Fundy Footpath Day 5
Goose River to Point Wolfe Campground - Thursday, August 25
We awoke to cloudy and humid conditions, but no rain. By now we were pretty well into the groove of getting ready efficiently and we were ready to depart at 8 a.m. even though we had gotten up relatively late. Immediately upon heading eastbound on the footpath out of camp, we were at the west bank of the Goose River, today mostly a jumble of easily-hoppable boulders with a trickle of water flowing around them.
As soon as we reached the far side of the river, we were presented with a scaffolding-like wooden arch with a sign overhead denoting the western boundary to Fundy National Park. From here on until the its [eastern] end, the footpath would run along existing park trails all the way to the town of Alma, at the far eastern end of the park, about twenty or so kilometres from this point.
Entrance to Fundy National Park
Immediately upon crossing into Fundy National park, the character and nature of the trail changed: instead of a footpath following every contour of the terrain, the trail now cut into ground. It was wider, clearly constructed by a machine, and in places was even lightly cobblestoned. Signs at the park boundary indicated that this was now officially a multi-use path, and I think the intent here was for this to be easily navigable by mountain bikes. Strangely, there was no signage containing the words "Fundy Footpath".
In any case, this wider, graded, side-cut, and completely-free-of-roots path was a whole different ball of wax when it came to hiking speed. As in, ours went way up. We cruised along this almost sidewalk-like path at an elevated pace, covering almost two kilometres in the first 35 minutes after leaving our camp.
courtesy JInnes
After passing the side trail leading down to the Goose River Beach campsites (which would have been great to stay at, but these are Fundy backcountry sites and were booked way before we started doing our trip planning), the trail bent eastward again and continued towards the Point Wolfe area. The maximum elevation along today's leg was a moderately high 660 feet ASL (200m), but it was over a long, gradual ascent on this extremely well-graded and obstacle-free path. So it didn't really require much effort, and we almost didn't notice this long stretch of uphill.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
Although the forecast was generally for dry weather, we had a bit of shower activity as we hiked along this morning. Nothing too long, nothing too serious. When it stopped, the forest became a still, misty, foggy place, with each spider web prominently revealed (and let me tell, you... there are a lot of spider webs around - one just doesn't usually notice them).
After reaching that 660'/220m highpoint, the trail (entirely in the forest, with no coastal views) gradually descended until finally bottoming out with a few switchbacks at one of the bigger brooks along this section, called Second Mile Brook. As with all of the brook crossings so far on this segment of trail, we crossed the brook on a modern and wide wooden bridge.
Beyond Second Mile Brook, the trail only climbed slightly and generally just undulated along with a few minor ups and downs. There was one limited lookout down to the mouth of Second Brook and the Bay of Fundy - otherwise we were still entirely in the forest.
courtesy JInnes
It was only when we started to near the Point Wolfe area, a good nine kilometres into our 10+ kilometer hike today, that we finally got a bit of trail that was within the vicinity of the coast and provided a nice sense of walking along the Bay of Fundy. We could also see the actual namesake of the area -- the tip of Point Wolfe itself -- in the near distance. We were not at all far now, and it was barely after noontime. We would most definitely not be arriving late today!
A little over ten and a half kilometres after setting out from camp at Goose River, we arrived at the main day parking lot at the Point Wolfe area. The Point Wolfe area is a fairly developed spot in Fundy National Park, so there was a lot of pavement, cars, and people. Completely opposite to the remote stretches of the footpath we had traversed over the last few days.
We had one of the tent-only campsites booked for us at the Point Wolfe Campground, but the campground rules state that there is a maximum of five people per site. This seemed a touch ridiculous (we were six and thinking it was a bit dumb to book two full sites), and in an effort to not get asked any awkward questions, we sequestered Brian and Caroline off in a hidden little spot while we went to the park entrance to register and get our site tags.
Arriving Point Wolfe area
Crossing Point Wolfe Parking
After registering for our spot, we retrieved our two contraband campers and walked up the correct campground loop to our site. I had picked a nice spot near the far end of one of the loops and very close to the communal cooking and eating building, but it turned out that the site (which looked great in the website photos) was a little tight for our crew.
Ironically, this tight campsite made us rethink our one-site-only plan, and Chris and Gillian walked back down to the entrance kiosk to inquire about purchasing an extra site. Happily, the site right next to ours (which also happened to be especially grassy and spacious) was free, so... they booked it. And all was well again in the world (and now no longer in contravention of campground rules).
Arriving at end of tent loop
By 2pm, we were fully set up, and any remaining damp gear and/or clothes were drying out in what had turned out to be a very nice, warm, and sunny afternoon. With the rest of the afternoon and a long evening ahead of us, we decided to sample a little of what the Point Wolfe Area had to offer. We chose to walk down to the coastline at the inlet of the Point Wolfe River.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
Cairn at Point Wolfe Beach
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
Andrew, Point Wolfe Beach
courtesy JInnes
After a breezy and refreshing visit to the Fundy Coastline at Point Wolfe, we returned to our campground campsite for a relaxing evening of cards, chatting and walking the campsite loops. Already we could feel our backpack winding down. Pretty much all of the challenge was now behind us; and by the end of the next day, we'd be eating a nice hot restaurant meal and also having a nice cleansing shower. In any case, things were going well, and we were looking forward to our final march to the finish the following day.
Day 5 - Goose River to Point Wolfe - Hike Data
(Track color: )
Start Time:
8:08a.m.
End Time:
12:41p.m.
Duration:
4h32m
Distance:
10.72 km
(6.66 mi)
Average Speed:
2.4 km/hr
(1.5 mph)
Start Elevation:
105ft
(32m)
*
Max Elevation:
645ft
(197m)
*
Min Elevation:
50ft
(15m)
*
End Elevation:
133ft
(41m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
792ft
(241m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
781ft
(238m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
