Fundy National Park: New Brunswick Timber and Tides | Ep. 63

Presented by: Niagara Trailers – Family owned since 1972 | niagaratrailers.com 

Show Description:
In this episode of the RV Canucks Podcast, Melina takes you to one of Canada’s most spectacular East Coast destinations—Fundy National Park, nestled along the Bay of Fundy in southern New Brunswick. Known for having the highest tides in the world, lush Acadian forest, and charming coastal villages, Fundy is the kind of place that sticks with you long after your RV has rolled on. 

We’ll dive into the best camping loops for RVers (yes, Cannontown gets a mention), the top day hikes, and what to expect when you explore the ever-changing shoreline. Plus, you’ll get a feel for the village of Alma, the beating heart just outside the park gates—home to world-famous sticky buns, salty breezes, and locals who carry on its maritime story. 

Melina also sits down with Kris Kelly, owner of Timber & Tides Mercantile, a beautiful shop in Alma offering coastal-inspired goods, fishing and camping supplies, and a warm welcome. Kris shares some of the can’t-miss places around town, talks about the spirit of the area, and gives a personal glimpse into Alma’s evolving identity—as someone proudly tied to one of its most recognizable family names. 

Whether you’re planning a trip to New Brunswick or just daydreaming about seaside cliffs and tide pools, this episode is full of tips, stories, and inspiration to help you make the most of your visit to Fundy.  

🔍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

• Where Fundy National Park is and how to get there
• Why the Bay of Fundy’s tides are world-famous
• The best RV-friendly campgrounds and loops (including Cannontown)
• Must-do hikes: Dickson Falls, Laverty Falls, and more
• What to do in Alma, NB when the tide goes out
• Where to eat, shop, and find supplies nearby
• An insider conversation with Kris Kelly of Timber & Tides Mercantile
• A taste of Fundy’s charm through stories, local tips, and personal insight

 
🧭 Links & Mentions:
 

• Fundy National Park (Parks Canada)
• Timber & Tides Mercantile
• Niagara Trailers – Our podcast sponsor
• Village of Alma

 
❤️ Support the Show:

Niagara Trailers - Season 5 Sponsor!
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Transcript

Speaker 0 (0s): Welcome everybody to the RV Connect podcast, Canada's RV podcast for weekend warriors, part-time travelers and full-time adventurers at heart. I'm m Molina. 

Speaker 1 (9s): And I'm Dan. And on today's podcast, we're gonna take you on our journey to New Brunswick's, one of new Brunswick's most iconic places, funding National Park. 

Speaker 0 (18s): That's right, tucked along the Bay of Fundee. This park is packed with rugged coastline, Acadian forest tumbling waterfalls, and of course the world's highest tides. Whether you're hiking the trails tide, watching from the shore, or soaking up the charm of nearby Alma, there's something for everyone here. And speaking of Alma, we've got a special treat later this episode, an interview with a local whose family roots run deep in this little fishing village that serves as the gateway to the park. But before we dive in, a quick word from our 2025 sponsor Niagara Trailers, they are more than just a dealership. 

They're a family run team that's been helping our viewers like us hit the road with confidence for generations. Whether you're brand new to RV Life or you've been doing this for years, their service team has your back from safety checks and custom upgrades to getting that mystery leak finally sorted before your next big trip. And not during it like Dan And I had to deal with. But when we say we trust them, we mean it. So if you're looking to buy trade service or just ask a few questions before making a big decision, check out Niagara Trailers dot com 

Speaker 1 (1m 26s): Then tell them that the RV Canuck sent you. 

Speaker 0 (1m 28s): Please do. Alright, let's roll into the magic of funding National Park and share why this spot deserves a top spot on your East Coast RV bucket list Funding. National Park is located in the southern portion of New Brunswick near the village of Alma, along the coast of the Bay of Fundee. 

It's about one hour from Moncton, about three hours from St. John or F Fredericton. The park covers more than 200 square kilometers of rugged wilderness and coastline. So let's talk about why it's famous. It's home to the highest tides in the world, which sounds kind of banal and and boring, but the tide can change up to 2012 meters or like 40 feet every six hours and 13 minutes apparently they say. But when the tide goes out, it exposes the ocean floor, which offers a unique opportunity to walk along the seabed. 

Just make sure to check Tide times while you're there. But this tidal movement sort of causes dramatic changes in rivers estuaries, including the Point Wolf River and Bennett Lake, which we'll talk about in the park. So I think in terms of national parks, it's one of the smaller ones in Canada, but when I say it's packed with features, it's absolutely packed. Let's talk a little bit about the RV and Camping Info. Funding has three front country campgrounds that accommodate RVs. So you've got Chito North, I hope I'm saying that right. 

So those are kind of open wooded sites with full hookups available, which includes the Cannon Town Loop, which is where we stayed with full hookups. That has more room, I would say for bigger rigs. Headquarters campground is a little bit closer to the village of Alma Smaller. You can definitely walk everywhere from that loop. And then there is Point Wolf, which has tighter turns, probably more appropriate for smaller rigs. And then of course Parks Canada has these otics or their version of like, they're like a yurt. 

Speaker 1 (3m 39s): Yeah, kind of like a yurt. 

Speaker 0 (3m 40s): And so if you are bringing friends that don't RV or you need some extra space, those are a good option as well. So reservations are highly recommended, especially in July and August. We'll talk a little bit about that when Dan And I go through the overview of what our impressions were of the park. I will say if you like hiking the hikes and trails within funding National Park, you are going to love. You've got Dixon Falls, which we talk about with our special interview guest. It is the park's most popular hike because it's, it's really short. It's a one and a half kilometer loop and it's got a beautiful waterfall, mossy boardwalk, pretty easy to navigate. 

There's the Laverty Falls Trail, which is about five and a half kilometers return to a stunning waterfall. You've got caribou plane, which is accessible through a peat bog with boardwalks, with interpretive signs, lots of wildlife viewing. You've got another set of waterfalls called the Third Vault Falls 16 meters high. It's the tar tallest waterfall in the park. It's a moderate to challenging 7.4 kilometers round trip though. So probably something for, you know, maybe more experienced hikers. 

