Since I last posted we left Amherst Shore and travelled to the Bay of Fundy. We stayed at the New River Beach Provincial Park. The land for the park was donated to New Brunswick to be made a park for the public. We could walk to the beach from our campsite. It was great.
Fundy Bay has the highest tides in the world, so the change is very significant. We walked the beach each evening at low tide (and one morning) to search for ocean treasures. We found jellyfish, sand dollars, sand eels, hermit crabs, clam shells, mussel shells, lots of cool seaweed, and so much more!
It was rather rainy and wet while we were there. We went for a 5 km hike out a peninsula one day when it was drizzly. There were beautiful overlooks, an over abundance of undergrowth in the forest, and a bog!
The next day rained all day and the camper started feeling a bit small, so we headed into St. John’s to see the reverse falls. The St. John River flows into the bay while the tide is low enough, but as the tide rises, the water pushes back against the river and actually makes the water flow the opposite direction. Needless to say, there are lots of rapids and whirlpools that happen because of this. We went at high tide, so we saw it flowing backwards. In between high tide and low tide is slack tide -where the water is calm and the only time small boats can travel across this section of water.
After seeing the reversing falls, we went to get Beavertails (a Canadian treat we’d seen a few times – fried dough with toppings) at Claire’s request. It was located in a shipping container shopping/eating/entertainment area. A great idea!
From Fundy Bay we headed back to the States. We crossed the border in Milltown, ME. It was rather uneventful. We were one of a number of RV/campers that were crossing that day. They even let us keep our store bought apples, carrots, celery, and cucumber. They did however take our half green pepper that we had. Claire said that she would have eaten it had she known. (We laughed thinking about Claire scarfing down the green pepper in front of the Customs agent.)
We continued to Ellsworth, ME to set us up for seeing Acadia National Park the next day. It was a nice campground with a pool, playground, arcade, and tavern.
We went into Acadia, the next day and realized we were woefully unprepared. We got to the visitor center, but it was just long lines of people trying to get information and passes. We finally figured out that the best way to travel is by the shuttles they have. Wanting to make it to Thunder Hole 2 hours before high tide, we hopped on a shuttle without any preparation. It was a lovely, calm, sunny day, so Thunder Hole wasn’t super impressive and we walked down the coast to Otter Cliffs. From there we hopped back on the shuttle with many others and rode to Jordan Pond. It was packed. We found food and water and decided to hike Jordan Cliffs on recommendation from my good high school friend who lived in Maine a long time. We filled my 16 oz. coffee cup with water (our only container) and headed out. Having little clue of what we were going to encounter, we discovered we were rather unprepared for an awesome adventure. It was an impressive trail along cliffs at times with metal staples for steps/railings. We encountered a family with parents carrying their 2 small kids in hiking backpacks and a group of guys who come hike this trail every year because it’s their favorite.
We veered off the Jordan Cliffs trail near the end to summit Penobscot Mountain before heading back down to Jordan Pond and then up and over to Bubble Pond to catch the shuttle.
After Acadia we went into Bar Harbor for dinner where we enjoyed lobster and lobster bisque. We also walked part of the island trail that only shows up during low tide. Once again we were amazed at the number of people that were there on a random Tuesday in September.
The drive ‘home’ wasn’t too bad either.
We spent one more day in Ellsworth to ‘repack the boats’ (laundry, cleaning, school, organizing, etc.) before heading towards Boston.
We feel like we’re moving quickly, but fall and cooler temps are coming. And we’re liking the pace so far. Sometimes I think we should stay and dig deeper, and then I realize we’re just making this up as we go along, so we can do whatever!
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