On a chilly fall morning, with the leaves changing colours from green to red to yellow, Ryan and I bundled up in all of our warmest hiking gear, long johns included for me, packed our bags, and headed off to hike to the tallest point in the Maritimes. According to Tourism New Brunswick, Mount Carleton is the highest peak in the Maritimes at 820m (2, 690 ft). This hike includes a mix of Acadian woods and mountain peaks, set within a large provincial park which includes 17, 000 ha (42, 000 acres) of wilderness to explore. Ryan had been itching to go on a hike for a little while. He wanted to get out before the weather got to that awkward stage between being too cold to hike with regular pants, and too awkward to hike with snow pants (for the lack of snow). I would soon find out that he wanted to go hiking for very different reasons, unbeknownst to myself. I had chosen Mount Carleton because the pictures of the mountain peak looked stunning online, and I wanted to see all of the leaves changing colours. Autumn has to easily be my favourite season because of how crisp the air is and how beautiful the tress look. When we almost had arrived at Mount Carleton, after driving for more than several hours, I turned to Ryan and asked, “Wait, wasn’t this place a cash only spot?” We had just passed Perth-Andover (Perth is on one side of the bridge and over on the other side is Andover. Get it? Perth and Over! I chuckled for a good few minutes at that one). We were around an hour’s drive away from any ATM at this point. In a frenzy I ripped through our bags, found our wallets, and glory be, found a $10 to cover the cost of our vehicle entering the park. As soon as we pulled into the visitors centre, we were greeted with a “Bonjour!” Mount Carleton is situated firmly in the French speaking area of New Brunswick. This being said, however, the people there will switch to English once they see the doe-eyed look of the person looking at them like an alien has just landed on planet Earth asking for directions to Mars in a language like that depicted on Arrival, which is what I must have looked like at that moment. After paying our $10 and getting our map, we headed on the 20 minute drive from the main gate to the trail head. While I wanted to hike the shorter, but more challenging, Mt. Sagamook, we opted to stay on course for our plan to hike to the top of Mount Carleton. Soon, we had pulled into the parking lot, drove around it, drove out of it, and parked along the road. It was a busy day, and it seemed like everyone wanted to see the leaves work their magic during this majestic season. We quickly ate our sandwiches, as it was noon by the time we arrived at the trailhead, and headed towards the hiking trail. “Errrr...Marco? Where is the trailhead?” I asked, switching to his trail name because I was already lost and seeming to need our Marco-Polo system of address. “This way,” he pointed towards a small path towards the back left of the parking lot. There was no sign saying that this was the start of the path, and it looked so overgrown that you would be mistaken to think that this was a small side path that some hikers cleared away, not the official trail in the provincial park. Soon, I noticed the small green circle which let me know that we were on the correct trail. Just as I had suspected, the trail was in full bloom, with a dizzying colour array before our eyes. Ok, maybe it wasn’t peak season for leaves, and there was still a lot of green foliage, but the trail was still a beautiful sight to be seen. I happily snapped pictures of the trail as we walked our way up. While there were quite a number of cars in the parking lot, it didn’t feel like you were constantly hiking along side other people. We would occasionally pass someone, or someone would pass us walking, but once they were well ahead, you wouldn’t see anyone else for a while. It still felt like a secluded walk in the forest, which I appreciate. We walked past streams and babbling brooks. All the while, we were chatting about anything and everything that came to mind. The forest is a place where you can get some much needed nature therapy (scientifically proven to lower stress levels and increase those feel good chemicals). Soon, we came to the point where we could have camped if we had so wished to. As it is the shoulder season, and quite cold out, I’ve been shying away from camping in the cold. We also didn’t have much time to gather our camping gear for this trip, so we strode past he camping signs, taking note of it for when the weather would turn a little dryer and warmer. At this point on the trail, large rocks and small boulders take over, as you begin your climb to the edge of the tree line. The trees gradually become smaller, and the rocks gradually become larger. “Hump! Huah!” I exclaimed while climbing up the rocks. “Having fun back there?” Ryan