Hiking the Fundy Footpath

Last week, Mom and I hiked the Fundy Footpath completing one of Mom's lifelong goals. Last year we started overnight camping with a few one night hikes and this year we were more strategic about building up to the four day hike. We started with one night at the Kenomee canyon in Economy, NS and followed up with a two night trip around Cape Chignecto. We decided after that that we were ready to tackle the Footpath.

All smiles at the beginning!

We began in St. Martins at the suspension bridge on a foggy Friday and set off toward Alma.

Two minutes in!

The hiking itself was intense. The trail was not overly long but the ascents and descents made every kilometre seem longer. The full bags on our backs didn't help either. I think the intensity of the cliffs surprises some people who are not ready for New Brunswick to be tough. The trail repeatedly goes from sea level to the top of the 200m cliffs. We broke every day down to the number of climbs we would have to do that day.

Day One

The first day was our “easy day” with only a few serious climbs.The first section from St. Martins to Little Salmon River had some stairs and a few bridges to help with the cliffs and crossing streams. I'm not sure the stairs helped everywhere because instead of switch backs, the stairs meant climbing straight up or down the hills on the wet wobbly stairs.

First stream crossing.

It was pretty foggy that first day so we didn't have great views at the look-offs but at least it was not actively raining. The people we met on the first day were soaked, having hiked through the rain of the previous two days and seemed happy to be almost done. They all had a certain look in their eyes when they said things like “wow it was hilly” and “those cliffs...” and trailed off without finishing the sentence. We had been warned before but it was a reminder that this would be tougher than Cape Chignecto.

Stairs down to Cradle Brook.

We camped at Cradle Brook and after filtering and boiling water for the next day (this is the only way I feel comfortable drinking stream water with my low immune system. It means carrying more fuel and spending a lot of time waiting for water to boil but I'm pretty nervous drinking raw water otherwise), we spent the evening on the rocky beach watching the fog roll into shore. And stretching our tired bodies. A lot of stretching.

The cliff to climb in the morning.

Day Two

The second day we started by climbing out of the Cradle Brook valley and after breaking for lunch, tackled the climb out of the Little Salmon River ravine. 

Little Salmon River.

All our meals were dehydrated food we prepared and were quite delicious. We had a supper of cheesy veggies, shrimp, and rice, and another of a tomato bean mushroom risotto. For lunch we had chili or soup that we would prep at breakfast and keep (semi) warm in a thermos. When matched with melba toast and rehydrated hummus, it was quite filling. Our hunger was the special ingredient that made every meal taste amazing.

The climb out of Little Salmon River was everything we had been warned. It started with fairly okay switchbacks and then the trail narrowed so it felt as though it would only take one misstep to tumble down the hill. The wet roots and rocks didn't help the footing.

Kilometre sign before the climb! 23km left to the park!

We reached a point where the trail widened so there was less “I'm going to fall into the ravine” fear. We stopped at a little look off and I started to feel a bit lightheaded. My legs also started really complaining. At first I thought it was just the heat and humidity that was taking me down so I drank a ton of my Gatorade but that didn't really help. Two minutes later, I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to do the trail anymore because I felt so weak. And then I realized it was probably just my blood sugars (after this long as a diabetic, you would think I would recognize the symptoms faster). Sure enough, my sugars were low. I stuffed my face with some food and waited for my body to feel better.

Managing my diabetes is the hardest part medically for me on these multi-day hikes. My anti-rejection medication, vitamins, and digestive enzymes add weight but they're so routine that I don't really think about it. The water I treat as much as possible to avoid dying a stupid death, but managing my blood sugars with activity is always a struggle. I can generally manage okay with regular exercise but when I'm doing an intense activity, day after day, my blood sugars and dosage requirements get thrown off.

It doesn't help that I take two types of insulin, short and long acting. The short acting I take before every meal and ideally it kicks in after two hours. The long term one I take in the morning and it's suppose peak with my prednisone in the afternoon. Of course, exercise affects everything. It changes how fast the insulin is absorbed, it varies how much I need with food, and there is always an cumulative effect to think about.

One thing I have learned from getting diabetes is how much exercise changes blood sugars for me. Short intense exercise in the morning has a reducing effect for the rest of the day. Also, sustained intense activity one day can lead to reductions on the next day as well. But then sometimes intense activity means my pancreas kicks in and decides to make insulin to help me out. It's all very confusing. It's a lot of science and a little bit of magic to get my dosage right on multi-day hikes.

