New Brunswick and Fundy National Park!

[mtbikernate]

I think I'm finally recovered from that road trip. I think next time I do a trip of that length with the camper, I'm going to want to do less driving each day. On the way home, I had one day with over 10hrs of actual driving time (of course more when you factor in food and gas stops). Grabbing campsites in New England for a quick overnight is a real PITA. SO MANY required minimum 2 night stays. Lots in New Hampshire didn't allow dogs through the gates at all. Quite a few states didn't allow overnight stays at rest stops. I should have just made use of the toll road plaza truck stop places for overnights on the road. I looked up locations for truck stops and saw relatively few...didn't occur to me to also look up the service plazas on the toll roads.

New Brunswick was great. Being right after the holiday and during the week, everything was so quiet and uncrowded. Aside from trying to buy groceries in Canada ON labour day (they take that holiday a lot more seriously than the US).

I ended up cooking less than originally planned because the seafood was SO delicious, we just had to eat more.

So on the way up, our first stop in PA wasn't much to speak of. The place was pretty busy with holiday visitors, TONS of kids, and was pretty noisy. We got takeout from a nearby sketchy-looking Indian restaurant that had pretty good online reviews and were not disappointed.

Our next stop was in Acadia National Park. That definitely warrants its own destination trip in the future.



One of our big to-do items was to have legit lobster rolls. Which we ate our first night in Canada due to difficulty sourcing the meats and vegetables we had planned to buy after crossing the border.



We did some hiking.



Whale watching was high on the list. We saw fin whales, minke whales, a single humpback whale, lots of harbor porpoises, some seals, and so on. This spot was right off Campobello Island.







That was a definite highlight of the trip!

We also did some mountain biking with views of the Bay of Fundy. Riding with Mac on my back was like riding with a 20lb sack of potatoes on my back that wanted to chase all the squirrels. I'd have preferred he run alongside the bike on a tether, but it was too hot for that with him in his full shaggy coat. He got a ~2mi run on easy paths in the campground after this for some exercise and it wiped him out.





Hopewell Rocks was the other main destination we targeted for this trip, to see the rock formations and the largest tides in the world. It did not disappoint, but it can get crowded. It was definitely the most crowded destination of this trip.





Mac mirroring his profile with that of Jay Leno Rock.



Looooooowwwww tide.



More delicious seafood. Lobster mac, Scallop linguine, and seafood chowder. Neither of us cared for the lobster and scallops we had eaten prior to this trip. Now we're spoiled on FRESH lobster and scallops, but at least we know that our previous examples of those foods bore no resemblance to their true potential.



I was really pleased with the ease of finding dog-friendly activities and destinations on this trip. We live in a dog-friendly town where it's easy to bring a dog along. When we do a camping trip, he has to come along with us pretty much by necessity. When we visit family, we need to make certain we have accommodations for our dog, because they live in places where dogs can't go almost anywhere. Finding a dog-friendly whale-watching tour was extra special.



We used a hipcamp in New Hampshire on the way home. It was a beautiful place, but lawd almighty the mosquitoes were hell. Even heavy doses of repellent weren't enough to make it tolerable to be outside. So no pics from there. But here's our stop at Trout Pond Recreation Area in West Virginia on our way home. This was a nice campground, even though it was kinda out there.

Final trip stats!



More pictures in this album here
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAUHYA

[RJ Howell]

Believed we've talked, yet remind me where you are out of. I can suggest a few overnights (free) that are worth the stay for maybe more than. Think we all talked about you timing and what you had to spend. Fundy National is that place you have now been that I have not spent time in!

We're still hoping for another slow run up into NB. Being we come out of NH (southern) I can hook you up on another overnight I like, or just go for it and stay in Maine (Airline Rips) before crossing.

Did you get to do the Fundy Parkway?? This is the main reason we want to head up again!

Expand a bit! I want to hear!!!

[Tom&Shelly]

Not sure what the policy is on dogs in New Hampshire or Vermont state parks, we be found those to be nice and not too expensive for non-electric sites. Lots of trees between campers! By contrast New York parks also have lots of trees, but are pricey.

For anyone interested, Maine's Baxter does not allow pets. That got my uncle and his dog a few years ago.

Great trip report! We enjoyed Campobello and Acadia last year, but didn't make it to Fundy NP yet.

Tom

[Capebuild]

Great report and really beautiful pix. We visited Fundy a number of years ago (pre-teardrop and tent camping). I couldn't get over the chocolate color of the water. I've heard some of the larger formations were toppled during Fiona last year.

We also were just up to Acadia 3 weeks ago. The carriage trail bike paths are great. We picked one of the longer ones to tackle (the "around the mountain" trail).... but all of them are great. We also went up into New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and into Cape Breton before all the provincial parks closed due to Hurricane Lee and we had to return early

John

[mtbikernate]

Not sure what the policy is on dogs in New Hampshire or Vermont state parks, we be found those to be nice and not too expensive for non-electric sites. Lots of trees between campers! By contrast New York parks also have lots of trees, but are pricey.

For anyone interested, Maine's Baxter does not allow pets. That got my uncle and his dog a few years ago.

Great trip report! We enjoyed Campobello and Acadia last year, but didn't make it to Fundy NP yet.

Tom

I didn't look into VT camping. That was farther than I wanted to drive in a day. I'd have picked one of the sites in the White Mtns National Forest, but I wanted access to a shower after a long day of driving. It would have made things easier for me if I had just done baby wipe "baths" on those days. But still, a warm shower was worth a little bit of trouble.

Believed we've talked, yet remind me where you are out of. I can suggest a few overnights (free) that are worth the stay for maybe more than. Think we all talked about you timing and what you had to spend. Fundy National is that place you have now been that I have not spent time in!

We're still hoping for another slow run up into NB. Being we come out of NH (southern) I can hook you up on another overnight I like, or just go for it and stay in Maine (Airline Rips) before crossing.

Did you get to do the Fundy Parkway?? This is the main reason we want to head up again!

Expand a bit! I want to hear!!!

I'm down in western North Carolina, Asheville vicinity.

We tried to work in the Fundy Parkway, but the timing was just a bit too tight when we were headed back from our whale watching tour. Plus, we needed to make a grocery run on the way back to camp.

Also got skunked on moose. I picked some of our hikes based on where people were reporting moose sightings on inaturalist to increase my chances of seeing one. No dice. Those buggers are tough to find. I got skunked visiting "moose habitat" in the UP of Michigan 20 years ago, too. And of course, my dad had a close encounter with one on his motorcycle on his own road trip last year (Indiana to Alaska and back).

It was definitely beautiful up there. Bugs weren't nearly as bad as we had prepared for.

Except the hipcamp in NH west of Plymouth. That place was in a river valley with moist woods/meadows and just a perfect environment for them. Worst I've ever had to deal with. But just down the road where we ate dinner, they weren't a problem.