From North to South
South to Fredericton - July 15, 2025
On the fourth day of our trip, we said our goodbyes to my brother Alphonse and sister-in-law Dolores, thanked them for their hospitality, and began the next leg of our journey - south to the province's capital of Fredericton, where we would be spending a few days with my brother Carl and his partner Line.
The plan to explore lesser-travelled and possibly twisty (but still paved) roads was still firmly on the agenda, and to that end, I didn't even bother to get on the main provincial bypass highway going south from Bathurst. Instead, I stayed on the old original north-south highway that went through various little towns.
No matter what roads get taken, when driving south from Bathurst, one has to drive through the communities at the mouth of the famous Mirimachi River (famous with anglers). My sister Elvira and I chose to drive through the quaint little community of Newcastle, opting to driving right into the original heart of the town to see if we could find a quaint alternative to our usual Tim Hortons coffee stop.
Mill Cove Coffee, Newcastle
And a quaint little downtown it was - beautifully laid out and maintained and with many more seemingly-original buildings than Bathurst's core city streets. I think they did a better job here of preserving history. We also found the perfect place to satisfy our artisanal cafe desires: Mill Cove Coffee, at 144 Newcastle Boulevard. The Cayman looked mighty fine indeed parked in front of the cafe's brick facade.
While waiting for my cup of dark roast and homemade cinnamon roll, an elderly gentleman asked me what make my car was. When I replied "Porsche", he smiled and nodded and said "I thought so. Back in the 1950s, I bought a Porsche". He couldn't remember the model name, but I showed him a picture of a 356 Coupe and immediately he said "that's it!".
It was a beautiful morning once again, and we decided to take a short walk to the central park of the town, which was only a few steps away. Jazz music piped into speakers set into the park's trees, abundant shade, and nice benches made for a peaceful little place to pass a few minutes. Old buildings with shops lined the edges of the park. Definitely prettier than Bathurst's downtown.
South of the Miramichi region, the drive to Fredericton continues south and bends a little to the west. Most people take the main highway - NB 8. We stayed off NB-8 as much as possible. I had researched a number of older country roads that hugged the contours of the Mirimachi River, and some sections had good potential for twistiness.
The drive along these old country lanes was quite pleasant - hilly and curvy and close to farm fields and old houses, and with an occasional view of the river, which was often a fair ways below us in a fairly pronounced river valley. There was one section of riverside road that was completely blocked by construction (between the hamlets of Quarryville and Blackville) , and we had to backtrack around that.
At Doaktown, we decided to make a bigger detour. I could see on the map that the roads around Grand Lake (New Brunswick's largest lake) seemed reasonably squiggly. And neither Elvira or I had ever seen Grand Lake or driven in the area. So we decided to take a hard left onto NB rte 123, which would take us directly to the town of Chipman (a place I'd also never been) and position us well for a lakeside drive down the west shores of Grand Lake.
NB Route 123 turned out to be the worst road of this entire trip. It was nearly dead straight, and therefore boring. It was paved, yes, but it was paved in the manner of patch upon patch upon patch. Imagine an ice cream cone piled high with various colored balls of ice cream. Except now picture the balls of ice cream as different blobs of asphalt. That is what this road was like - overlapping blobs of pavement of various qualities, for kilometre upon kilometre upon kilometre. Endlessly. With the Cayman's PASM adjustable suspension in soft mode, the ride was tolerable, but barely. Boy... what an annoying drive. It didn't help that all of the other traffic on the road were logging trucks. Staying behind one for any length of time risked some rocks or wood or whatever being shaken off and onto the car, so I was very careful to stay far away and then pass with a sudden burst of speed. Fortunately, short gearing and an unrestricted top-end meant that the Cayman's four-litre flat six positively launched us around these trucks in an instant.
Despite the annoyances, this bit of highway was a good test: the Cayman definitely has no squeaks and rattles. If there had been they absolutely would have manifested on this road. On the flipside, the NB highway maintainence department should be ashamed of this road.
Chipman Cayman
With all of the logging truck traffic on NB rte 123, I guess it should have been no surprise when upon arrival in Chipman, we were greeted by the sight of a huge sawmill facility (the JD Irving Grand Lake Timber Sawmill, to be precise). Based on some historical sites in town, it seems like Chipman has been a center of forestry for a long, long time.
Finally, we were able to sample the pleasant and meandering backway that led down western shore of Grand Lake. The road was curvy and fun, but nothing truly tight. There were stretches where it was unpopulated and comfortable and safe to cruise along at a higher speed, and then little lakeshore communities where we slowed to a crawl. Overall, the sense of this road and this area was one of "vacationland" - leisure cottages, little stretches of beaches, and a quiet vibe. The names of the little lakeside communities added to the sense of leisure - Pondstream; Sunnyside Beach; Princess Park.
Our pleasant Grand Lake drive concluded with our arrival at the Saint John River, and the main throughfares that run along it. We crossed over to the south side of the river (NB's largest river, by the way), and headed upstream to the greater Fredericton area, which was now only a short distance away. I stopped to take a few pictures of the wide river and the sailboats in it as we approached the city's downtown.
First View of Fredericton
My sister and I had arrived during the evening rush hour. Combined with yet more construction closures, it took us a while to crawl through the streets to my brother Carl's house. He roughly knew of our arrival time and had left his garage open and waiting for the arrival of the Cayman. He insisted that I store the car inside for the time we were visiting.
It was a sweltering day for NB, with temperatures climbing into the low-to-mid thirties (C). Fortunately, Carl and Line have a beautiful backyard deck and pool, and it wasn't long before I was lowering myself into the rather chilly waters of said pool. Carl and Line then treated us to a fine dinner of a pot roast with vegetables.
