A Hike in to Kinnie Brook

Following a great Remembrance Day ceremony in Sussex my kids and I joined two other families for a hike in Fundy National Park.  My wife unfortunately was not feeling well and had to stay at home.  Prior to today, I had never hiked the Kinnie Brook trail, mainly because it was always to short.  With the kids and a late start, Kinnie Brook was an ideal choice.  I was thoroughly surprised by this short but adventurous trail.  The topography and geology were intriguing and the rock escarpments were calling to be explored.  The well maintained trail was easy to follow and I felt comfortable letting the kids explore on ahead and this probably led to them having a lot more fun.  After the short walk into the brook, which by the way, flows underground at the end point, we dropped our packs and explored.  The karst topography meant there were some shallow holes and small caves, the Acadian forest meant there were twisted yellow pines on beds of thick mosses.  The protruding bedrock spires made you feel like you were in a place out of the "Hobbit" and as I sat and made hot chocolate I was smiling broadly.

Like many hikes, as we left the valley and headed to the parking lot, my heart felt heavy.  The dim sunset put a somber feeling on what, I guess should be, a somber day.  Thanks to the veterans and service men/women who continue to fight so I can continue to enjoy such a park.

Here is a short video of our hike.

FFP 2012: The Beaches

Looking over the Fundy Coast from Martin Head shows how many beaches could exist here.

This is my last look at my spring 2012 hike across the Fundy Footpath with 3 generations of the Whalen clan who I introduced in the first hike entry - The Hikers.  It was a great trip and one that will be remembered for many years.  The parks, the tidal flats, and the waterfalls, are all notable on a global scale.  For me though, the best thing about the Fundy Footpath is it's beaches.

The beaches are full of a variety of tidal life.

When most people think about beaches they think about warm glistening water and long ribbons of white sand but, typical of the FFP, in this wilderness the beaches are even rugged.  The tides are the highest in world and so the beach changes dramatically every six hours.  With the constant flow of the Bay of Fundy the water never gets that warm and even during a hot day in July it takes thick skin to be able to swim.  If you could stand the water temperature, in order to get to the water you typically have to navigate over large boulders to get there.

Just about every time the FFP crosses a river it comes to the mouth of the Bay to do so.  Each time, the hiker is rewarded with the sound of crashing waves on rocky beaches.  Wolfe Brook and Telegraph Brook each have a steeply sloped, boulder covered beach, where wave watching is an awesome experience, especially on windy days.  At high tide along these beaches you are hemmed in close to the shore and it is hard to find a spot where ocean spray can't find you, but during low tide, you can explore the rock faces and smooth boulders.  Regardless of where the tide is on its cycle, both of these small, unconventional beaches offer something to see and explore.  If your into collecting stones, skipping stones, or as one acquaintance of mine does, balancing them, these beaches (as most FFP beaches) are a stone lovers dream.  If you like scrambling and playing on boulders these beaches are great during low tide as you can find crevices, caves, are passages that are fun to play around.  I like all of this stuff but what I truly love is finding that low lying boulder that has the right slant and smoothness that I can comfortably lean back into it and use it as a chair to watch the waves crash in.

Wolfe Brook has lots of rock and boulders to explore.

The beach at Martin Head is one of the most iconic locations on the FFP.  It is a long beach that resembles the more typical image of a beach, especially at high tide.  The long isthmus that forms the "Head" is very gravelly with well rounded and weathered rocks.  The Quiddy River delta is a mud sliders paradise and is full of thick, slippery, mud.  For those who like to build sand castles, there is lots of sand too.  There is no poor time of year to explore this beach but on long weekends through the summer it can be busy with off-road vehicles who like to use the beach as a camping area.  Why wouldn't they?  It's a beautiful spot to watch the tides and soak up the sun.  With the history of this place exposed at a number of locations it is easy to get lost here.  Your mind drifts over not just the scenes in front of you but also through those you can imagine from years gone by.

Martin Head  can be viewed from a variety of angles, none of which are bad.

A beach similar to Martin Head would be Long Beach.  As it's name implies this is a long beach.  Small airplanes have been known to land here.  There is history here as well, although not as obvious as Martin Head, it can be seen if you know where to look.  At high tide this beach is a long ribbon along the shore where in places it is impassable while at low tide there is an unimaginably wide beach over 2km in length.  The highlights here change after every storm as new drift wood floats in and old rocks are covered over.  It is worth exploring over and over again.