The crash I had on the Little Salmon River incline was my only one of the entire Footpath hike which is really good for me. I had a couple on the Cape Chignecto trail but it seems I'm getting better at management for these types of events.

Bridge across Rapidly Brook

Once my blood sugar levels were back up to a reasonable level, I felt much better. The trail all seemed much more manageable as well. Once we were at the top, we had some reprieve before it was back down to Rapidly Brook. The day continued and we had a nice break at the beautiful Wolfe Brook when the sun came out. I would have camped there for the night but Mom wanted to keep going to our planned stop. 

Quick stretch break.

We made it to Telegraph Brook where the camping site was close to the rocky beach beside the waterfall. It was a beautiful place to camp. A predator bird (a peregrine falcon maybe?) kept flying over the ravine, making the most terrifying screech as it flew overhead.

Campsite at Telegraph Brook.

Day Three

The rain started around 2am. I think. Mom says I slept through most of it but woke up when it started thundering. The lightning seemed scary close but that may have been because we only had a thin tent between us and the storm. Thankfully the most intense rain ended by morning, leaving a mist and occasional drizzle. We tried our best to keep everything dry but we were pretty wet by the time we started hiking.

That morning we met Amy and Dad at an access road. They drove through the maze of back roads behind Sussex and brought us some new supplies. Is this cheating? Maybe. But it's not like it shortened our time any and we were carrying a lot of fuel for my high maintenance water demands. It was nice to get a change of dry clothes and drink water that didn't have a hint of old coffee (we stored our boiled water in old coffee bags while it cooled). The iced coffee and raspberries Amy brought were heavenly. We packed up enough stuff to last us to a fifth day just in case we needed it.

It cleared off in the afternoon for a great view of St. Martin's head.

That third day was a shorter day which was nice because it was unbelievably humid after the rain. The air had that 'pea soup' quality that has come to define this summer in the Maritimes. We managed but were very happy by the time we reached our campsite at the Brandy Brook beside the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum waterfall. There was no beach access that night but we were able to dry out our stuff a bit before we went to bed.

Airing out the tent!

Day Four

The fourth and last day was our longest. Thankfully, the weather was cooperating and the humidity had finally dropped. The perfect day for hiking 18km. We crossed Goose Creek around low tide as planned (there is no way to cross at high tide) and after that the kilometre markers seemed to pass by at a reasonable speed even with the five climbs that day. 

Goose Creek!

We reached the zero kilometre trail marker of the Fundy Footpath at Goose River and I wish I had captured Mom's squeal of excitement at that point.

Look at that sweat shine.

We were officially done but there was another 10km to get to an actual access road. The last 10km through Fundy National Park is pretty boring. It has all been turned into a mountain biking trail so it's wide and mostly gravel. Very monotonous after spending four days on a beautiful trail through the forest. It was an anticlimactic way to end the hike. But at least it wasn't very strenuous (although the loose rocks were surprisingly hard on the bottom of our feet) and after a few hours on that trail we were out! 

Yay done!

Dad was there waiting for us with sticky buns from Alma and then took our smelly selves for some fried food at the take out.

The Conclusion

I said a few times while on the Footpath that it was the hardest hike I've ever done but I'm not really sure that's true. I never doubted my physical ability to do it (minus the one time I had low blood sugar). There was never any point where I looked at the cliff ahead and thought "I can't climb up that." I had descents where I said, “Wow, that was terrible” and ascents where I said, “I hope we don't have to go back down for awhile” but my legs were strong and carried me through. I was tired but fully capable.

So was it more demanding than the hike in Naxos to 'Zeus's cave' where I must have thrown up at least 4 times along the way? Or the hike in Newfoundland where I had to turn around early because the humidity and heat made me feel nauseous and unable to breathe? Those made me physically sick with my CF lungs.

The difference between my past experiences and now makes me feel as though I've lived two separated lives. My pre-transplant life where I threw up on hikes and the post transplant hike where I can tackle one of the hardest hikes in the Maritimes without a second thought. It's such a disconnect that I sometimes don't even feel like that part was real. But I still remember it vividly, how I couldn't even imagine ever feeling so healthy again that the Footpath would be on my radar. How it became a struggle some mornings to just get to the street car to take me to physiotherapy at the hospital.

I am so privileged to have been given this gift. My new lungs have helped change my body to be stronger and healthier than it ever has before. Sure, I still need rest days. I need my chill days where I relax and read my book or watch TV but that's part of the balance. And one side of the balance is to strap on my bag and hike for four days through the wilderness of New Brunswick.