“Yes, but if you take the cross country ski trail it’ll get you there faster,” the gentleman from Parks Canada responded.
“How is the snowshoe trail?” we asked, being stubborn.
“Wet, the cross country trail is well groomed,” he answered.
We thanked him, and off we went to park our car overnight and head off to our cabin in the woods. We had booked a cabin in Kouchibouguac National Park a month earlier. I had always wanted to try out winter camping, but I’m a suck for cold weather; I didn’t want to chance being frozen in a tent. A cabin in the woods with wood stoves seemed like the perfect idea. Kouchibouguac is located on the south eastern part of New Brunswick, in the French speaking part of the province. They have cabins to rent for the winter, excellent cross country skiing trails (groomed daily), snowshoeing trails, and fat bikes for rent. The price of the cabins are not unreasonable at around $70/night for a cabin which sleeps approximately 6 people.
Ryan and I weren’t sure what we had wanted to do - fat bike, snowshoe, or cross country skiing. Once we arrived at the park we learned that the trails for cross country skiing were mushy, and wet. It had been warm for the past few days. We ended up deciding to go snowshoeing because the trail looked like it would be fun, following the river, and we had our own snowshoes.
We didn’t get to the park until 2:30 pm, and so we drove and parked half way up the trail. We didn’t want to be hiking in the dark and set up our stove in the dark. We figured that we could get to our location before sundown with only 6.5 km of snowshoeing. We got our packs all packed up, snowshoes on, and water easily accessible. We were ready to start our overnight, camping trip.
The trail was beautiful, and there were so many bridges to cross. Ryan laughed as every 30 minutes or so I’d say “Hey look! A bridge!”. We soon found that it was difficult to chat while on trail because of the sound of the snowshoes, so we took the time to quietly enjoy our walk through the woods. I found that snowshoeing was more difficult than I had first thought it would be. After an hour and a half of sweating, and definitely getting a cardio workout in, we stopped to look at the map. We had gone 1 kilometer; we had 5.5kms left. We had to reevaluate our plan, as the sun was on its way down for the day. We found a place where the snowshoe trail met the ski trail, and planning on crossing over there - another 2kms away.
Stopping for a snack to refuel before heading back on the trail.
Mmmm, poptarts.
Once we were on the cross country skiing trail we made our way to the cabin (1.7 kms) in around 30 minutes. What a difference! The trail was a little confusing on how to get to the cabins because there was no sign saying which way the cabins were towards the back. At this point, it was dark, and our headlamps were on. We were hungry and looking for a cabin; we turned right off the trail into what looked like a summer camping ground. We made the right choice! After some walking we found the first cabin, but it was taken. Then we walked a little further and found an empty cabin.
The cabin we stayed in looked like a converted dining hall. There were bed platforms, and two wood burning stoves. I was hesitant of how warm the building would get, but with both stoves going the cabin warmed up and it was comfortable. The one thing that we had forgotten to taken with us were candles. Some candles, or something to help light up the room would have been helpful. However, we simply opened the door to the stove, and it provided enough light for us. Once we had the stoves going, we set to work making dinner. We had brought camping meals and our Jet Boil.
“Hey Ryan?”
“Mmm?”
“How much water do we have left?”
Ryan took a look at our water which we brought. “Mmmm, none.”
OK! With that, I appointed myself as the person who would bring in the snow to be boiled.
“I brought in a big chunk of snow! I figured that we could use the steel cups to melt the snow, boil it, and pour it back into the bottles,” I said.
“Ok, but be ready to melt a lot of snow,” Ryan responded.
I thought, “He didn’t see how much snow I brought in.” I chuckled.
I packed up the mugs high with snow, and set the mugs on the stove.
After a few minutes, the snow had melted, and we had a total of ¼ of a cup of water. Wait...what?! I packed that mug full of snow. We had three water bottles to refill. This was going to take a while.
We happily stretched out on our beds, in front of the fire. We ate our fill of dinner, and we had to stay up to continue to boil water. Slowly I slipped into sleep while Ryan finished up the last of the water.
The night passed by peacefully, with the cabin staying warm well into the morning. Ryan woke up early, got some extra wood on the fire, and the cabin warmed right back up. We took our time packing up all of our goods, and ended up choosing the cross country ski trail back out of the park.
Kouchibouguac was lovely trip, and I would love to come back again. If you are looking to get away in New Brunswick I would recommend stopping by here. My advice: book early - the park fills up. I am looking forward to come back here in the summer, and experience it all over again.