Paddling the Fundy Highlands

Hi Blog!

Monday, August 27, 2018, was our last full day in Fundy National Park. We started our day with a coffee walk down to Alma to check out the low tide. As many times as we have seen the tides come and go in the Bay of Fundy, it is still weird to see the boats at the dock sitting on the ground.

Fundy National Park covers two different ecoregions. The coastal zone and the northern uplands forest. As you head inland from the coast, you are soon surrounded by a mixed-wood forest which contains sugar and red maple, white and red spruce and balsam fir trees. The park has adopted the expression "Salt and Fir" which was used to describe the people of this area who earned their living from the sea and forest. Don't you just want to know what is just around that bend!

As with most of our stays, there is more here to do than we have time to do them. We also learned that there is more to Fundy National Park than just the access to the Bay of Fundy. The park covers over 80 square miles from the rugged coastline to the Canadian Highlands. After two days of exploring the coast, we decided to head up into highlands and paddle Bennett Lake.

After putting in, we begin our exploration. Just past the boat launch is a small beach and swimming area. The far end of the beach seems to be reserved for puppies!

The park has at least 100 resident moose. As we paddled around the quiet coves, we were on the lookout for signs of moose.

This little guy was so well camouflaged that we almost missed him.

However, it was hard to miss these brightly colored flowers reflecting in the still water.

We floated slowly by this beaver lodge not wanting to disturb their afternoon siesta.

Sorry, Dave. I really, really thought this was a moose! Surely you can see it back there in woods.

After mistaking a log for a moose, we knew it was time for lunch. We found a nice little island in the middle of lake and proceeded to picnic.

After lunch, it wasn't just the beavers who were enjoying their siesta!

Bennett Lake is only about two miles around. We were surprised to see a second beaver lodge.

Most of the time, when we come across wildlife, the camera never seems to be ready. We got lucky this time.

You may think by these photos that we had the lake to ourselves. Oh contraire! The Park Services offers canoe, kayak and paddle board rentals. By the time we launched, there were dozens of watercraft plying the shores. Luckily, the lake was large enough we didn't bump into each other.

This was the third beaver lodge we found. However, upon closer inspection, we realized that this lodge was probably vacant for several years which could explain why there were two others on the far side of the lake.

We found a number of these yellow lily flowers. This was our best shot.

As you know, Kathy has been collecting Parks Canada Red Chairs. In all our collecting, this is the first time we paddled to a red chair location.

Tomorrow we head south to Oak Bay, New Brunswick which will put us close to the border with Maine. We are hoping to get over to Campobello Island. Stay tuned.