Fundy Trail Guided Hike, New Brunswick

Fundy Trail Guided Day Hike, new Brunswick
We called two days ahead to make reservations for this guided hike which starts at the Fundy Trail Interpretive Center, just outside St. Martins New Brunswick and goes to the Hearst Lodge, 2.7km away for lunch and then you return. Its cost was $25 adult, $12 child plus the entry fee which was about $11 for the three of us. We were running a bit late that morning because our breakfast lady served breakfast late and because it took longer than both the breakfast lady and the Interpretive Center lady said it would. I would have planned at least 50 minutes. It’s maybe a 30-35 mile drive but the roads are very windy and once in the park it’s another 10km to the interpretive center and the speed limit is 40km.
But, it didn’t matter that we were late because we were the only people doing the tour. We had as many guides as we did us! Carolyn was our main guide, then there were two young men. One was this very friendly guy who seemed to be learning the ropes, the other was the “sweeper” to make sure none of us fell behind (this seemed a bit overkill; couldn’t the other two just stop and wait?). The sweeper guy was not friendly in the least. It was like having this ghostly presence behind us.
But Carolyn and the other guy were very friendly and clearly enjoyed their jobs. We started with just meandering around the interpretive center looking at the moths (due to Rakesh’s extreme interest in this). Kesh loved hearing about them and Carolyn would point them out and then Kesh would. Carolyn didn’t know much about moths, unfortunately, but they did find this big black one with a name like skeletorious which Kesh looked for immediately upon our return five hours later.
We then watched the usual cheesy movie at visitor centers which we try to avoid because they tend to be marketing ploys rather than informative. This one gave a brief history of the area but other than that, not much of use. The area had once been a lumber/fishing camp at the turn of the 19th century and there were still some remains from that time. This was not very interesting partially because they didn’t know much about the history and partially because big deal. The area is beautiful and they would be better served to focus on the flora, fauna and geology. Carolyn knew quite a bit about flora, marginal about fauna and nothing about geology which seemed fascinating to me. She did say she was going to take a geology walk that night so maybe they will add more of that in future walks.
We headed out after the movie and Carolyn pointed out plants along the way, encouraging us to taste and smell several. One was a little sorrel flower, one was a plant I can’t remember but it tasted like spearmint, one we smelled was chocolate mint and it smelled literally like that and then there was a root none of us were willing to try because she dug it out of dirt. Yuck. The walk was moderate to difficult in terms both of terrain and elevation change. While the ups weren’t too high there were lots of them and some places were slippery or you needed to grab onto wire railings that had been put into place. Kesh loved the hike. He usually doesn’t like guided hikes but this one moved along and he was interested in what she was talking about.
At the lodge, we saw lots and lots of hummingbirds as we ate inside on a large wooden table. The lodge had been a fishing lodge built in the 1960’s and has four bedrooms available for rent. If you do stay there, they will pick you up and drive you in but you can’t bring your own car in. Accommodations are basic with two single beds per room with a private bath and include meals. They have a “chef” who does the cooking. She struck me as more of the School nutrition Grandma who you might find behind the lunch counter at school. Our meal was good but not very interesting or spectacular. Basic brown rice and chicken soup (which the kids loved and I thought was fine but the chicken was overcooked and it needed salt), egg salad on homemade white bread. The white bread was good, but I would prefer wheat. The egg salad and the soup for that matter were replete with celery. Asha and I have decided that Canadians love celery. It’s in Everything. Luckily, we like it, but if you didn’t you would have to pickit out of soup, salad and even sandwiches. Dessert was a chocolate cake with white frosting and blueberries. The blueberries were great but the frosting tasted kind of like powdered sugar with milk. The cake was fine. It was just too much food. We didn’t eat half of it and felt badly. We looked around for a garbage to stash it so it would look like we ate it, but they never left us alone long enough to pull it off. Then I couldn’t decide was I supposed to tip the cook lady? So confusing. We’d already paid for everything and I was planning on tipping the guide . . .
On the hike, we saw all kinds of interesting mushrooms including Chanterelles which we had searched all over in CA. I asked the cook if she was allowed to use them. it was a bit confusing but she said that she had to use New Brunswick government products or something like that, then said she could pick blueberries off the trail because she could buy them at the store. So I couldn't really understand the distinction. The park is funded through federal and state government so perhaps the government mandates the products?
We were given the option to walk the road back instead of the rough forest route but we wanted the rough forest route. We made great time getting back but it was hot and sweaty going back. Too much humidity. Rain is definitely coming. The trail is rain or shine so I’m glad that today wasn’t raining even though it was mostly overcast.