Nude New River

 I went hiking a few days ago to explore the potential for stream walking in the upper reaches of the mighty New River.  The New is really more of a biggish stream than a river.  It rises in the uninhabited wilds of Clarendon Parish at the outflow of Adelaide Lake, then wends its way through forest and bog gathering along its course the waters of the Tamarack and several other brooks.  It meanders placidly much of the time but is given to pitching itself violently downslope wherever terrain allows, as it does on several occasions.  Finally it meets tidewater at New River Beach where it flows into the Bay of Fundy through a tangle of rapids and rocks.

My destination was one of the New’s scenes of violence, a set of continuous rapids between two placid pools, a pitch of about eleven metres vertical drop over a run of about four hundred metres, circled in yellow on the satellite photo below.  Being situated more or less in the middle of nowhere the falls’ name, if it has one, isn’t posted for the casual tourist.  I have asked locally and checked with Natural Resources but it seems to be a no-name feature.  For the moment it remains anonymous, a John Doe waterfall.

The head of the rapid looking upstream from Tanners Rocks

I had not seen the place before except from the vantage point of a satellite passing overhead – thanks to the CIA by way of Google Earth – so I chose my target the same way that SAC does, just not with the same grisly intent. The day was fine with high twenties (Celsius degrees of course) and a sky of sun-washed blue only lightly scattered with tiny clouds.  The drive to get there was easy enough: NB Hwy 1 West to Exit 86, then Hwy 175 to Hwy 780, then Hwy 780 for six kms to the crossroads with forest harvest Road #6.  Then it was hidey-ho, onward we go, over the dirt roads to wherever you'd like to go.  Caveat: Do not head out here with the family grocery-getter unless it has four-wheel drive, you’ll need the extra ground clearance. 

Actually, I halted about 150 metres or so short of the river bank where the road dead-ends.  In truth, it veers to the right and continues, but from that point it becomes more of a marsh than a road.  Beyond the dry end of the road there was nothing but forest, not even a game trail, so I bushwhacked my way through fern, scrub and riparian forest not bothering with a compass.  My ears were leading me straight to the sound of the unseen rapids.  On reaching the bank I found the river running high and fast due to recent rains, but it had obviously receded a metre or so in depth during the last few days.  You could see where patches of sedges had been combed flat by the flood and where the New River had, briefly at least, been twice the width I found it when my bushwhacking brought me to its rocky bank.  I had lucked out and had arrived quite by accident at the comfortably flat rocks near the top of the rapids. These are the only such rocks on the eastern bank along the run of this falls, all the rest are fractured with many exposed sharp edges, altogether not good for lounging or laying out to work on one’s tan.  Therefore I named the big smoothish rocks Tanners Rocks.

Tanners Rocks looking upstream

In my mind I divided the falls into three sections, from the upstream pool to the second drop past Tanners Rocks; then a dogleg stretch ending at the top of a final drop and the final drop itself.  From top to bottom is a run of about 420 metres, encompassing a total vertical drop of about thirteen metres.  

Split Falls looking downstream

I realized immediately that the potential for stream walking here was infinite, at that point where infinity approaches zero.  The New was too full, too deep and too fast for stream walking but it would be a great spot for creek kayaking or rafting with something the size of an Aire Puma.  A full-sized outfitter’s raft would be too big – I know; I used to be a raft guide.  This falls rates a solid Class III, probably a Class III+ because of the narrow channel, quick changes of direction and the near impossibility of either shore rescue or self-rescue.  Until you wash over the left drop of the final drop self-rescue by survival swimming is the sole option.  It is the sort of run that creek kayakers might do several times in a day, just for the fun of it.  But there is a problem with that concept, there is no riverside portage trail to hump your kayak back to the top of the run, not unless you’re a moose.  And the terrain is “difficult.” [I use “difficult” here as a euphemism for several other words that spring to mind and lip, none of which are polite.] There is also the problem of the put-in and take-out points.  Put-in at the upriver pond could be managed by some energetic souls hacking a trail through a scant sixty metres of bush.  Take-out exists nine hundred metres downstream on the left, just at the head of the next rapid and requires a 2.5 km shuttle over quite decent woods roads.  Both put-in and take-out will require humping the boats a couple of hundred metres.

Outflow from the eddy below Split Falls

Okay, so stream walking wasn’t an option here.  That really wasn’t that big a deal because the woods roads in the area make it a great place for free-range nude recreation: driving, hiking, camping, fishing and even bicycling . . . and skinnydipping.
 

Never overlook an opportunity for skinnydipping

And for the naturist naturalist there are many sights besides the flora.  In the space of five hours I saw hares, bears, beavers, moose and a young coyote, also many more frogs than I had seen in a long time.  All of this was free for the looking and free of any other person driving through.  Many of the roads out here are dead ends and that helps.  I walked about twelve kms in all, taking my time, walking in and out of sun and shade and thoroughly enjoying myself.  The only strenuous part of the trip had been the bushwhacking in the first instance and then breaking trail alongside the river.  After that it was a walk in the park, but a park of a very different sort.  The area is not parkland, it is a working forest with few areas unharvested except the riparian strips and inaccessible bogs.  Many areas are in various stages of regrowth and are provide wildlife habitat that old growth forest would have denied.  The ease of access and good footing is provided by all those dead-end harvest roads.  So if you go there consider the positive aspects along with the scars left by forestry and the powerline corridor.

But speaking of parks, a very nice thing about the area is that it is located close to New River Beach Provincial Park.  NRBPP is not a nudist recreation area -- which is really unfortunate but totally expected -- but it does have campsites for your tent or your land yacht, as well as a great saltwater beach.  So it provides a good base camp for your nude explorations of the New River back country.  Enjoy!