Listen... to crashing waves & wind

What's that? A clear blue sky was this morning's greeting, and it stayed with me for the entire day.

Breakfast again started with fresh fruit and continued with oatmeal. Ah, that was good. When offered a choice for the hot portion of my meal, well oatmeal just jumped out and grabbed me. I may make the same choice tomorrow morning..

The shared sitting room at Barb's looks out over a marshy area, a river that flows at high tide but is dry at low tide, the Bay of Fundy in the distance, and some outcrops of land too. As I was eating and chatting with Barb, we were both enjoying the morning sights. She was looking and looking, finally grabbing the telescope and sharing. I saw a bald eagle sitting on her (his?) nest. That was awesome. I told Barb about the birds I saw perched on a nest on a pole next to some power lines as I was driving on the Acadian Peninsula; she thought those birds were probably osprey. I went searching for a photo, and I'm sure that she was right.

Breakfast and bird-watching from afar done, I headed out to start my wanderings. My first stop was Cape Enrage, a lighthouse and a rocky beach at the end of a peninsula just down the road from here. Portions of the road are being re-paved, which made for a rather interesting journey back. I have to admit I've never seen this variation of road construction before. Keep in mind that this is a narrow two-lane road with no shoulders. Instead of paving one lane at a time, they were working on the full width of the road. They dumped a full truckload of paving material across the road, smoothed it out, and then let the cars pass - whch I'm sure left a rutted surface that was going to need to be smoothed again. And again. Rather odd behavior...

The lighthouse is in a beautiful spot, on a spit of land extending into chignecto Bay. Sunlight sparkled on the water.

I walked on the very rocky beach at Cape Enrage for a bit, and then it was time to head in to Fundy National Park. My first stop was at Dickson Falls. The trail signs offered a 'straight there' option, or a circular (and longer) route. You know which one I took, don't you? Yes, the longer option. It started as a normal trail, but was supplemented by boardwalks and sets of stairs as the trail skirted tumbling water and a pair of skinny waterfalls.

I made a quick stop at the beach at Herring Cove before heading out on the three-sided Matthews Head trail. That trail was mainly in the woods with occasional views of the water. Sunlight filtered through the trees, and I could always look up to peer through the trees to a still very blue sky. The walking surface at the beginning and end of the trail was very smooth, but a good chunk of the trail presented jumbled tree rooots as a trail. To say that I had to pay attention to where my feet landed is a bit of an understatement. The trail stared high, and headed down toward the edge of a cliff above the water. (Yes, it was perfectly safe - and not right on the edge. But it also didn't go down to water level.) A beautiful walk in the woods...

After walking today, I've decided that New Brunswick is corrugated. Ridges, up, down, up, up, over and over.

Enough! I thought about heading to Point Wolfe, but I decided that can be my first stop tomorrow morning. It was time to stop for a bit.

It was a good walking day, one accented by the sounds of waves and wind. The only time that I lost the sound of the water when I was walking was at the apex of the triangle, my starting (and ending) point for the Matthews Head hike.

I had a relatively early dinner, then stopped to walk on the beach for a while. Walking, listening to the waves, watching the water recede. Back at the B&B, it was time for an evening of conversations.

Tomorrow? I plan to spend the better part of the morning hiking in Fundy National Park before I set off on my long drive back to Maine. According to Google Maps it is about a 5 1/2 hour drive, and that doesn't include any extra time needed to cross the border. Moving back to Eastern time from Atlantic time means that I'll have an extra hour in my day though. Does that mean that the drive will only take 4 1/2 hours?