In a few special places in the world, high tide is inaugurated by an upstream wave, a tidal bore. The Petitcodiac River in Moncton is one of those places.
We see the wave approaching a mile downstream, bending around a curve and then reforming into a charging wall of froth and mud spanning the 100 feet from bank to bank. In no time it was near.
The wave instantly halts the full flow of the river in a magnificent collision. Mud swirls as the confused water is ripped into whirlpools. The staggering momentum of thousands of tons of water is reversed by the overwhelming power of the tidal bore.
As we watch over the next 20-30 minutes the river level rises 6 feet. A furious current upstream builds to perhaps 15 mph.
The afternoon leads to a beautiful river flood plain walk. Marsh grass, reeds, cattails. Open space. The muddy river rises to flood the barren flats up to the grass and reeds.
The trail ends abruptly at a footbridge under construction. I back out a half mile and road-walk a longer route around. The road is boring so I blog while walking and miss my turn. I hike six miles to net three!
The future TCT will be lovely, following along the water's edge, but the road-walk now is inland just far enough to replace the lovely flood plain view with a pleasant though tedious rural highway and houses. The TCT loops out around the tip of the peninsula but I decide to just cut straight over. There are some completed sections at the tip but I figure we could drive back to see it if we really want to. The road-walk is hot and I'm not interested in walking more unneeded miles.
I stop at a fire station for water and hear about some ATV/snowmobile trails.
I plan a route for Friday that gets off of the roads and onto such trails. But without a good map they are hard to follow. I make it about halfway to Sackville before I pull back onto a road to simplify navigating. The day turns cold and windy.
I can feel "let's finish this thing" growing inside me.
I can feel "let's finish this thing" growing inside me.
19.7 miles to College Bridge (31.7 km)
13.7 miles to Sackville (22.0 km)
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