And then you've got the Ship Haven Trail and Coastal Trail, which offer great views of the Bay. They're good for catching that kind of coastline feel and maybe even take it over into the village of Alma. But while we think everybody should go to the village of Alma, if you get to this park and you don't feel like leaving, you don't have to. There's a ton of stuff to do there. You've got plenty of swimming, canoeing, kayaking, you've got a couple of lakes, Bennett Lake and Wolf Lake, they have a heated salt water pool, which is actually really cool. It's open seasonally, it's near the headquarters campground and check-in area and it overlooks the bay. 

So while you're in this amazing salt water pool, you can overlook the bay and and watch the tides change. There's lots of cycling, mountain biking trails and they even have winter activities and a golf course in the park, which I think is, is pretty neat and fairly unique. So let's talk about the wildlife a little bit. 'cause I think it is, it struck me as well, maybe more wooded than I would expect. 

Speaker 1 (5m 45s): It's wooded. It felt to me like it had the scenery and, and, and mountains and, and like, let me qualify that, not high mountains, but it had like a Banff like natural feel with the chillness of Jasper. It's like you took Jasper and Banff and mixed 'em all up and shook them out and you got the chill part of Jasper and the like beauty and hills and trees of Banff 

Speaker 0 (6m 14s): For sure. Although, I mean the forest is dynamically different. It's the Acadian forest, which is apparently one of the rarest forest types in the world. There are moose, red foxes, porcupines over 260 species of birds including warblers, bald eagles. We saw a ton of different birds. 

Speaker 1 (6m 32s): Oh and you hear them just singing away in the park, like being from southwestern Ontario, like they're birds. But like there's just something a little bit different and that's kind of cool. 

Speaker 0 (6m 42s): Yeah. And apparently it's a great spot for fall colors, which I would think I would definitely love to go back to that area in the fall. I think it would be really stunning. And of course we've talked about alman new Bruswick, which is the village that's sort of the gateway to the park. It's small, it's charming, it's filled with local flavor. I would suggest that you grab some sticky buns from Kelly's bake shop seafood chowder or lobster rolls from tipsy tails or the alma lobster chop. We had fried clams, which was actually really interesting from the takeout. What was your impression of those? 

Speaker 1 (7m 12s): It was like a more robust, what's that other seafood appetizer that you often get in stores? Calamari. Calamari, it's like a much more robust calamari. We kind of compared it to alligator, but it wasn't as chewy as alligator now 

Speaker 0 (7m 29s): It was still more chewy than calamari 

Speaker 1 (7m 32s): Calamari. Yeah. However, what I would say is like, I'm not like an alligator connoisseur. So for all I know the only time I had alligator, I got a bad kind of alligator. Would I The, the question is, would you get it again? I would get it again, yes. Yeah. 

Speaker 0 (7m 46s): And I will say if since we're talking about food, I would like to give a shout out to the Octopus's garden, which is a little cafe kind of on the opposite side of Alma from where the park entrance is. Have fantastic food, really amazing and varied menu. We would, we stopped there for lunch on Dan's birthday and it was fantastic and it had a really nice little patio overlooking the river that runs through town. So it was, it was gorgeous. But one of the neat things about Alma and if you see our social medias, you will see Dan has put some things up about, you know, the fishing boats and the boat names and things. 

So go check that out. 

Speaker 1 (8m 20s): I thought I was pretty clever, like not to toot my own horn. They have some good boat names there. 

Speaker 0 (8m 24s): They certainly do. But Alma is like a working fishing village, right? So you can go during low tide and like all of the boats are just kind of sitting on the ocean floor and as it comes in they, they sort of slowly rise up. It's kind of a neat thing to see. 

Speaker 1 (8m 38s): Yeah, I think when I think about Alma And I reflect back on it, Alma's not super big, which means you could walk from end to end pretty easily, which is good. I it feels really balanced. Yeah, it, it's, it doesn't have too many restaurants, but you've got some choice. It doesn't have too many gift shops and all the gift shops are not the same. So when you think of more commercialized natural areas, you go in and it's the same t-shirt and all the gift shops and the same magnet sticker, snow globe, they're all different with their own little field. 

There's a bakery, there's a bunch of different stuff there, which gives it a lot of balance. And it, 

Speaker 0 (9m 16s): It's not overly commercial like yeah if you're walking in downtown bound and every 

Speaker 1 (9m 21s): Or Niagara on the lake or somewhere 

Speaker 0 (9m 23s): Else and every third like souvenir shop has the same thing. It's 

Speaker 1 (9m 27s): Original. Yeah, it's original and authentic. 

Speaker 0 (9m 29s): Authentic, yeah, for sure. So overall impressions of the park, I think we, I was certainly surprised at how sort of like mountain as it was. 

Speaker 1 (9m 39s): Yeah it was certainly pretty hilly. So maybe we'll just talk about the road in. So if you're coming from the village of Alma to your campground at Cannon Lake, it's like walkable ride your bike if you wanted, if you're coming in with your trailer, you're gonna go up a small hill, there's gonna be a big field to your left, there's gonna be a welcome center to your right. And just beyond the welcome center almost at the welcome center is a left hand turn into the campground or you would continue on into the rest of the park. So that's really simple. From the village into the campground, we came in from the other direction and so I'm going to maybe back this up a little bit. 

As you come into the national park, there's a kiosk and there's a lady manning the kiosk and she's very friendly and she's gonna ask you, have you been here before? And chances are you're all gonna say no. And she's like, okay great. And she pulls out a map and if you're listening to this in 2025, she's gonna tell you admission to the national park is free. And I mention that because sometimes you have to pay to get into the national park, then you have to pay an additional fee to go to the campground. But because the government this year has been generous, it's promoting tourism in Canada. 

