Springfield to Newtown | Campsite: 45.83018° N, 65.44755° W
The morning is cool at 8 degrees, but the Arc’Teryx puffy jacket keeps me warm. I didn’t put the rain fly on the tent last night, so naturally the morning has to be foggy and wet, full of dew, resulting in a tent coated in beaded water. I am ready and walking by 5:30 down Highway 124 toward the town of Norton. I decide to take a chance on a gas station just off the Trans-Canada Highway—a bit out of my way—and I am tickled to find an NB Liquor outlet attached. I enjoy a pint with cooked rice and noodles and pack a pint for the road. From the town of Springfield to the village of Norton I’ve walked 16 km, with an upcoming 19 km to the town of Sussex, which is the focus of the day. As I sit eating and resting on a picnic table, the day has become sunny with a flawless blue sky. I believe this is the first sun I’ve seen in the province of New Brunswick! I am back out walking by 9:10 northeast after a 40-minute break, moving up “Riverside Drive E” which will follow the Trans-Canada 1 highway the full distance to Sussex. And that is exactly what I do. The walk is good with wide, level, comfortable roadside shoulders. I arrive in Sussex around 1:30, finding wifi in order to post to the blog, transcribe a future post, transfer image files from my phone to my laptop, and back up files to the external hard drive. After all this work is looked after, I map out the afternoon and tomorrow morning. The city of Moncton is in sight, and in two days I will be there. I met a man named Robert in Sussex who works with military veterans. He was sitting with another man, and it sounded as though they were developing fundraising initiatives. I asked about the roads up ahead into the town of Petticodiac, and they both recommended walking the Trans-Canada Highway, saying that it would ultimately be safer than the much narrower roads, offering wider shoulders on which to walk. Robert seemed impressed that I was walking, and asked why I didn’t choose to cycle—a good question, one I’ve been thinking more and more about as a possible new challenge in the future. I thanked them both and, filling up the bottles with water, exited the air-conditioned restaurant. The afternoon was now hot as I made my way through the town of Sussex to the north side and onto Highway 890. I just wasn’t ready for the speed and noise of the Trans-Canada Highway yet. I set back out into the sun and now hot 20-degree afternoon, walking Highway 890 to the hamlet of Smiths Creek and on to the hamlet of Newtown where I find a church that appears as though it has not been used in decades. By 6:00 the tent is up as a massive industrial transport growls and snarls for over an hour in the adjacent property while being loaded up with some kind of industrial equipment. I journal the day down, map tomorrow’s walk to the town of Petticodiac, and get the hell off of my feet!
Today’s distance walked: 48.35 km | Total distance walked: 1,790.26 km
“I really like what you are doing?” – Robert, a man I met in the town of Sussex
Upper Gagetown to Springfield | Campsite: 45.67735° N, 65.81607° W
The day began a little late. By 6:10 I was walking, having had a good rest over the night. The morning was cool at 5 degrees. Traffic was light and the road was narrow. The 14 km distance to a small village called Jemseg was made incident-free. Owen was a man I met at exactly the right time. I had been following Highway 105 and along the walk, it began to appear less and less in use. Tree growth began to billow out over the road and plants were seen ever more commonly growing up from the cracks in the asphalt. The road had—at one time—continued over the Trans-Canada Highway by way of an overpass. However, the structure, broken down and fenced off, was no longer in use. The roadway continued from this point as a gravel path, and I decided to follow it as the direction still aligned with where I needed to go. Eventually, however, the river the road had been following impeded its progress, and the path came to an end. At this point, I had no alternative but to turn back the way I had come to retrace the past five km of road. This is when I met Owen. He was driving a vehicle with a fishing boat mounted to a trailer. A face emerged from a window as the vehicle slowed to a stop, and a man smiling says, “Well I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” I explain what I was doing and he offered to ferry me to the other side of the river where a trail would take me back to the road. Owen had decided to take a half-day off work in order to fish the river before attending to a few service calls. He didn’t live in the area—it was a complete chance