Seeley Beach seems to enhance everything, including fog banks.  How cool is that?

The last beach is probably my favorite.  I try to camp here whenever I can and I have never had a bad night.  Even when the weather is poor, it is like the old saying a bad day at Seeley Beach is better than a great day at work.  On a rainy day the sun seems to glisten off the millions of rocks and make it sparkle like the jewel it is.  The topography of  the beach extends it out into the Bay more than other beaches so you can look north up the Bay over all the ground you have or will hike over if you're hiking the FFP.  If you place your tent right and conditions are perfect, you can watch the best sunrise in the morning while you can count the Nova Scotia lighthouses in the evenings.  I watched lighting one minute here, double rainbows, and storms move up the Bay.  

As I finish this entry up I think about other aspects of the FFP and I've decided that I'll add an entry of photos with captions at a later date.  I hope that these entries have peaked your curiosity and you'll get out there and experience some of the locations I have wrote about on your own.  Happy trails.

Park Ecosystems over Economics

This is a column I submitted and had published in the January 10, 2012 edition of the Kings County Record.  I was prompted to write this as I continually hear people talking about the need to generate revenue from our National Parks.  While I think Parks don't need to cost us money, I also don't think they need to make us money.  In my mind the purpose of a National Park is to protect in perpetuity the natural ecosystems within the Park borders.  I feel that if we don't stand up now that the economic and ecological line will be so muddy it will be to late.  Let me know what you think.

This photo was taken near the east entrance to Fundy National Park.

Sometime ago I attended a stakeholder engagement session for Fundy National Park.  I left the session feeling concerned about some of the discussion and the direction that was being indicated by the Park staff present.  Now, sometime later, I received a package in the mail about the success of our National Parks program and the celebration of the Parks centennial birthday.  A sentence in the cover letter that accompanied the package, again, made me nervous with its referral to the economic factors of Parks Canada. 

The natural environment is what National Parks were established to maintain, now and into the future.  On the Parks Canada website it states "To protect, as a first priority, the natural and cultural heritage of our special places and ensure that they remain healthy and whole."    Many people seem to think that our National Parks should be operated like a corporate industry and rake in tons of economic resources and this frustrates me.  The discussion about Fundy was about increasing the amount of infrastructure so that the public could be better served and would pay more to come to the Parks.  This infrastructure comes at a cost though, and not just a financial cost.  Typically when you increase the human foot print you have an impact on the natural environment that they "as a first priority" are supposed to protect. 

It was stated at the engagement session that Parks Canada visitor numbers are down and managers are suggesting that the improved and increased infrastructure will increase visitation rates.  I question the validity of this claim though and feel that in reality that Parks Canada is alienating the customers that originally provided the bulk of the support.  Those people who crave true wilderness adventures are not going to appreciate larger parking lots, more buildings and picnic shelters, and more accessible trails and will likely look elsewhere for their wilderness adventures.  This means that increased infrastructure will actually reduce visitor numbers while increasing management and maintenance costs.

To me our Parks should be managed to protect the natural environments within their boundaries for many generations to come.  By natural, I mean undisturbed with minimal human footprints.  With an increasing population that supports ecological conservation those truly seeking a wilderness experience will pay sufficiently to protect the natural environments with little to no infrastructure.  Minimal linear corridors should be developed and any interpretive, recreational, and large scale accommodation should be done outside Fundy National Park boundaries.  With proper planning and communication between Park staff and the bordering municipalities this could provide great resources to the community while maintaining the natural integrity of the Parks ecosystem. 

I realize that managing a Park such as Fundy is difficult and maintaining a natural balance more so.  I applaud the staff of Fundy for the great work they do and for the services they currently provide.  My concern is simply that some managers within Parks Canada may be considering tipping the scale more to the economic side during these supposedly hard economic times.  This would be a costly mistake that once made could not be easily corrected.  I would support increasing the size of Fundy before I could support more buildings and facilities as this would only further enhance the ecosystem connectivity and thus the visitor experience.

Looking from the golf course in Fundy National Park towards Alma.