National parks are free. And this was not the only national park site we went to. We went to a historic site, we got free admission as well. She's gonna give you a map. She's gonna say you're gonna go down this road. 10, 15, 20 minutes. To be honest, I don't remember how long it was because it was a nice drive, but it's a short drive. And she's like, you're gonna go to the welcome center, you're gonna check in at the welcome center, then you're gonna go to your campsite. Pretty straightforward, 

Speaker 0 (11m 12s): Pretty 

Speaker 1 (11m 12s): Standard. It sounds pretty good. Here's what happened. We drove and it was very scenic and we're excited and we're like, we're pretty jazzed. And then we come up to a sign and it says like next four, four to five kilometers is hilly and steep. So as a, as an RV or with a trailer, you're like, mind your speed. Don't get, you know, are your brakes set right? Little stuff like that. But, but by no means is there caused to panic. You're going to come to the end of this steep and hilly session section and it, you're going to come out to the bottom and this is what you see in really quick order. 

You see part of the ocean. Cool. You see a massive big field in front of you. Cool. You see a campground to your right and instinctively you're like, I'm going to the right because I'm gonna go to my campsite. You're gonna see a building that eventually turns out to be the comfort station, but it's a substantial comfort station. So it could potentially be the check the welcome center because it's a big building at the front of the campground. Like that's where I would put a, a welcome center. You see another building that looks like a headquarters. Definitely a national parks building and you that that turns out to be the welcome center. 

However, this happens really quickly and you come up to this intersection where you have to make a decision about going right or going straight I, I went right, we start the right Lina's like that was the welcome center over there. We're like, like first of all, if you make this mistake, don't panic. We knew what our campsite was. We drove to our campsite, we backed in, we set up, we took the bikes down, we rode over to the welcome center and we checked it. That's how close everything is. I would say that intersection probably could have a little bit better signage but maybe it's me. 

And if you've been there before, you would know where to go. I would say this though, we talked about this after the fact and we wonder would we be able to get the truck and the trailer there with everybody else parked at the welcome center. And we certainly did see some RVs there and some vans there. I kind of think in the end we made the right decision to just go to the campsite, drop the trailer and then go over to the welcome center and check in. When you go into the welcome center, you're gonna check in like you would at any provincial park, state park, like nothing spectacular. 

There's a big gift shop with magnets and books and stickers and kind of cool stuff there really tastefully done. So that, that part's really good. That's the road in when we got to the campsite, you could smell the breaks. Now we didn't smell the breaks at any other part on the trip. We do know since we've come back that where you plug your trailer into the truck, we need to have that part replaced. The the trailer connector where the seven pin goes into that potentially could have been the problem 

Speaker 0 (13m 60s): Engaging the brakes 

Speaker 1 (14m 0s): That that maybe the brakes weren't engaging on the trailer, the truck was doing more of the work. Yeah, we didn't really notice that when we were driving in. So like let's just manage the drama here or maybe I should have set the brakes just a little bit more aggressively and that would've done it at the end of the day. Nothing caught fire. We didn't crash. We never felt like we were out of control going down the hill 'cause we were like probably traveling slightly slower than it recommended. So all in all like fairly reasonable check-in I would say like yeah green check mark, gold star for Dan. 

For sure. For sure. So 

Speaker 0 (14m 35s): Let's talk about the loop then. 'cause we stayed in Canon town loop, which is three way hookups, which is full hookups, which is great to see in a national park. That is, we are two for two actually I guess two for three in national parks for full hookups. We had full hookups. Full hookups in Banff but not in Jasper. But it's a really nice surprise, especially for us having done a harvest host the night before. It was great to be able to, you know, shower in your own trailer and have the water, which is awesome. I did discover later that there used to be like little cabins or or chalets on that Hilltop and maybe that's why they all have throughway but not a huge loop. 

Like there wasn't a ton. 

Speaker 1 (15m 14s): I think there's about 30 campsites. Yeah, certainly like smaller than a city block. The campsites are are open, you can see into everybody's campsite for the most part. But it didn't feel like you lack privacy. Yeah. And that's why I kind of said it reminded me of our experience in Jasper pre-fire Jasper. Yeah. Where we had a a, our particular loop was kind of wide open and you could see in everything. 

Speaker 0 (15m 40s): Yeah. One of the great things about it being more open is that we could actually like shift our chairs a little bit, you know, to more to the driveway side of the site and we could see the bay right from our campsite, which was neat to see the fog rolling in. 

Speaker 1 (15m 54s): Yeah. And that's maybe the nice part of having an open site is like you get the full view of everything around you, the mountains, the trees, the meadows. Like you get a full view of everything instead of like cocooning yourself tightly in a nested trees. And you might as well be in Ontario, Tennessee or Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. Right. Yeah, 

Speaker 0 (16m 17s): For sure. Let's talk about the washrooms 'cause they were like spic and span, they were super clean, really like well taken care of. Showers 

Speaker 1 (16m 24s): Pretty modern. Yeah. In terms of like functionality, like does everything work? Is it like, like is the shower nozzle give you enough pressure? 10 outta 10 cleanliness. 10 outta 10. So like overall I'd say the washrooms are a 10 outta 10. You're like, oh. But he was always gonna say 10 outta 10. No, We did go to one place And I sure it'll come up in a future podcast. It was not a 10 outta 10. In fact there's two places that are not 10 outta 10. 

I think what I am more inclined on our travels, even if we have full hookup to go shower at the comfort station. So partly for the purposes of the podcast, partly because I don't mind loading up my towel and my flip flops and my body wash and strutting over like a peacock over to the shower And I have a good shower and that's where I get cleaned up because usually we've got a bunch of kids and everybody's fighting the shower, fighting for the shower time and this is that Dan's 15 minutes of peace and quiet. 

So I would say like comfort station is really, really good. 

Speaker 0 (17m 28s): And my peace and quiet is the opposite In my own trailer where my hairbrush and my hair stuff and all of the things I need to keep me clean and make me smell nice is in within Arden's reach. I just feel like every time I go to the shower house, which I do, I'm not a snob, but like I have a big caddy that has to come with me often. So it's just sometimes easier to have it 

Speaker 1 (17m 48s): At home and there's no right and wrong way. And later on in the trip there were some places where I'm like, yeah honey, I need to shower. 