asked. He always teases me because I make lots of noise (just in general and especially while I am climbing or hiking). “Yup!” I answered. “Want a hand?” He offered on some particularly deep knee bending climbs from rock to rock. “Nope!” “Stubborn?” “Yup!” Soon we came to a plateau. “Look at the view,” Ryan said as I climbed over the last rock. “Wow,” was all I could manage to say. The landscape before me offered a far-away view of the surrounding area. As the highest point in the Maritimes, the neighbouring valleys and peaks could be spotted. The leaves were showing a gradual change in colour from green, to yellow, to red. You could smell the aroma of autumn around you: wet, earthy, with just a hint of the frost to come. The wind was whipping around us and a chill was starting to make its way into my bones. I looked around, searching for the a form of shelter up on the top of this peak. “What are you looking for?” Ryan asked. “Isn’t there supposed to be a fire watch station up here?” “We aren’t at the peak yet.” “We aren’t?” I looked around and there was a small section where there was a taller looking rock. “Is it that?” I asked, pointing to the aforementioned rock. “Nope” “Nope?” “Nope. Come on, this way Polo.” Ryan walked off along the path towards a higher peak, only visible beyond the turn of the path. Where we were was known as the False Plateau. If you find yourself along this trail at any point, do not turn around here, there is more! Soon, the fire watch tower came into view, and we walked to the spike in the ground which showed us that we had made it to the top. We took a look around, snapped some photos, and simply took in where we were and the views that we were seeing. “Hmmm...it looks like it’s raining over there,” I said, pointing to a particularly angry looking cloud. Ryan seemed to be put off by the rain. It was windy and cold, and the prospect of getting wet didn’t seem to be pleasant. “Do you want to take more photos here?” Ryan asked. “Let’s warm up first in the fire station, and grab a bite to eat. I’m getting hungry. Plus then I can put my rain jacket on for when we start walking down.” Ryan agreed, and we headed off towards the fire station. The inside of which was a sight to be seen. It was very welcoming with the outside being so windy and cold, but the inside did not look like it was being taken care of very well. There was graffiti everywhere, the windows were opaque so that you couldn’t see out of the windows either upstairs or downstairs, and some of the wood planks in the walls and picnic tables needed to be replaced. However, in the cold rainy weather, it was very welcoming. Once we had eaten everything that we had wanted to, and I fished out my jacket, we noticed the sun shining through the windows, and braved our way outside to snap a few more pictures. “Let’s do one with the fire station in the background,” Ryan suggested. “Here?” “No, stand closer to the rock back there.” Ryan was adjusting the tripod so that we could both be in the photo. We had been snapping away, trying to find the best angle. We snapped a test photo and Ryan ran back to the camera to check if the picture had turned out. “Take your hood down,” Ryan said from behind the camera.
“It’s too sunny, I’ll be squinting,” I retorted. “Common’, it’ll look nicer.” “Ok,” I said, taking down the hood of my raincoat. “The other one too,” Ryan said, referring to the hood of my hoodie. “Ok,” I replied. “After this, we should try a photo over there,” I said. “Yeah, sure,” Ryan answered, seeming occupied by something. He clicked something on the camera and ran over. “Um, sweetie, the camera isn’t flashing like it normally does for a timer,” “Yeah,” he answered, smiling and very nervous. He began to reach for something in his pocket. He must be reaching for a remote control, I figured. But wait, if he has a remote control for the camera, why haven’t we been using it? Ryan got down on one knee. What did he drop? I thought. What happened next happened in a blur of emotions and wind. What I remember at this point was “Will you marry me?” being asked, a lot of “Oh my gosh”s, a “yes”, and I was somehow wearing a ring, wrapped in his embrace, and feeling incredibly happy. The rest of the walk down the trail happened quickly, with lots of smiles (to the point where it was starting to hurt!), and surreal feeling. I was realizing that I wasn’t walking off the mountain with a boyfriend, but rather with a fiancé. We were lucky that the rest of the trail wasn’t a difficult walk. There were no big boulders, or rocky paths like what we had encountered on the way up. If you struggle with climbing over rocks, walking up and back on this path might be your best option. We ended our hike with some pictures as a newly betrothed couple, excited to share our news with our family and friends.
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