Dry Bag. Bug spray. 4-Pack. Check.
We were packing up kayaks to visit some of the 20 or so islands that connect and disconnect with the floods and tides, like a small Pangea every year in Fredericton.
Having these truly wild islands so close to the city is a blessing few take advantage of. Undiscovered nature right on our doorstep. It was a Saturday afternoon, and we were ready for an adventure.
I had heard the Saint John called Canada’s Most Storied River.
I had no idea what that meant…the most stories about what? There's no river monster like Loch Ness, no folk songs I remember stomping my feet to at Dolan's on a Thursday night.
As we set off paddling towards the late afternoon sun, I was thinking about this idea of a "Storied River", and realized I had a few of my own.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are riding the bright yellow waterslides of the Bucket Club, (now Hartt Island RV Resort), then renting tippy canoes and wobbling our way across the water to chart the unknown. We would plunge a stick into sand and claim these new lands as our own.
Some things we found during those little expeditions; cool bugs, an arrowhead once, and an angry bull, who wanted no part of our adventures. Little did we know at the time, but most of the islands are privately owned. Now being adults (most of the time), we did our research and found out that there are a few you can still visit. Ross Island (with permission from Second Nature Outdoors, where we had rented our kayaks) has been working with the owners for several years, and often takes groups to explore the island and Hartt Island is owned by the RV Park with the same name, and is just offshore, an easy paddle and is a common adventure for those who stay there.
As we continued towards the islands, and clearly a little traumatized from the past, I kept replaying scenarios on how to deal with a charging bull (play dead?) and also that I really didn't know much about this river I grew up next to.
Here are some things I knew about the Saint John River:
- Its origin is in Northern Maine, and winds down the border between Canada and USA and is over 400km long
- It flows backwards at a location called Reversing Falls, near Saint John.
- Fiddleheads cover its banks in the spring. The River Valley Scenic Drive
- It floods. It floods a lot.
I pulled my phone out of its dry bag to dive deeper. It was named “Wolastoq” by the Maliseet, which roughly translates to "The Goodly, or Bountiful River", this confirms what my sister's Irish Hydro-Geologist boyfriend has kept telling us at the dinner table since he moved here: "You have no idea how productive the Saint John River is". I guess I didn’t.
By this point we were navigating through a bright green tunnel of trees between Ross and Nevers Island, the sun was flickering through the leaves, and a canoe passed by. It made me realize that these rivers are roads.
And just like roads, if you travel along them, every twist and turn brings something new. Unfolding into new lands, new cultures, and new people. For thousands of years, this river would have been the only access deep into the eastern part of the country. Even before the arrival of Samual de Champlain in 1604.
Over all these centuries, the birch bark canoes, passenger ferries, cargo ships, bringing people and supplies to and from faraway places. All these boats servicing all of the communities along this river.
These are the stories they were talking about.
The sun was beginning to set right as we pulled up to the south bank of Ross Island. An old driftwood tree had been washed ashore during the flood, and bleached white from the sun.
We sat there with a beer each, told a few stories of our own...remembering the glowing red sunsets from the walking bridge, tipping each other’s tubes while rafting down the Nashwaak, and watching the city lights sparkle across the water from the North Side Green.
This summer, while we’re all snug here in our “Atlantic Bubble”, I hope that a few more people will spend a weekend exploring this city that’s so close to nature. Fredericton.
Click here to join Mike Corey as he explores MORE of his favorite things to eat, see and do in Fredericton!
