We spent the night at Les Jardins Provincial Park just
outside Edmunston, New Brunswick. It was still raining in the evening, so we
cooked dinner in the pavilion and slept in the car. After a trip to the grocery
store and Tim Hortons (for doughnuts!), we realized that New Brunswick is a
bilingual province and that we are still very much on the francophone side.
We chose Mount Carleton Provincial Park for our destination,
which was only about a two-hour drive. The lonely road led into the wildnerness
with nary a sign of civilization until St-Quentin – the apparent host of a
western festival judging by all the cowboy décor around the village. After
that, it was back to nature.
The park appears to have been carved from timberlands which
surround it. We found ourselves driving through various stages of forest growth
on the way in. Upon arrival, we set up camp and mounted the bikes for a short
ride. It turned out that we went around the Nictau lakes with a stop in a cabin
on the southern shore for admiring the view and snack consumption.
The rest of the evening was spent playing cards in a
communal cabin at our campground. The weather was cold and the cook stove in
the cabin was crackling, we cooked our pea soup on the woodstove. As the sun
began to set, we made our way back to our campsite for sleep.
We awoke early the next morning, but the air was so cold
that we played “sleeping bag chicken.” Lisa moved first. We packed our campsite
and headed to the trailhead for Mount Carleton – the namesake of the park and
the highest point in the Maritime Provinces. The path followed a babbling brook
for a few miles before getting more steep and rocky. We had an excellent view
from the top, and when we had satisfied ourselves with the view, we descended
on the old fire tower road.
For lunch, we returned to the communal cabin for the zenith
of our one pot cooking: tomato-pesto tortellini with olives and red pepper. We
are becoming the masters of cooking without hauling a cooler.
We are now on our way east to see the Acadian peninsula.
Bathurst here we come!
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