Speaker 0 (17m 55s): Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (17m 56s): Inside the trip. So, so that's fine. Yeah. Maybe I want to speak a word about the playground. Yeah. So when Molina does her interview with Chris, you'll notice that I'm not on the interview. Well Molina's having the interview with Chris. Chris had come over with his four, almost 5-year-old grandson who starts school this fall. And he was a perfect little gentleman, a bundle full of energy. I took him over to the park in the playground to play around. Well they, they had the conversation. I thought about this a lot before recording this. 

I thought about this all day. This is possibly the best playground I have ever seen. It was me in North America. Why do I say it's the best playground in North America? It's a super level, massive field with grass mode. Great for playing catch, throwing a football, Frisbee, you name it. There's kind of two distinct playground areas. There's like the usual slides and climbers and stuff like that. The, the playground is not ostentatious. 

It's not garish, it's, it's tastefully done. And it sounds like I'm describing some kind of estate, but it's, it's not too much is what I'm trying to say. There's a zip line and, and so this is not my grandson. It's not my nephew. I'm dreadfully concerned that he's gonna end up with a bump or a scrape or something that needs a bandaid and it will be my fault. But I take him over to the zip line anyways and against my better judgment. 'cause you can't tell a kid he can't go on the zip line. 

He gets on the zip line and this particular zip line is a rope with a a wooden disc at the bottom that acts like a seat. He sits on the seat, he slides down if he's gonna fall, it's no no worse than falling off a swing in the playground. He plays on that. He plays on the slides some climber stuff. All super cool. Then he saw the zip lines for the older kids. And this is why I think this is maybe a really good playground is like, I don't know, like our kids are a little older now. When did they stop going to the park? Like 10, 12? Yeah, this is the kind of one I think might push it to like 13 maybe. 

Yeah. And like even an adult likes a zip line. There is like an older kid zip line 

Speaker 0 (20m 5s): With like the handlebars. 

Speaker 1 (20m 7s): After I've built his confidence up on the small zip lines, he's like, I want to go on the big zip lines. I don't want to have this kid get a bumper scrape And I don't want to get in trouble with his grandpa. His grandpa will beat me up. His grandpa's a big guy and not, not fat, I mean tall six foot 

Speaker 0 (20m 24s): 208 7, 6 foot 

Speaker 1 (20m 26s): Seven or six foot seven, 

Speaker 0 (20m 27s): Something 

Speaker 1 (20m 27s): Like that. So fortunately grandpa comes over And I did the dirty. I'm like, grandpa take you on this apply. And I got out of there. So I think 

Speaker 0 (20m 36s): I heard actually you're a half to ask your grandpa if you wanna go on that one. Which was like, kudos to you. 

Speaker 1 (20m 41s): Dan and grandpa took him on the big zip line And I think he did. And it doesn't matter. It all ended well. Grandpa's like a super friendly guy. His grandson is a perfect little gentleman. So kudos to his parents. They're doing a great job. Had a lot of fun at the playground when, when Molina was interviewing Chris. Yes. So it's a really good campground, which I'll just bring it to a close to say if you're bringing your kids and you've been on the road and you're on the east coast and everybody's cooped up in the car, you guys get to sit down, read a book and admire the view in the campground with a cup of coffee in the morning and they get to go over to the playground and run around and burn off some steam if you've been on the road for a couple of days. 

Speaker 0 (21m 20s): Perfect. And with that, since we've mentioned my friend Chris, let's head into the interview. So when you think of Alma New Brunswick, a few names really stand out. Kelly's Bake Shop is one of them. That name has deep roots in this coastal village and today's guest is part of that story. Chris Kelly is a former colleague of mine and now the owner of Timber and Tides Mercantile in Alman, new Brunswick. He joins me to share a local's perspective on what makes Alma so special. 

His shop is a modern sort of general store type feel with a lot of really neat artisan supplies, coastal inspired gifts, fishing, camping supplies and local finds that reflect the heart and soul of the region. In our conversation, Chris offers insight into the history of Alma, the rhythm of life alongside the Bay of Fundee and what visitors shouldn't miss when they roll into town. Whether you're here for the tides, the trails, or just passing through with your rv, this is a chat that'll make you feel right at home. 

And in my show notes here, I have written in pen in big letters, birds. And when we talked earlier about all of the variety of birds in the park, you can very, very, very clearly hear them in this, in this episode or in this interview I should say, along with a small cameo from Dan and Chris's grandson that you can hear in the background. So our little lapel mics, I guess pick up more ambient sound. So if you hear very loud birds chirping, I believe they were warblers was what they were. 

So without further ado, here is the conversation with Chris. 

Speaker 3 (22m 58s): We're here at 

Speaker 4 (22m 60s): Funding National 

Speaker 3 (23m 1s): Fundy National Park. Yes. 

Speaker 4 (23m 3s): Curb carb. 

Speaker 3 (23m 6s): We are here at Fundy National Park in the beautiful cannon town loop. And we have stopped here on the edge of beautiful Alma New Brunswick, specifically to see one proprietor in town that is the famous Chris Kelly. 

Speaker 4 (23m 26s): The must see proprietor in 

Speaker 3 (23m 28s): Alma. Must see proprietor in Alma, Chris Kelly of timber and tides. Mercantile, you got it. Also of the famous Alma Kelly's. So maybe talk about your history in Alma or your family's history in 

Speaker 4 (23m 39s): Alma. So my family moved here from Scotland in 1857. Wow. Wow. They came, they headed to St. John in 1854. Ended up in the general vicinity of funding National Park. My great-grandfather was a blacksmith at Point Wolf, which is in the park where they built ships and a big timber spot. They had a farm at the corner of Point Wolf Road in Hastings And I, he left that farm to two of his sons and and he moved to where the soup now superintendent lives of the park. 

And our land got exp ated in 19 46, 47. So my, all the Kelly's had to move at that point. But 50 families from the park were exp ated. Wow. A bunch of them relocated to Elma. Yeah. Many more of them moved away. But most of Elma is still has the last names of the people that were, that left the park. 

