After putting the kayak in from Sunrise Campground, I found some interesting little sea caves before heading over to Bartibog Island. I thought the fallen trees from erosion of the steep-sided island seemed an appropriate picture of how unstable and temporary the things of this world are. At the point on the east side of the Bartibog River, I took a moment again to pray for the many hundreds of children who go through the nearby Roman Catholic camp each year. Then I was off for my crossing to the south side of the river/bay. As usual it was quite a bit rougher and windier out in the middle than what it looked like from the shore. It wasn’t really that bad, but probably the waves were intensified by the outgoing current. On both shores, it was amazing to see how many seasonal campers there were.
As I worked my way along the south shore of Miramichi Bay and wondered when the wind would become “light” (according to the forecast), I decided to paddle up Napan River to the bridge. I began to accept the apparent rule that you can rarely ever have both the wind and the current in your favor. As I was coming back in to Napan Bay, I got a phone call from the newspaper reporter. He wanted to know if he could meet me again to get a photo of me paddling. So I made a very minor modification to my itinerary to meet him where the road crosses Taylor Creek. It turned out to be fairly interesting getting the short distance up the creek to the bridge, since it had a strong outgoing current and not much water in most places. The current going under the bridge was strong enough that I was barely able to paddle through. Anyhow, he showed up within 10 minutes of my arrival, took some pictures, and then we said goodbye again.
Next I had to make my way around Cheval Point and Pointe aux Carr. It was a breezy battle, but just a matter of pushing on. Although there was nothing especially noteworthy about the coastline, it was amazing to look back across the bay at the places we’d been, from Burnt Church to Miramichi. When I reached the mouth of the Black River, I took a break to rest and pray, but decided I didn’t have time to paddle up the river. I paddled on, past quite a few homes/cottages and a few people out walking around. Reaching the boat ramp on the Bay du Vin River, I told Kevin where I was and started unloading. When he got there, we got a chance to visit with John Russell. An interesting name since it’s the same as the Vances’ youngest son. Not only was he friendly and willing to take a Bible, it turned out that he’d seen me when I was back in the Black River area. Since I didn’t know of any campgrounds in the area, we camped for the night at Escuminac Beach. Other than the windy times, it was a beautiful day. As it started rapidly cooling down at sunset, I discovered from my wife that much of the region was under a “frost warning”. So much for global warming, eh? Get sunburned in the day, and frozen at night, even in July! At least the mosquitoes slowed down a little bit as it got colder.
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