Day 26: Moncton — Murray Beach PP

I had a chill morning in Moncton today before setting off. Mat had said I could stick around when he went to work, so I hung out for a bit at his place before packing up and heading downtown. I went to the Moncton market, which was super lively since it’s the weekend. I think the market is open everyday, but the outside stalls just pop up on the weekends. There was food from all over, and lots of cute artisan stalls. After hanging around Moncton for a bit, I set off towards the coast, which, thankfully, was much less hilly than yesterday. 

I stopped in Shédiac, which is known for its beaches...and a giant lobster. I had a snack by the water and as I was leaving, I ran into a group of cyclists from Kingston. They had all taken the train to NB to tour the region for a week. We ended up chatting for a bit and they all seemed really nice! I hadn’t met too many other cycle tourers before this, or even seen many cyclists in New Brunswick, for that matter. 

After this I went to one of the beaches where I hung out for a bit, before continuing on. The whole rest of the way was along the Acadian coast, and there were Acadian flags on almost every property. I went through the town of Cap-Pelé and they even had Acadian flags painted on every utility pole. They also had a rainbow crosswalk and the rainbow and trans flag flying outside their community centre, which I thought was pretty cool for such a small town. They even had a bike lane on their main road! 

Once I was getting close to Murray Beach, I had to take a side ride, and the final 45 minutes was so boring. The road was not in very good condition, and I was just surrounded by farms. There were a few hills that weren’t even that steep or high, but I was just so bored it made them seem way worse than they were. Once I made it to the park, I encountered my first non-friendly New Brunswicker. The guy that registered me at the campground was so dull and told me that the closest store was 30 km away when later I found out that’s there’s actually a convenience store 1.6 km away. So that was kind of obnoxious. Also, I asked for a waterfront site, and he gave me a site that was across from the waterfront ones, even though there were waterfront ones available. 

After I set up, I took my bike over to one of the eating shelters; it’s supposed to rain overnight, so I wanted a place to keep my bike dry. Once I got over there, I met a father and daughter from Sault Ste Marie who had just finished cycling PEI. Heather and Joe had flown into Moncton and biked to PEI from there. They had planned on going tip to tip, but decided to slow down their pace once they got there, so ended in Charlottetown. They were on their way back to Moncton to fly home. We started talking, and they said they were planning on just camping out under the food shelter instead of at their site to keep their tents dry. Even though I’ve got a good rainfly to keep me dry in my tent, packing up a wet tent is the worst (especially in the rain), so I figured I’d join them, and brought my tent over to the food shelter. I ended up chatting a bunch with Heather and Joe, and since they had just come from PEI, they were able to give me tips on what to do and which routes to take over there. 

I couldn’t believe that after encountering no other cyclists my whole time in New Brunswick, I ran into the Kingston cycling club and Heather and Joe on my last day in the province. New Brunswick has definitely grown on me since when I first got here, but I’m pretty excited to move onto PEI tomorrow. 

Total distance: 86 km

Total elevation: 460 m