Dobson Trail – Day 3 Part 3
Comfortably slipping my feet into clean sandals, I put aside my hiking shoes that were still soaking wet. Carrying my IDs, a bottle of water, a few granola bars, some cash, a cellphone, as well as a camera; I went on a journey of hitchhiking. It was totally random. There wasn’t much time for second thought. If I could help to get the rest of the group out of our dilemma, why not?
It’s still hard to believe that I actually hitchhiked. At that moment, we had no choice…
The journey began around 1:30 p.m…. Garth and I were walking along this one-lane highway under the scorching hot sun, with some occasional warm breeze. We didn’t have much luck finding a ride for the first hour.
A quiet highway with barely any cars on a Sunday afternoon.
Prosser Brook Rd. We agreed to meet up with the rest of the group here with the cars, sometime….someday….hopefully on the same day….
We didn’t give up asking for a drive. Finally, an older couple stopped for us, after they made a turn onto the highway from the housing area. It turned out that they were trying to find their way to the Moncton exit, which coincidentally, heading towards the same direction as we wanted for at least a good 30-minute drive.
At 3 p.m., we were dropped off at Hillsborough. Comparatively, this highway was a lot busier. We started walking along the busy highway.
Overlooking the Chignecto Bay.
We stopped at an ice-cream shack for a cold treat. Enjoy while we could…
After 40 minutes of wandering along the highway, we decided to seek help at the gas station.
Bingo! A middle-age couple who were on their way to the Hopewell Rocks to pick up their daughter from work, offered a drive. Hopewell Rocks, off we went!
From 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., we were busy approaching visitors who were leaving, at the parking lot. I was hoping that someone would visit the Fundy National Park after Hopewell Rocks on the same day; meanwhile, Garth was trying to find someone who was heading towards the park for camping.
Cars either had full wheels, headed towards the opposite direction (Moncton), or traveled a short distance. The construction on the way to the park didn’t either much either. People were avoiding that route due to potential slow traffic.
Finally, we decided to seek help from the help line. We might be able to get some assistance from the volunteers of the Dobson trail. Unfortunately, they could only offer some advice. “Try to approach homeowners along the highway. Chip in some money for gas, and they might offer you a drive there.” Hmm…that wasn’t much of a help.
At the same time, I contacted Miles who was spending his weekend in Grand Bay. He was worried and offered help by driving up to get us. Realizing that it was going to be a 3-hour drive for him, I kindly turned down the offer, hoping that we could work our way around it.
At the entrance of Hopewell Rocks.
The exit to Hopewell Rocks from the highway.
Eventually, we were given a ride back to the highway by a young couple from Ontario. We walked aimlessly along the highway and something caught our eyes. There was a sign that said “painter” at the lawn of a house. There was a van parked on a driveway. Just as we walked by, the homeowner stepped out of his house. I looked at Garth and asked:”Do we want to ask for help?” Since there wasn’t any harm asking, we approached the homeowner. Coincidentally, he was going to pick up his wife and was willing to offer us a drive.
“Great!” I thought. It must have been about a 35-minute drive. Instead of Riverside-Albert, he drove us all the way past Alma, to the Fundy National Park lookout area. As a token of appreciation, we chipped in $30 for gas. It was very kind of him to extend help.
At the lookout area.
We walked uphill along the road, and felt so lost.
We couldn’t get any car that went towards our way, to stop for us. It was rather disappointing. At last, we arrived at the Chignecto campground around 7 p.m. and sought for assistance. At 7:20 p.m., we were given a ride to the starting point of Laverty Falls hiking trail. We were there 30 minutes later.
Hmm…here came the big challenge. Could we make it through the woods and get to the cars before the night kicked in? We started our hike at 8 p.m. With our sandals, we literally jogged and ran along the trail. It was a 2.5 km trail to the falls. There were some wet and muddy patches along the trail, but nothing compared to what we’ve gone through on Dobson Trail.
The beginning of the Laverty Falls trail.
A steep, rocky, and rooty part of the trail. We wanted to be quick, and tried not to hurt ourselves at the same time.
We got to the falls about 8:40 p.m…
The Laverty Falls.
What was next? We waded through the falls to get to the Dobson Link trail. It was another 2.6 km of hiking. As the warm sunshine replaced by the cool evening breeze, we were afraid that we won’t be able to make it to our destination before it was dark. I was panting heavily and gasping for breath. My legs were getting tired and sore. Nonetheless, I refused to take breaks as I didn’t want us to end up stranded in the woods, and had to spend a night here.
The Dobson Link trail.
Finally…. We completed the hike just before it was completely dark, at 9:15 p.m. Just as we thought everything was about to come to an end, problems arose…