So it's actually the 75th official anniversary of the park this year. Once they exed the land, they did some work and officially opened, although they soft opened earlier in 1950. And that's my history here. My, my grandfather was a woodsman through the, the land we're on now. Yeah. And once they kind of took, took over the land, he became a general contractor and then my, and built a bunch of the buildings that are on the park today. 

And my grandmother in 1963 opened Kelly's bake shop famously home of the sticky bun. 

Speaker 3 (25m 42s): Which of of which I had one yesterday And I'm going back today. 

Speaker 4 (25m 45s): I've already had one this morning myself. I'm not gonna lie, 

Speaker 3 (25m 49s): The cookies also top notch. 

Speaker 4 (25m 52s): So not as many Kelly's around today. I still have an aunt and an uncle and some cousins around. We used to be a lot higher number, but work is hard to come by and elman New Brunswick. And eventually people go away and some of them like me come back once. They don't have to work as hard. 

Speaker 3 (26m 15s): Yes. Which we love to see. So for people who have like us who have been here for the first time, what is, what are the off the beaten things that they should see? Or what is the reason to come to Alma? So 

Speaker 4 (26m 29s): There's a couple not off the beaten track, very famous that you need to come to the area for that. We're sitting in one of them funding national park. The trail systems here are amazing. The waterfalls are spectacular. If you haven't been, you have to go to Dixon Falls before you leave today. Okay. A very, actually a very short walk to see a very spectacular scenery. You see the falls it, it's a deep gorge and it's so damp and cool that the moss makes it look like another world. 

It's beautiful. It's like something out of avatar. 

Speaker 3 (27m 8s): Oh amazing. 

Speaker 4 (27m 9s): Yep. And then there's much longer hikes to see. Some more spectacular waterfalls as well. Also in the areas Hopewell rocks. Our tides are spectacular to watch. You can go up to cape and rage. Beautiful views. They do zip lining and rock play. Rock face repelling. Oh, I'm among other things. Not for me, but I'm too wimpy for that. That's 

Speaker 3 (27m 35s): Not for Dan. He, he did his mandatory repelling course with the toy rappel and course with the military and that was it. 

Speaker 4 (27m 42s): There's also very cool waterfalls outside of that at Crooked Creek Falls. Yeah. Up in Riverside. Albert. It's just a be it's a beautiful area. There 

Speaker 3 (27m 51s): Was a really cool school there. I think we drove by. It's 

Speaker 4 (27m 53s): A very cool school. 

Speaker 3 (27m 55s): It an interesting building. Yeah. It's 

Speaker 4 (27m 56s): And it's an elementary school. Yes. It only goes up to grade six. Yeah. And it is a very old interesting building. Yeah. That, that requires a lot of upkeep. I can imagine all the time. Yeah. One of the drawbacks of living in the area is our schools are very far away. They closed our school down a number of years ago. Oh 

Speaker 3 (28m 17s): Okay. 

Speaker 4 (28m 18s): So grades one through six go to the next town. Yeah. Anything above that. It's a 45 minute drive to Hillsborough 

Speaker 3 (28m 27s): Get out. 

Speaker 4 (28m 27s): Okay. From grade seven on. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (28m 29s): Do they bus? 

Speaker 4 (28m 30s): They do bus. And the buses start really, really early in the morning around here. 

Speaker 3 (28m 36s): I can imagine. 

Speaker 4 (28m 37s): Yeah. Kids are on the bus right around seven. 

Speaker 3 (28m 39s): So how many snow days? 

Speaker 4 (28m 42s): There's actually quite a few. Our winter weather is not that. Our winters are harsh. Yeah. There's a lot of blowing snow. We get ice storms. Yeah. And, and it's outside of Elma. Once you get out of our bowl the hills, there's a lot of snow. Yeah. And I, I'm gonna 

Speaker 3 (29m 5s): The park with him. You gonna the park with Dan. I'm just saying any of the times our kids have been in the er. I haven't been home. He will be fine. 

Speaker 4 (29m 15s): And I didn't even tell you about the golf course here. Tell 

Speaker 3 (29m 18s): Us. Yeah, tell me about the golf course. 

Speaker 4 (29m 19s): We have a golf course right in funding national park. It is only nine holes. They do have, they did design 18 but they didn't want to eat up the space that another nine hole takes. Yeah. Funding National park. As far as national parks go, it's actually quite small in area, but it's a Stanley Thompson designed course. 

Speaker 3 (29m 39s): Nice. 

Speaker 4 (29m 41s): Dixon Brook runs through all but one of the holes. Wow. And I know because I've lost so many golf balls to it. It's hilly. Yeah. And it is one of the prettiest courses to be played. The fourth hole is the prettiest golf hole in my opinion in, in Canada. It's awesome. 

Speaker 3 (30m 2s): Oh, that's amazing. It is. I do love the amenities. Like, and maybe because this area had chalets on it, that's why we have full hookups three-way service that is a delight for, especially for a national park. 

Speaker 4 (30m 15s): So I think for the RVs there is like headquarters has good access and ecto in this. Yeah. And then for the Tenters we also have sort of the, you know we have Point Wolf and we have Lakeview that are, are designed for Tenters. Yeah. And there is back country stuff here as well for the people that are Let's go with younger than me. Yes. 

Speaker 3 (30m 43s): Fair. 

Speaker 4 (30m 45s): 'cause if I'm hiking during the day these days Yeah. I'm sleeping on a soft bed at night. 

Speaker 3 (30m 49s): Oh for sure. Yes. That's why we are in a trailer. 

Speaker 4 (30m 55s): The large trailer. 

Speaker 3 (30m 56s): We resisted it for a long time, but No, no. The spine says time to upgrade 

Speaker 4 (31m 3s): Young lady like you. 

Speaker 3 (31m 5s): Yes. No, as soon as I hit 30 it was like no more. 

Speaker 4 (31m 9s): And you know, one of my favorite times of the year here, so in, they started kinda late May and early June, we get all the Cara banners from the southern states. Oh 

Speaker 3 (31m 20s): Nice. Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (31m 21s): So they come up here to beat the heat in Texas and Louisiana and Florida and Tennessee. So we've, I've taken a call in them. So we're snow birders if we go to the warmth, we call them sweat birds. 