that I ran into him. His was the only vehicle I had seen driving along this roadway all morning. As he was preparing the boat he looked at me and said, “You know, I have to ask: what in the heck are you doing way out here?” I told my story and we eased into conversation. He told me that he traveled to Newfoundland with his father last year, mentioning that the people of NL were the best l would ever meet. They were friendly, funny, hospitable, and narrators of the best stories. He ferried me over, I climbed out of the boat, thanked him, wished him luck on his morning fishing, and I was miraculously able to continue walking without having to backtrack. What an incredible instance of grace, an example of the trail providing! I arrived at the village of Jemseg, continuing on to the junction of Cambridge-Narrows. Two large, steep hills had gotten the best of me on this leg of the walk, and had me limping to the corner store by 11:20. I bought a few pints, found a picnic table at a closed food truck restaurant across the street, and cooked lunch while journaling out the morning of grace. I finished by 12:15 and began walking Highway 695. The walk to a hamlet called Springfield was difficult—tiring with three large hills to climb. Earlier this morning I had climbed 1,614 metres of hills on the road to Cambridge-Narrows. With that afternoon’s climbing of over 2,000 metres, the day turned into a workout. I did find a fast-moving stream from which I was able to filter many bottles of water, increasing my confidence over the final kilometres of walking into Springfield as the water would come in handy for tomorrow’s breakfast, not to mention the 30 km walk to the town of Sussex. This would be an important stop, as it was the final water and food refill for the final 85 km stretch into the city of Moncton. I arrived in the small town of Springfield around 4:30 and had the tent up by 5:00. It was most likely too early, but I was just gassed from the day’s workout and was focused on getting as horizontal as soon as possible. I journal, read, map out the route for tomorrow, and fell asleep easily.
Today’s distance walked: 48.44 km | Total distance walked: 1,741.91 km
The trail provides and the Dude abides.
Fredericton to Upper Gagetown | Campsite: 45.85126° N, 66.23009° W
After three great relaxing days in Fredericton, I wake early to prepare for the morning walk of 22 km into the small town of Oromocto. The pack is ready and organized by 5:40, and I leave the motel by 5:45. On the walk out of town via Highway 105 I drop off the old Patagonia rain jacket at a clothing bank that Kaylee from “Backtrails” recommended. For the first few hours, the walk is peaceful and quiet, but by 7:00 traffic begins to move along the road. I reach the bridge by the small town of “Burton” by 9:30, walking the three km into the town of Oromocto by 10:00. A coffee is acquired, and a picnic table behind the restaurant is used to cook rice and ramen as I journal and map the afternoon’s walk. By 10:40 I am packing up, refilling the water bottles, and walking out of town toward the small town of Cambridge-Narrows along Highway 105. The scenery improves the farther I walk. The road has many turns, with very few long straight stretches, so the walk is lively. By 2:00 the muscles begin to become sore, and by 3:00 I am looking more desperately for a place to camp. I eventually find one that will suffice, and far enough away from the road to provide cover and dampen the volume and noise of traffic. By 4:00 I am inside the tent with the journal and post-walk snacks. Today’s distance of nearly 46 km is a great start on this section toward the city of “Moncton” even though 3 km was walked into the town of Oromocto for supplies (plus 3 km retracing my steps out of town). The lunch, water, and coffee that were enjoyed made the distance worth the effort, and the rest was needed, so I consider the effort expended worthwhile. There is 24 km left to walk before arriving in Cambridge-Narrows where refilling the water bottles should be available. Another 40+ km day tomorrow should place me within 35 km from the town of Sussex which is an important point along this section. It includes both food and water refilling resources. I feel as though once I arrive in Sussex I’ll feel more confident about this difficult segment of the walk. By 4:30 I am reading from Coelho. 16 pages are all I am able to finish, as I keep drifting off to sleep and having to reread lines over and over again. I organize the tent, secure everything into dry sacks, close all windows, and burrow into the quilt and liner for warmth and sleep.
Today’s distance walked: 45.81 km | Total distance walked: 1,693.47 km
