From the top of the steep switchbacks, the Footpath continued east, across a rounded lobe of forested land separating the Little Salmon River drainage from the next drainage over, that of Rapidy Brook. The trail gently sloped downward as it wound eastward, once again an easy, soft and very beautiful little path through coniferous pine trunks with lush green moss on the forest floor on either side of us.
courtesy JInnes
Rapidy Brook is a smaller but still steep-sided ravine cutting its way southward to the Fundy coastline. The Fundy Footpath crosses Rapidy Brook some way north of the coast, entirely away from sea views. Still, the approach down into the ravine is quite interesting, with the trail nicely engineered across steep sideslopes and across little cross-drainages. At Rapidy Brook itself, there's a very substantial and modern arched bridge over the watercourse, which - although nearly devoid of flow today - looked like the kind of stream that could flow quite vigorously and angrily given the right season and/or weather conditions.
courtesy JInnes
Constructed Trail Section
courtesy JInnes
Andrew crosses Rapidy Brook
Our overall trajectory was moderately downhill, albeit with lots of little 'bumps' along the way. The Rapidy Brook crossing itself was still nearly 500 feet above sea level, followed by a steep but short rise of a hundred or so feet of elevation, and then another, longer descent to the small, quaint and pretty flow of Brothers Brook. Along the traverse from Rapidy to Brothers Brook were a couple of nice lookouts over the Rapidy Brook Ravine and a limited view to the waters of the Bay.
We were feeling the tiredness of a long day at this point and took another sit-down break at Brothers Brook, even though we had only come three and a half kilometres from Little Salmon River.
Lookout over Rapidy Ravine
Another lookout over Rapidy Ravine
Beyond Brothers brook, we enjoyed a particularly nice section of the Fundy Footpath. Following a mostly very pleasant and beautiful footbed, we first came to the so-called "Billion Dollar View" (no doubt a riff on the "Million Dollar View" near Cradle Brook). The Billion Dollar View (unlike the Million Dollar View) was very very nice: an impressive westward lookout from 350 feet above the waters of the Bay of Fundy. Right down seemingly at our feet was the mouth and ravine of Rapidy Brook, and raising our eyes, we had an excellent view down along the many headlands of the New Brunswick coastline, stretching off into the distance until haze and the curvature of the Earth caused them to disappear from view.
Following the Billion Dollar view was a sublime bit of trail that followed the edge of the 250 to 300-foot high drop above the Bay. Although there were a few trees between us and the drop, the trail often ran pretty close to the dropoff and there were only a few trunks and bushes between us and open air. Combined with beautiful late-afternoon sunlight, it was an extremely scenic experience to hike along this bit. There were many interesting views straight down to the waterline - rocky cliffs, steep slabs, and secluded little private coves. This was the sort of idealized mental image I had had in my mind about the Fundy Footpath. And, at least for this bit, here it was!
As we approached the next watercourse (Wolf Brook), the coastline started to bend increasingly northward, and the views gradually shifted, from south over the Bay to eastwards. We now could see the coastline ahead of us to the east. We could also clearly see the detached headland of Martin Head (and a very pretty view of it at that).
The trail made one large switchback and then started a traversing descent to the watercourse of Wolf Brook. We reached the brook more or less at the farthest upstream ingress of sea water at high tide (presumably the trail is arranged this way to avoid problems with crossing at high tide - although for us at this point in the afternoon, the tide was way out). We stopped for a short sit-down break, again feeling pretty bagged at what was turning out to be (as expected) a long day. We had considered camping at Wolf Brook, but after considering the current time (5:30pm) and the elapsed distance so far (14km and change, which is to say, not as much as we had wanted to accomplish), we felt we had it in us to push one increment farther, to the next place with decent camping. That meant continuing to Telegraph Brook - another three or so kilometres.
The ford of Wolf Brook today was a matter of a quick rock-hop (no getting feet wet required). On the far bank, the footpath turned right and followed the rocky riverbank (i.e. not in the trees). There was a small outcropping of bedrock protruding out into the watercourse that had to be surmounted, which was an easy scramble. Beyond, we immediately arrived at a wide stretch of beach where the pebbles are quite flat and elongated. Rather plate-like, if you will. The mouth of Wolf Brook and the Bay of Fundy were also just a few tens of yards ahead of us here, and one could reasonably camp here if necessary.