Speaker 3 (31m 35s): I love that. 

Speaker 4 (31m 36s): Yeah. And they'll come up and spend three or four months. They go, they tour New Brunswick Nova Scotia. Yeah. Newfoundland and PEI. Yeah. Love it. 

Speaker 3 (31m 44s): That's amazing. I love that. There are a few here from Florida, which I was surprised. That's great. Yeah. Yep. Long 

Speaker 4 (31m 50s): Way. It's amazing. And we do get RVs that ship their RVs into St. John or Halifax from Europe. Yes. And spend six months here. 

Speaker 3 (32m 2s): Yeah. That's incredible. We ran into a couple, just near our house actually last summer and they were from Germany and they did the same thing. Yeah, yeah. 

Speaker 4 (32m 10s): Unbelievable amount of Germans that come through here. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (32m 13s): Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (32m 13s): And they love our national park system and there's, you know, six national parks within a day's drive. Yeah. In the Maritimes. So they come out, they hike everything they can find and off they go home. 

Speaker 3 (32m 26s): Yeah. I think it's a dynamically different experience for them. We were chatting with a couple in Nawic at the brewery when we stayed overnight and they have a small van here and they purchased a van and they store it in Spain. So they have, they fly over and then they caravan over there. But like we were looking at pictures of where they were staying over there and it's very dynamically different. Right. You don't have the grand forests and the Yes. Large waterfalls. It's very open field type camping. It's kind of 

Speaker 4 (32m 55s): Cool though. And it's amazing. I've met working the store. You meet everyone. Yeah. But so many people that have sold every possession they have and they live in their trailers traveling. Yeah. Met a, a young couple last week and they're both, they both work remotely and they choose their campsite based on internet connection. Yep. And they live out of their trailer. Yeah. 

And I think that is, 

Speaker 3 (33m 27s): I think that's beautiful. They 

Speaker 4 (33m 28s): Must be freeing in a way to own nothing but what you are driving in. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (33m 34s): Oh, I think it's amazing. I cannot wait. 

Speaker 4 (33m 36s): That's 

Speaker 3 (33m 37s): The, fortunately we have college, high school. Yeah. That's the plan. Those pesky kids get the way those kids all get in the kids kind thing. 

Speaker 4 (33m 45s): And we're sitting here today and we have about six or seven Merlins overhead. 

Speaker 3 (33m 50s): Yeah. If anybody can hear them. They sound pretty incredible. I'm, I hear it's mating season. That's what I've been told. 

Speaker 4 (33m 57s): This park also has a ridiculous variety of warblers 

Speaker 3 (34m 2s): That come through. 

Speaker 4 (34m 3s): Yeah. It is bird watchers paradise. Yeah. We have tons of eagles. We have falcons that nest in the, in the cliff sides. Yeah. Warblers, vines, you name it. Yeah. Is here. So for bird geeks like myself, it is a top notch. 

Speaker 3 (34m 20s): I feel like I saw a grouse yesterday, but maybe that's wrong. We have lots of grouse. Do you have grouse? Okay. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (34m 24s): Lots of grouse. And they hide in the park 'cause they know they can't be shot here. Ah, 

Speaker 3 (34m 29s): Nice. They've learned the, the safe boundary. So tell us about timber and tides. 

Speaker 4 (34m 37s): So timber and tides. I don't know. We started, we, I always want to have a store or an inn, as you can probably tell. I really like chatting with people. My wife told me I couldn't start a store just to, so I'd have more people to talk to. And I said, I don't see why not. But we came up with the idea of timber and tides and it's right in the, in the title. This area very much reminds me of forest running straight into the ocean. 

When I was a kid, there was only two types of people in Alma. You were either a woodsman or you were a fisherman. Yeah. It's quite diverse now. We've got retired university professors and engineers. So the, the makeup has changed a lot. But that was my memory as a kid. Hence timber and tides. So our shop, which is for the most part, home decor, kitchen and bath, everything had to remind us either of the ocean or the forest when we opened. 

And we've kept to that. Now the little change is that we've added a hiking and camping section of the store. Yeah. Because everybody comes in and says, oh, I'm out of propane. Oh, I forgot my tent pegs. And we couldn't help them. But now we, we can, we have all the little bits and pieces that people forget, break lose, that kind of thing. Forgot to pack their 17-year-old, forgot to pack their sleeping bag. And 

Speaker 3 (36m 13s): I've, 

Speaker 4 (36m 13s): I've got a good replacement for them. And I also cater to the local stripe, bass fishermen. Mm. So we rent rods, I sell bait hooks, sinkers, you know the basics for striper fishing. 

Speaker 3 (36m 29s): Right. 

Speaker 4 (36m 30s): And if you've never been around the coast here, that's, that's all the rage. They're a game fish that kind of started migrating here, call it 25 years ago. 

Speaker 3 (36m 43s): Okay. 

Speaker 4 (36m 44s): They're very fun to fish. Yeah. They're very aggressive and we have a lot of fun with it. 

Speaker 3 (36m 51s): Aggressive is good. A lot of slap snapped lines and lost 

Speaker 4 (36m 54s): Lures when it comes, when it comes to fishing. Yes. 

Speaker 3 (36m 56s): Aggressive is good. We did see somebody catch a nerve shark by accident in Florida and they were trying to get it to get 

Speaker 4 (37m 4s): The hook up. So we catch some here as well. Really? Yep. Okay. Not right out front but down in Cape and Ridge. Okay. They catch just, just down the street. Yeah. As you can hear the foghorn in Cape and Ridge right now. Yeah. They get Dogfish. 

Speaker 3 (37m 19s): Okay. Yeah. Which 

Speaker 4 (37m 21s): Is the same animal. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (37m 22s): Okay. 

Speaker 4 (37m 23s): Which is, I think that's a Just cut the line moment. Yeah, 

Speaker 3 (37m 29s): Yeah. Yeah. I think he was trying to like get the hook out, but I was like, that's not gonna happen. Yeah. And eventually it was 

Speaker 4 (37m 36s): There. There are times when it's just not safe. Yes. And you just cut the line, 

Speaker 3 (37m 41s): Cut the line 

Speaker 4 (37m 42s): Cut bait as they say. Yes. 

