Sugarloaf Park to St John NB

Away at 8:30 am with overcast and a muggy 21C. We got to Miramichi about noon, and found a Bell store. I wanted to find out the story with our Hub billing. After talking to several people at Bell “support”, the upshot is that I cancelled our Turbo Hub wifi hot spot plan.

There is no real protection for overcharges on these data Flex plans, except a CRTC-mandated warning if you’re about to go over $50 for the month. If you ok exceeding that, the sky’s the limit for billing. Bell offers NO WAY to set a personal upper limit, but will cheerfully charge you for every byte, too risky for my taste. There's no way we used anywhere near 2Gb this month already, and Bell had no explanations to offer.

While stopped (with “free” weekend cell time), we also set up our health coverage for the US. $60.90 Cdn covered 7 days (6 nights). Easy, but we need to get an annual plan next year to reduce the daily cost.

Cath called Nancy and Joyce, and traded texts with Barb. The cell plan is one reason the Hub is less valuable to us these days. We made and ate lunch before vacating the mall parking lot, a very useful stop.

We started heading for Kouchibouguac Park, but changed our minds before getting too far. Given our health coverage timing it made more sense to head right for Campobello and St Andrews, and then into the US.

Along the way we dove into Moncton traffic to the Costco for a couple of necessities. We figured it shouldn’t be too busy on a Saturday afternoon, with the kids back to school. Well, it seems that everybody in the area had the same idea! We got parked in the mall lot near Costco though, and were in and out of Costco in about 20 minutes. 

By 3:15 we were on our way, intending to stop around Sussex.

Nothing appealed at Sussex, so on to St John. We got to Rockwood Park about 5:15. A site with electric was $37. It’s a big park, right in St John. It would likely be a good base for a couple of days sometime, to take transit in to see more of the town. It’s foggy and down to 16C now. Cath was able to get our laundry done here.

Forillon to Campbellton NB via Gaspe

Happy 45th anniversary to us! Sunny and 16C at 8:15 am.

Today we carried on around the Gaspe, to the town of Perce and the famous rock. The town was a real disappointment today, with the main street ripped up, lots of construction, and no views of the rock. It wasn’t until we got through the town that there was a lookout spot to see the actual rock:

There are several cgs in Perce, and of course boat tours out around the rock. At 9:30 am it was too early to camp, and we decided to not do a tour since the town was quite difficult to navigate. Very disappointing!

So we carried on, picking up some groceries in a nice IGA in Grande Riviere. It was up to 19C by 11:30 am. Again a nice drive, all along the Quebec side of the Baie De Chaleurs. It’s a pretty large body of water when it’s right beside you.

We went right on into Campbellton NB and camped at Sugarloaf Prov Park for the night. Sunny and 22C at 4:30 pm, a gorgeous day.

Sugarloaf is a recreation area right on the edge of Campbellton, and the facilities include a nice restaurant, so we had an anniversary dinner there: a mussel appetizer, then we both had the special, beef kabobs on rice.

We were able to get free wifi at the park signin building, so caught up on emails. Yep, we sure do know how to have a good time! lol

Hiking in Forillon

Gord’s 67 today, so we had a special peameal and egg breakfast outside. Sunny and 11C at 6:30 am.

Tough when you have to cook your own special breakfast!

We took a 8 km hike along the southern coast of the park, leading to a lighthouse at the point. We were both pretty tired when we got back, but really enjoyed it. Lots of hills but we made it.

Our rewards along the way included:

Steeper than it looks!

Lots of ripe Sumac berries

Lots of views along the way

A gorgeous view from the lighthouse at the end

A golden eagle soaring around the lighthouse

- A small black bear back at the parking lot. You’ll have to trust us that that black lump behind the bench is a bear!

Back at the cg, Al phoned and said he wanted to pick up the trailer Sept 27 instead of next spring (this is our HiLo trailer that Al bought). Yippee, Happy Birthday Gord!

After a good break (and showers) we drove out to another part of the park. We didn’t hike the whole trail at Penouille out to the point, but it included an amazing new boardwalk. It looked like some kind of touring vehicle could drive on it, very heavy-duty stuff:

Apparently there is an old salt mine at the end of the trail. 

It was another pretty coastal walk, with lots of various kinds of gulls and a heron sighting. 

Yes, I know that black thing isn't a heron

After 45 minutes or so we had enough hiking though, and called it a day. 

There are large numbers of Mountain Ash trees in this area, all laden with red berries. We’ve seen many chickadees and cedar waxwings feeding on the berries. There will be some plump birds around here!

Matane to Forillon National Park PQ

The rain continued off and on overnight, leaving large puddles around the cg. Clearing and 17C when we hit the road.

Matane is a major manufacturer of wind turbines, and we met several of the large pieces being transported.

Our old propane adapter hose has cracks in it, not safe to use so no coffee this morning. The local Walmart opened at 8am though, shortly after we got there. We bought a new hose, but stopped for a travel breakfast and coffee at a nearby MacD’s. Later we stopped and made our own coffee too though.

This part of 132 is a really nice coastal drive, with picnic spots at the water in small towns, often only 5-10 km apart.

We’re seeing lots of Northern Gannets, as they dive for their fish.

We stopped at La Martie for a waterfall and a lighthouse, a scenic spot for a rest stop:

At the Cap Madeline lighthouse we bought a loaf of bread just out of the oven, lots of air in it but a great aroma.

 

We arrived at the Forillon National Park North entrance about 4:30, and decided to get an annual parks entry pass again, good to the end of Sept 2015.

The small cg at the North end is closed for the season now, so we drove to the south end of the park for sites. Some very rough construction along the way convinced us we wouldn’t be driving back up to the north end later on as we had planned. We did get a nice electric site for 2 nights in the South cg, $29 per. 

St Michel to Matane PQ

Away on Hwy 132 at 8:10, rainy and 17C. We came across a sculpture garden in St Jean Port-Joli about 9:30. Interesting place, with many unique outdoor figures:

After a half hour tour the sun came out, which made for a nicer drive along 132. It did rain on and off, but still several pretty stops along the way.

- Smoked salmon and sturgeon at a place along the river at Riviere Verte.

- St Flavie – concrete figures by, and even in, the water:

- Rimouski – stopped to visit the Onondaga submarine, on permanent display here after being towed from Halifax:

That's Cathie at the tail end

- Stopped at Fermorgorie near Matane for an organic tomato and some incredible cheddar cheese.

- Camped near Matane about 5pm, $26.50, Sunny and 24C. Nice spot but lots of truck traffic noise and lights overnight.