I packed up camp in Mill Cove in the morning, with dozens of new mosquito bites from the night before. The campground I was staying at was right on Grand Lake, the largest lake in NB, but my campsite was in the woods. So after making breakfast, I headed down towards the lake the have breakfast there. It was really lovely sitting by the water, but eventually I had to make myself get up and head back to camp. I started chatting with the woman from Lansing for a bit about motorcycle culture, and then gave her some tips on where to get bagels, as they were headed to Montreal.
Once I left Mill Cove, it was an easy ride to Sussex, where I stopped for lunch. Sussex was really cute—it’s the “Mural Capital of Atlantic Canada.” It had murals all over the town which were really nice, and it had a rainbow crosswalk to celebrate Pride! I found a nice park to sit in to eat, and then got ready to head to Fundy.
Googlemaps was showing me a route that wasn’t on the main road/highway to get to the park, which is pretty normal—googlemaps will often route cyclists through country roads instead of the highway, so I started along the route. Pretty soon though, I realized that googlemaps was routing me up over the Shepody mountain, instead of along the main road that went around the mountain. I had already been biking for over an hour at this point though, so it didn’t make sense to turn back. But that climb, which just kept going and going in the afternoon sun with no shade was pretty brutal. Finally I got to the top, and then kept going for awhile, passing by a pretty lake and some hunting and fishing lodges. I hadn’t seen any cars for awhile, which I figured was just because they would’ve taken the highway around the mountain. And then suddenly the road ended. It turned into this gravel pathway, and I had no idea where it went. I checked my phone, and there was no cell signal on the mountain. At least the route that I had previously loaded was still visible, but I couldn’t look up anything new.
Once I saw the previous route, I saw that I had missed a turn, which is weird, because I didn’t remember passing any crossroads. But I turned around and started heading back to find this road I missed. When finally I found it, it was not a road at all. It was an atv track. It was full of rocks, and there was no way I could bike through it. I thought maybe I could walk my bike through, so I set off, but the pathway was full of mosquitos and they were all swarming around me. I was moving so slowly as I was lugging my loaded up bike over these rocks, and after about 10 minutes I decided to head back to the main road. I had no idea how far the atv track went til it met up with a road again, and I was going so slowly, it could’ve taken me hours.
At this point, I was thinking my only option was to return back to Sussex, and either spend the night there, or try to hitch a ride to Fundy. At least it was downhill to Sussex, but I only had half a bottle of water left, and it was at least 30 km back to Sussex. I started heading down, hoping a car would pass by that night have some maps or water, and then I saw a cottage that had a car at it. I went up to it, and the woman who lived there, Maryanne, invited me in. She is actually a cyclist and biked across Canada a few years ago as part of a group doing presentations on climate change along the way. She’s even a host on WarmShowers, but told me she had never had anyone request to stay with her, since she lives so out of the way. Maryanne was so lovely, and offered for me to stay at her place, or to give me a ride back to Sussex, as she was heading there in the evening. Then, after hearing I might try to hitch a ride to Fundy from Sussex, she said she had some friends who were driving to their cabin super close to the entrance to Fundy that evening who might be able to take me. How perfect! They had a pickup truck, so they came and got me and my bike and headed back up that road I had gone up, and when the road ended, they carried on the gravel pathway for quite a ways further.
They dropped me off at the entrance to the park around 7:30, and I went in and registered. But it was still another 20 km of steep hills from the park entrance to where my site was, and where the town of Alma was. My cousin had told me about a delicious takeout place in Alma for fish and chips that I wanted to get to before it closed at 9. It was 7:45 by the time I left the registration office, so I had an hour and 15 minutes to make it those 20 km. Normally I’ve been averaging just under 20km/hr, but that’s not with massive climbs, so it was going to be tight. I was motivated by the promise of seafood though, so I gunned it those 20 km, taking advantage of the good condition of the roads to get some real speed going in the downhills. There were 2 climbs that I had to stop partway up to catch my breath on, but the rest of them I just powered through. As I was going down some of the descents, I got some spectacular views of the Bay of Fundy in front of me, while I was surrounded by trees at my sides, and the sun low in the sky behind me.
Finally I made it into Alma at 8:30. I couldn’t believe how quickly I’d done it! I immediately ordered a beer and some fried clams and it was so delicious. After dinner, I had to head back up a final hill to get to my campsite, and then set up my tent in the dark. When I went to the washroom though, I met this lovely woman, Lisa, who I started chatting with for a bit, and she told me which shower to use to get hot water.
It was definitely my most trying day yet, but I made it to Fundy, and I’ll get to enjoy being here in the park tomorrow.
Total distance: 114 km
Total elevation: 1375 m (!!!)
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