Speaker 3 (37m 44s): Just like you did on your career to come to Albany Brunswick. 

Speaker 4 (37m 48s): I did. I did. So I did retire CareerWise, but now I only work really, really hard in the summer. That's right. And I take the rest of the year off. 

Speaker 3 (37m 57s): Ah, beautiful. That is paradise. 

Speaker 4 (37m 59s): Yeah. We're just trying to decide where we're going to this winter. 

Speaker 3 (38m 5s): You have to tell me. Ah. And send me lots of pictures when you do. 

Speaker 4 (38m 9s): Yeah, we're kind of, I've got Ecuador in Columbia in my head. Yes. But we'll see how that fleshes out. 

Speaker 3 (38m 16s): Yes. 

Speaker 4 (38m 17s): So we usually do two one as soon as the season's over. You need that. You need that breather, 

Speaker 3 (38m 21s): Need that break. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (38m 22s): So we just go to a beach somewhere. Yep. Doesn't matter where somewhere sunny. Yeah. Where nothing is expected. Yep. And then the second little trip will be more of a out and about and hiking And I and Trek hiking and sightseeing. But no, that first one will be, I'm sitting on this beach and getting up only to get in the ocean. Yes. And eat some more. 

Speaker 3 (38m 45s): Love it. That's okay. That's your, that's your recouping time. That's allowed. So we had fried clams yesterday and which were amazing by the way. And that we got them from the takeout Yep. In Alma. And Fantastic. Really good fries too, I will say. And today is Dan's birthday and we are going for breakfast at some point. So where's the best breakfast in Alma? So 

Speaker 4 (39m 11s): Alma's very like, we've got like eight, we're a town of 270 people. We've got eight amazing restaurants. Yes. For at least five months in the year. 

Speaker 3 (39m 20s): Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (39m 21s): Breakfast isn't served everywhere. Okay. But if you want a good old traditional bacon and eggs. Yep. Muddy rudder. Muddy 

Speaker 3 (39m 31s): Rudder 

Speaker 4 (39m 31s): Sounds a very nice breakfast. Okay. If you want your eggs benedict, maybe a fancy bowl or as it's billed the world's best breakfast sandwich. Ooh. And he's not incorrect to my mind. Octopus Octopus's Garden is awesome. 

Speaker 3 (39m 51s): Octopus's Garden. Oh, okay. We saw that on the other side of town. Cafe. Right. It's a 

Speaker 4 (39m 55s): Cafe. He's a, he's a great chef and he does, you can get a fancy coffee there if you want as well. 

Speaker 3 (40m 4s): Ooh, yes. Okay. 

Speaker 4 (40m 7s): After a round of golf. The other morning We did stop at muddy rudder for some bacon and eggs. 

Speaker 3 (40m 13s): Perfection. 

Speaker 4 (40m 14s): Actually it's sausage. I don't know what sausage they're using at Muddy Rudder, but it's awesome. 

Speaker 3 (40m 20s): Oh, okay. Sounds good. 

Speaker 4 (40m 22s): Really good. 

Speaker 3 (40m 23s): I might go on a little adventure and like go away from bacon today. 

Speaker 4 (40m 30s): Although you can never go wrong with bacon, let's be honest. 

Speaker 3 (40m 32s): Yes, true. Great. 

Speaker 4 (40m 36s): What else you got? 

Speaker 3 (40m 38s): Well that's good. We've been chatting for 22 minutes already. 

Speaker 4 (40m 42s): I have a hard time chatting. 

Speaker 3 (40m 44s): I know, it's, I, I really have to pull the words outta you once 

Speaker 4 (40m 47s): I, once I get over the shyness. 

Speaker 3 (40m 51s): Well Chris, this was amazing. Thank you very much. 

Speaker 4 (40m 54s): Thank you. I'm so glad you stopped into Elma. Yes. 

Speaker 3 (40m 57s): That's exciting. I'm glad too. We literally, we came here specifically to see you. Oh. And then just didn't forgot to tell you what day we were coming. Oh yeah. 

Speaker 4 (41m 5s): Besides that, well there was no way that kids, my, my kids showing up was gonna change. So that part didn't matter. Stick around till Saturday. We'll go out to, this is Saturday. Stick around tonight. We can go see live music. 

Speaker 3 (41m 20s): I know. That would be amazing. We gotta be in PEI today. 

Speaker 4 (41m 25s): Are you going to the music festival? 

Speaker 3 (41m 26s): Is there a music festival this weekend? Okay, so just to frame this up, we sound very disorganized. I am very Type A. I usually plan everything. This trip we decided to wing it, which is why we only booked this site a week and a half ago because So 

Speaker 4 (41m 38s): Where are you camping in 

Speaker 3 (41m 39s): PEI, Cabot Beach Provincial Park. 

Speaker 4 (41m 42s): Cavendish Beach. Provincial Park. Sure. 

Speaker 3 (41m 44s): Cabot Beach. Cabot Beach. I think it's Cabot Beach 

Speaker 4 (41m 46s): Because it's the Cavendish Music Festival. Oh 

Speaker 3 (41m 49s): Cool. 

Speaker 4 (41m 50s): One of the largest outdoor festivals in the world. 

Speaker 3 (41m 54s): Showed so much research I did. And 

Speaker 4 (41m 56s): The And the fact that you got a space. 

Speaker 3 (41m 58s): Oh, amazing. It was really hard. And then I checked again and it, I think they must have had a cancellation. See winging it works all the time 

Speaker 4 (42m 5s): And it's also the Summerside Lobster Festival. Nice. It's also the Shediac Lobster Fest Festival going 

Speaker 3 (42m 12s): On. Okay. 

Speaker 4 (42m 14s): And you guys got spaces, places. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (42m 17s): It's amazing. That's pretty 

Speaker 4 (42m 18s): Incredible actually. 

