access from Forestry Trunk road 940.   Overall, it took about 3 hours of driving and a couple of navigational errors,  but I arrived at my trail-head for the Limestone Mountain Lookout.  I say 'my' because the approach road was increasingly covered with more and more snow as it wasn't in regular use.  Eventually, I had to park at the last Y junction about 2 kilometers from the actual parking lot to avoid getting the truck stuck.   I didn't mind though, as the  initial road-bound snowshoe trip with the trees lining the road  was quaint and also scenic, particularly as you near the communication towers. 

Once reaching the towers, the view is (and would have been) spectacular throughout.  The entire trip from the trail-head to the lookout is in the open, allowing for much gazing at the mountain ranges to the west and hilly treed landscapes to the east.  I couldn't help but notice how many 'sloping' mountains there were in this area (Which would be good scrambles if you could reach them.) As I continued along, the snowstorm started to blow in, making travel a bit slower.  The trail follows an atv road along the grassy ridge to the saddle of Limestone Mountain.  From there, you continue up the slope, rounding the top to see the final approach to the lookout.  By this time, a getting a clear view was few and far between.

Reaching the lookout, the view was gone but the wind sure wasn't.  I took some photos of the lookout, ate a snack and made my way back along the windy ridge toward the towers.  Along the way, I was preceded by about 10 ptarmigans -- who seemed to surprise me every now and then because they were so hard to see given the snowstorm and their great camouflage.  For most of the travel, I was able to stick to the grass and rocks, which helped to make a quick return trip.  It was a good snowstorm as most of my approaching tracks had been filled already.  It was a fairly straight forward 10 km hike with the extra bit at the beginning.

The slow and windy trip back to the forestry trunk road was tricky, but smooth with the new snow falling.  In general, the driving approach was quite long and requires a back country roads map to navigate the mix of gas company access roads of the area.  But, when plowed, the roads are in great condition with distance markers throughout.  I wouldn't recommend going to Limestone Lookout as your 'sole' destination on a trip from the city -- as it is too much driving for the amount of hiking you'll do.  Although, if you're planning on staying in the area for more hikes (like I was),  it is definitely worth it. 

As for the rest of the trip, my plans were to continue north along highway 940 toward the Ram Falls area where I was going to camp.  From there, I'd do a few more lookout hikes in the area and eventually head toward Nordegg on Sunday.  However, about 50 kms south of Ram Falls, just before Corkscrew Mountain (which literally describes the winding road), I reached the end of the plowed road and faced 3 to 4 feet snow drifts.  While I sat here contemplating the road conditions (in my borrowed truck), another truck came around the corner. They told me they had gone a kilometer ahead, but due to the  snow on the road and the corkscrew switchbacks, they had to turn around. The only other way into Ram falls is from Nordegg area, which would have required me to drive well over 150 kms, including driving back to the main roads, only to find another way in again with uncertain road conditions.  I also remembered another one of these signs on the Nordegg end of Highway 940 from a previous trip, so it became a futile effort to continue on with my planned trip. 

I laughed to myself, remembering how I cursed the unsightly oil & gas transfer stations on the way up to Limestone, but now realized that the roads are plowed to allow access for their machines and trucks.   Apparently, this area hasn't been developed yet on that front.  A bit dejected, I headed back to Caroline and eventually Airdrie.  If anyone has a better way into Ram Falls, I'm all ears.  Next time old man winter, next time.

 

Two Weekends, Two snowshoe trips

On the past couple of weekends we've been lucky enough to have two days of snowshoeing in Peter Lougheed Provinical Park.  Peter Lougheed Park is the snow belt of the Kananaskis area and usually receives tons of snow every year.  With a metre or two of snow already,  a few official trails and tons of other places to go, its certainly a hot-spot for winter hikers and skiers. 

Last week, I headed to Chester Lake with Steph, Chase and Mike B.  It was my first outing with their group and it was fun to have company for once!  I had been to Chester Lake before with Jeff and enjoyed the fairly aerobic climb to the lake this time as well.  Chester Lake is about 10k return, but with the slight incline, it makes for a full trip.  With more snow than I'd seen a while, it was a fun day of trudging through powder and knocking snow down on unsuspecting (which became eventually very suspecting) people in the group.  The views of Mt. Chester and Mt. Galatea were spectacular. 

This week, we went snowshoeing again, literally across the road from the Chester Lake trail to do the Hogarth Lakes trail.  The group this time was Sheena, Steph, Rebecca and I.   The Hogarth Lakes trail runs perpendicular to the Burstall Pass Trail, which leads into the backcountry.  Instead, on the Lakes trail, you weave in and out of the forest and nearby water with plenty of views of the surrounding snowy mountains.  The trail is fairly flat, allowing for a gentle snowshoe pace.  This area is very well visited in the winter.  This time, we were able to bring Rebecca and her new sled! As for Rebecca, she worked hard during 1.75 hour driving trip to the area and didn't liked being cooped up in her sled at the beginning.  But after a nap which took pretty much the whole hike, she woke up near the end and enjoyed the last pull to the parking lot!  With great weather, it was another perfect time in the PLPP.