Some nervousness crept in through the window with the cool breeze that was slowly taking over our apartment. The weather started to carry the promise of summer on the spring breeze, and with it, a nervous excitement for camping. "We're taking the warm sleeping bags, right?" I asked Ryan. "Already laid out with our gear!" He shouted back. With a brief shiver, I closed the window and tried to push the ominous warning out of my mind. It was an overnighter; we could pack some extra warm items and it wouldn't make our packs heavier than normal. The forecasted rain on Sunday, and my camping curse, weighed heavily in my mind as we finished packing up our packs. With our final weight coming in at 26lbs, including consumables, I tried to reason that we were fully prepared. We wouldn't be on trail for a multi-day hike. If it was too cold, we'd be out the next day. Still, that blasted curse kept me tossing and turning all night. What is the camping curse? Well, I'm glad you asked. The camping curse started when Ryan and I met. I was a naive, fair-weather day hiker, and he was a lucky, although he didn't know it at the time, multi-day backpacker. For our first multi-day hike I was nervous and asked, "What if it rains?". Ryan replied saying, "It's never rained when I've gone multi-day hiking", and this is when the curse set in. All of our camping trips experienced some sort of rain. Now, you might be thinking that there is no way it has rained for every trip, but I can assure you that it has. I had some friends visit during one of New Brunswick's driest dry spells. There was a fire ban at Fundy National Park which was only lifted the day before we got there. That night the heavens opened, and it rained so heavily that my friends had to sleep in the dining shelter. I still laugh about it to this day. Sorry guys! Next time, I'll rain proof the tent twice! With the curse in the back of my mind, and a 4C wind gaining momentum outside, I was a tad bit nervous to start out on our hike. Recently, New Brunswick has committed to spending $46 million dollars to building a new road that will connect St. Martin's, New Brunswick with Alma, New Brunswick. The road up to Walton Glen Gorge has been completed, and it is part of the Fundy Trail Parkway. It's easy to get a day pass and park your car to do any overnighter on this section of the Fundy Footpath. There are still a few access trails that you can get to without going into the official park. Once you're on the Fundy Footpath it doesn't matter which park you are in. There are plans to extend the trail, but as of right now it's still in a transition. As of this weekend, you do not need to reserve tenting sites on the footpath. The access trail that we took into the footpath was the McCumber access trail. To get to this trail, from Fundy Trail Parkway, drive up to the last parking lot at Walton Glen Gorge. Walk down the trail that points you towards the footpath. Don't fool yourself into a false sense of security, this path is still not well marked. We knew that, in theory, we needed to follow the map pictured above. We had been on it previously, 2 years ago, when this section of the road was not developed. At one point, when we were going to Walton Glen Gorge, we picked up around 15 people who were lost and looking to visit the gorge. Ryan had to act as tour guide. "If you want to see the top of the gorge, follow us. If you want to go down into the gorge itself, continue down this path and you will start descending into the gorge." A woman with her two kids shouted to them, "Hurry up guys! Our guide is leaving; we'll get lost without him." He should have told them that we were working for tips, ha! To get to the McCumber access trail, follow the guided pictures below. The Fundy Footpath has to be one of my favourite trails that we've done. The fact that it's close by gives it bonus points, but it's really a fun trail, in that break-you-down-as-a-person way. We got to the trail too late to do any foraging. The peas, raspberries, and gooseberries were not yet growing, and the fiddle heads were too far along, or fuzzy (which it is dangerous to eat the fuzzy ones). Still, even without being able to forage, there is something very calming about walking through the forest. We had limited access to cell reception, and a silence that was only broken by my million stories that I feel compelled to tell while on trail. Lucky for Ryan, they tend to be the same 10 - 15 stories about previous camping trips, which he was mostly on. I'm hoping with increased camping trips comes an increasing talent in story telling! We wandered our way down the access trail, which is deceivingly lazy and meandering through the woods. "Well this isn't too bad," I remarked to Ryan. "Mmmm," he replied, with a reassuring "mmmm". My trail legs were getting under me, and I was noticing all of the yellow blazes, which was abnormal. Normally, on trail, my name is "Poco". The reason it's Poco? I am usually shouting out "MARCOOOOO!" when I inevitably get lost. All of these feelings were lulling me into a false sense of security though. We weren't on the footpath yet. I had 4 km to feel like I could be an expert hiker this year, then we hit the footpath. Now, as far as the footpath goes, this overnight trip is one of my favourites. Little Salmon is one of the most peaceful places I've gone camping. It is a tree covered camp site nestled between two foggy hills made of every shade of deep green that nature can imagine. It is completed with a few chirping, adventurous (brave), and over fed little squirrels that I've ever met. You're more likely to run into squirrels taking your food, rather than bears. Granted, we use the provided bear-box, so we've never had a problem with bigger animals. Don't let this lull you into a false sense of security. Those little sneaky ninja-squirrels will get to your food if you aren't constantly watching it. Before getting to the camp site, we first had to get through the footpath. There is one thing that rings true for the footpath, no matter how short a section of the hike you choose to do: going up is hard; going down hurts. Pick your pain. Out of interest in what the footpath looks like in numbers, I wore a Fitbit tracker to see what it would record. Keep in mind that Fitbits are not 100% accurate, and that the "flights of stairs" are only counted going up. Apparently, at Fitbit, they think that going down is easy. I challenge them to this hike! Below is the results of my hiking for the day. Before being able to get to our blissful camp site, we needed to wade across a small river running between us and our final camping spot. Now, it was a very warm 14C during the day. The nights had been dropping to an even warmer 2C - 4C. It was safe to say that the water was cold. Enjoy the video below of me crossing this, very cold, water. Around 15 minutes into our nap that we were sneaking in before getting our fire ready for the night, I heard some screaming. Oh no, no, no. No. No. Peace! Where is my peace and quiet? Where is my blissful reflection while having a drink and watching the sun set over the hill? Thump, thump, thump Oh my gawddd! My legs are chaffing! They're so wet! Ahhhhh! Thump, thump, thump No. No. No. No. Ughhhhh. No. Wait, that's not my tent! Thump, thump, thump "Muuuurrrrph?" Ryan said, getting awoken by teenagers who sound like they are running laps around our tent. He climbed out of the tent and tried to figure out what was going on. I stayed, pulled the hat down over my eyes and tried to get a few more minutes of napping in. Apparently we were sharing our camp site with an outdoor pursuits class. Sometimes you just can't get away from students, even if you hike 15kms into the woods. It's safe to say that they were loud all night. Luckily, the tent site it quite big, and we were able to camp far away from them, and get some privacy. We spent the remainder of the night watching the camp fire and playing Crazy 8s. With the sound of the fire crackling, the smiles and laughing of playing a card game, and the cozy feeling of the sleeping bag at the end of the night, the stress of the week had easily slipped into the cool inky black of the night. Our next day's hike was tiring, and left me napping for the remainder of the day. However, once we reached the car Ryan turned to me and said, "I feel like we should just sit and wait for rain to come before we can get in the car and drive off." I had forgotten all about the camping curse. Some god was smiling down on us this trip, and we finally managed to break the camping curse, nearly 4 years later.
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