Speaker 3 (42m 20s): High five to me. So I guess planning doesn't pay off 

Speaker 4 (42m 24s): Stupid planning. It's 

Speaker 3 (42m 26s): Literally, yeah. We checked like every campground in PEI And I thought, oh my gosh, we're gonna be sleeping in parking lots. Like 

Speaker 4 (42m 32s): Yeah, that's because it's Cavendish. Yeah. Music festival. 

Speaker 3 (42m 34s): Oh that's gonna be awesome. 

Speaker 4 (42m 36s): There'll be a lot of people over there. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (42m 39s): Yeah. I'm excited. Well it's 

Speaker 4 (42m 41s): Good. You should be. 

Speaker 3 (42m 42s): Yeah. It's a great time to visit. You've been the, you EI before have never been to PEI. 

Speaker 4 (42m 47s): Oh it's beautiful. Yeah. The green fields running into the Red Sand, which runs into the blue water rolling hills. Gorgeous. It's completely different than 

Speaker 3 (42m 58s): This. Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (43m 1s): My mother, who is from PEI, my uncle who lives up the hill here, they argue all the time about, which is more beautiful. Yeah. Like they're both very beautiful, just in completely different ways. 

Speaker 3 (43m 13s): Totally different. Like and, And I can appreciate the uniqueness. Like I, and I'm sure we will, it'll change again as we go into Nova Scotia. Like it's been incredibly different. But this is stunning. Like I love, like coming from the west coast, I appreciate the deeply forested areas and very hilly mountainous regions. Our breaks were a little bit smelly when we came down into the park. Yeah. Coming 

Speaker 4 (43m 40s): Through Elma, you can smell all the breaks coming through. Yeah. Like, 

Speaker 3 (43m 45s): Oh. But I also appreciate the very like maritime esque, you know Yeah. Fish based industry type town eats and Yeah. So it, I'm excited to see how it differs between the three provinces. 

Speaker 4 (43m 58s): Yeah. So the tides are amazing. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (44m 2s): Yes. We went to Hopewell yesterday 'cause we saw the tide would be low and we thought, okay, perfect timing, let's go. And yeah, it was great. It was really, really, really neat. 

Speaker 4 (44m 13s): So it always, we saw 

Speaker 3 (44m 14s): Foxes there too. There was a couple of foxes came that came down in there. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (44m 19s): We have a lot of wildlife. It always puts it in perspective. My house at high tide we're 250 feet from the water. Yeah. And at low tide we're a kilometer. Wow. 

Speaker 3 (44m 30s): That's incredible. Yeah, it is. It really is amazing to see. Like unless you, you stand there and watch it like Yeah. Everyone's like, okay, well what's the big deal? Tides go in, tides come out and it's like not like this. This is, this is incredible. Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (44m 48s): Well it is different. But the fishermen here have, right. They can only come and go every 12 hours once you put out to sea. 

Speaker 3 (44m 58s): Yeah. You're 

Speaker 4 (44m 59s): Out for 12 hours. Yeah. Just why So you'll never see a sailboat here. 

Speaker 3 (45m 3s): Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (45m 4s): There's no personal water craft. 

Speaker 3 (45m 6s): Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (45m 7s): A couple of aluminum boats around that you can just Yeah. Dip in and out if you had to. But yeah, it's fishing boats and Yeah, once a year the Coast guard and yeah, that's about it. That's out front here. 

Speaker 3 (45m 18s): Yeah. 

Speaker 4 (45m 19s): But it's neat. So fishmen are working. If the tides at three in the morning, that's what time they're working. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (45m 26s): Incredible. 

Speaker 4 (45m 26s): Time of day has nothing to do with it here. 

Speaker 3 (45m 28s): No. You work with the rhythm of the sea. Yep. As it should be. As it should. Working in tandem with nature and it those nine to five, who invented that anyway? Crap. 

Speaker 4 (45m 43s): Eight to four. Yeah, nine to five was always no 

Speaker 3 (45m 46s): Good. Yeah, true. Eight to four. Eight to 

Speaker 4 (45m 48s): Four was the the 

Speaker 3 (45m 49s): Bar. That's the sweet spot. 

Speaker 4 (45m 50s): If I could have done six to two, I would've all that in. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (45m 54s): Well flexible full-time. Chris Kelly, that's what it's about. When you work remotely, 

Speaker 4 (45m 58s): You hiring, how flexible. 

Speaker 3 (46m 1s): Always. 

Speaker 0 (46m 3s): Well I certainly had an excellent and really lovely time catching up with Chris. I do miss seeing him at work all the time and it was just really, really nice to catch up. Thank you Dan for taking on the role of babysitter. 

Speaker 1 (46m 16s): No, I really enjoyed it. We got the water guns out. We went over to the park, we ran around. I think we had a good time 

Speaker 0 (46m 22s): Considering we didn't have any kids with us this trip. And this was like our first real trip without the kids. I think it was great to just kind of relive some of those little memories and delight or delighted I guess, that we still have all of these kids' toys, like stacked in the trailer somewhere on the off chance we have a small little friend come over to visit. Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (46m 40s): We found 10 pounds of crayons we didn't know we had in the back of the trailer, but a hundred percent I would go back to Alma And I would stay in the Cannon Town loop again. For sure. Wish we could have spent a little bit more time there. So it's definitely on our, let's go back there someday list 

Speaker 0 (46m 54s): For sure. And I will say we only spent one night there. I didn't mention this before when we were talking, but I, we booked last minute, which is incredible. Like this park is one of the most popular parks in the country. We booked a week and a half out and we were able to snag one night on the night we wanted, which was fantastic. Definitely couldn't, couldn't have stayed more than one night if we wanted to because the reservations just picked up again. I think there was maybe two or three sites when I looked. And I think those are probably cancellations. So I would say to everybody as I normally do, if you're going somewhere and you look, 'cause We did look before and there were, were no spots available. 

Keep checking because people's plans change. Right. So you never know when you might be able to snag a site. 

Speaker 1 (47m 33s): Yep, a hundred percent. Okay, 

Speaker 0 (47m 35s): Well that's it for this week and we'll chat soon. Safe travels. 

Speaker 1 (47m 38s): Bye-bye. Have a great week. Good. I can never move at the end. My legs gone to sleep because I'm afraid to move.