From where I live in Maine, I have an embarrassment of hiking riches. I’m four hours or so from Jacques-Cartier, an hour from both Baxter State Park and Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, a half hour to forty-five minutes from Acadia. Looking for my usual Memorial Day escape this year, I entertained doing Evans Notch, a DIY loop trail in White Mountain National Forest between New Hampshire and Maine. The only problem was, with a rare, spring Nor’easter on its way, there was snow in the forecast.
Looking around, I saw that Fundy National Park was within striking distance, a mere four hours away from where we live near Bangor.
The Journey May Be the Best Part
If you’re coming up I-95, you can cross at Houlton and take Trans-Canada Highway 2 most of the way. Coming from our area, we take the venerable Airline, Maine Route 9, to Calais and cross there, taking the Fundy Coastal Route. I stopped at all the “Saint” towns along the way, culminating with St. John as Shabbos approached.
I always like to visit Shaarei Zedek, a Conservative synagogue in St. John with a lovely building and an attached museum. After services, I checked out the Reversing Falls.
After Shabbat, continued on to Moncton, and then stopped at Cape Enrage. I was too early for the iconic Hopewell Rocks, but it’s nice to save something for another trip.
Finally arriving at the Alma entrance to the national park, I took in the coastline, checked in with the park, and started my hike in a mild downpour.
The Fundy Circuit
This 28 mile hike was, to me, kind of “meh.” There are some unbridged river crossings, but as far as a backcountry experience goes, even the Cutler Coast in Maine’s Washington County felt a little more dramatic. Most of the hiking is inland, which is fine, but the scenery was limited to some lovely lakes, a gorge, both slow and fast-flowing rivers, and green tunnels.
Still, I sighted any number of moose.
Some notes about hiking in Fundy…backcountry sites require a fee-based, prior reservation with Canada’s national park system. For the circuit, there are only a handful of options. For me, I did day one at Marven Lake, and day 2 at Tracy Lake. There are no options past that, so I recommend doing the hike clockwise, and saving the heavy Salmon River crossings for the end of the hike. You spend less time with wet feet as a result.
I beat black fly season by a hot minute, which was already in full swing in Maine. It was also very rainy, which made the river crossings a little more hazardous. One was cabled, another was not. I watched a guy with a small dog attempt one of the crossings a few times, forcing his small dog to try and swim it. Don’t be that guy.
A Note About Jewish Safety
Israel has issued a revised travel advisory for Jews in Canada.
There was some serious vandalism at the synagogue in Fredricton, New Brunswick in recent months, so this may or may not extend to the Canadian Maritimes. I thought hard about hiding my yarmulke when crossing the border, but my licenseplate literally has “JEW” in it so, kind of hard to obscure something so key. At any rate, the Canadians I met were very kind. My Jeep left the Fundy parking lot with yet another duck on the door handle. Don’t believe the hype, it’s probably places like Toronto or Montreal. We’ve visited Quebec several times, however, since October 7th with no problems.