As mentioned above, camping here, however, was not our plan - instead, we had three and bit kilometres to go. A short distance like this felt like much more of a chore in our tired state, but we knew that ultimately it would take us at most a couple of hours to complete, in the worst case.
Another set of switchbacks
We had already done about 2000 feet of elevation gain and loss by this point - which gives you a good sense of the more strenuous nature of this middle segment of the footpath. And, as a result, we were slightly disheartened to see another one of the "warning switchbacks ahead" signs at the edge of the beach at Wolf Brook. That meant a steep climb of some significance was to come.
The trail climbed slightly from the beach, past a new semi-constructed outhouse (by the way, we discovered that the trail association seems to be building a series of large new outhouses at most major camping areas along the Fundy Footpath route). The trail then got very steep and yes, did indeed switchback upwards. Fortunately, though, the elevation gain was only about 100 metres (320 feet). For comparison, that was less than half of the elevation gain of the big and steep climb eastward out of the Little Salmon River area.
Construction? Deconstruction?
Another beautiful plateau-top section
After the ascent out of Wolf Brook, the Fundy Footpath was very easy and trouble-free for a good kilometer and a half - virtually on the level and with no significant obstacles. Nothing really to report in the way of views along here, though - strictly forest hiking, although at times it was still quite pleasant.
After the kilometre and a half of easy, level walking, the footpath climbed briefly and then dropped steeply to cross a small side stream known as Hunter Brook. Beyond that, the path rose only slightly before dropping steeply again right down to the coastline at a much larger watercourse, deeply entrenched into a ravine. We had arrived at Telegraph Brook.
Telegraph Brook was quite a bit different than we had imagined in our minds. For one thing, the footpath crosses right at sea-level (which is not at all how it is shown on the elevation profile of our trail guide - so we had this impression in our minds that it would be an in-the-forest crossing / campsite area). Instead, we were essentially in a cliff-sided rocky cove right on the Bay of Fundy (which was definitely more scenic than we had imagined).
There seemed to be only one campsite in the beachside grasses, and it was already occupied by another party. Fortunately, the cove at Telegraph brook has a lot of spots on the open pebble beach that were both above the high tide line and which were quite flat. There was more than enough space for all of our tents.
Cove at Telegraph Brook
We had arrived at Telegraph brook shortly after 7pm. That meant that we had been on the go for quite a long time - just over twelve hours. Total distance ended up being around 17 and a half kilometres, which is not really all that fast for twelve hours of time. Some of that was surely owing to the generous nature of a few of our rest stops, but some of it was also because some of us (myself included) had not been hiking at that fast of a pace. The Hatkos had continued to show an elevated pace and had arrived here at Telegraph Brook some minutes before the rest of us.
The weather was still quite pleasant - warm and calm although still somewhat humid. The predicted change to rainy weather was clearly already underway, however, as the sunny skies had given way to a dull overcast. We fired up the weather radio and re-confirmed that yep, rain would likely be starting overnight and would continue in several bouts the following day.
Camp at Telegraph Brook
Despite the late arrival, sunset was still late enough that we had plenty of time to set up tents and eat dinner in daylight. It also gave us time to explore a little of the interesting cliffs that surrounded the cove of Telegraph brook. Geologically this spot is quite interesting, with very distinctly varied and colored rock units: blue-greenish on the eastern cliffs of the cove and purplish on the western cliffs.
Dinnertime at Telegraph Brook
Before heading off to bed, we established our plan for the next day, which we modified in order to best handle the oncoming inclement weather: we decided to not commit to any particular departure time; rather, we'd awake at some reasonable hour and take stock of the conditions (and the latest forecast), and at that point decide when to pack up and move on. We conceded that we would attempt to make less distance as well, and roughly aimed to make it to the next good-looking campsites at Goose Greek, about nine kilometres away to the east.
Day 2- Seely Beach to Telegraph Brook - Hike Data
(Track color: )
Start Time:
6:59a.m.
End Time:
7:18p.m.
Duration:
12h19m
Distance:
17.42 km
(10.82 mi)
Average Speed:
1.4 km/hr
(0.9 mph)
Start Elevation:
10ft
(3m)
*
Max Elevation:
755ft
(230m)
*
Min Elevation:
-4ft
(-1m)
*
End Elevation:
33ft
(10m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
2835ft
(864m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
2808ft
(856m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
