This hike has no official name because it uses a number of different trails. For lack of official recognition I’ll call it the Seely Beach Loop.
The Seely Beach Loop may be challenging for some people in terms of length (14.5 km) but it is not too bad in terms of difficulty. However, when you are doing Phase III of the loop keep in mind that this is a wild forest trail with plenty of gnarly roots waiting to trip you. You will want a good solid hiking stick, not some skinny-assed collapsible aluminum pole. See my Rules for Hiking Naked blogpost for other stuff you might want to take with you.
Where – Fundy Trail Parkway, via St Martins.
Access – Access to this loop is via the Fundy Trail Parkway – a day fee must be paid at the gatehouse
Once you’re past the gatehouse drive on and enjoy the views. Watch for parking lot P14 on the far side of the Little Salmon River and past Long Beach. Park at P14. Conveniently, it has an outhouse where you can take care of last-minute business before starting your hike.
Trailhead – Parking lot P14. Trailhead is signed "Seely Beach."
(All distances are approximate – taken from Google Earth)
Phase I – Trailhead to old woods road ~ 1.3 km
Phase II – Old woods to Cradle Brook access trail ~ 5.9 km
Phase III – Cradle Brook access trail to Fundy Footpath ~ 3.4 km
Phase IV – Fundy Footpath to Seely Beach ~ 2.1 km
(Plus Seely beachfront ~ 500m)
Phase V – Seely Beach to Parkway ~ 1.3 km
Total trail distance ~ 14.5 km
Phase I – Take the marked trail from P14 and when you reach a point 50 feet / 16m or so from the parkway turn left and head off through the forest. This is a good place to get naked. There is no trail at this point but it is easy walking through moss-carpeted forest floor with lots of room between the trees. Keep far enough inside the treeline that you can't be seen from the parkway but generally no more than the 50 feet / 16m – there is a reason for keeping this distance. Feel free to wave at any passing motorists – they can't see you but it is good fun anyway.
Fairly soon you will come to a pretty good woods trail that crosses your course at a right angle – DO NOT take this trail, it leads to the construction rubble dump behind P14 so you would have to start all over again. Cross the woods trail and continue to parallel the parkway and, by and by, you will come to a second good woods trail – if you get too far away from the parkway you will miss it. In fact this second trail is an orphaned section of the old access trail (and older horse road) that leads to Seely Beach. Turn LEFT on this trail, it will soon curve around to the right, and follow it to its end. This trail is in very good shape (there are even some of the yellow blaze marks still to be seen) and is easy walking (for your convenience I cleared most of the smaller deadfalls) until you come to the end where it is quite wet for the last 20m or so. (Fun fact: in October 2019 the tracks on this trail showed that it is a favourite path for one or more moose – just thought you'd like to know.) Once you've crossed the wet section you will find yourself standing on an abandoned parkway construction road built on top of an older woods road. Turn LEFT and set off on Phase II.
Phase II – From the trail junction follow the old construction road West, becoming North, becoming Northeast – hike and be happy because there will be no traffic coming from behind and there is plenty of easy cover on both sides of the road. The road itself is bad at first, soon becomes better and then changes to be pretty darned good, culverts excepted. About 700m on you come to a cleared area with a T-junction to the right -- go STRAIGHT.
There will be several more trail or road junctions to come: T-junction 1.6 km right, Y-junction 1.9 km left, T-junction 2.4 km right, Y-junction 2.6 km left, T-junction 2.8 km left, T-junction 3.0 km right, T-junction 3.5 km left, Y-junction 3.8 km left, Y-junction 5.0 km left and T-junction 5.4 km right. Only four of these are important but if you don't have a good map or satellite photo I mention them so you can use them to keep track of your progress.
The four important junctions are:
– the T-junctions at 2.8 km (where your path now becomes the Old Salmon River Road) and 3.5 km, both which might be sources of vehicle traffic;
– the last one, T-junction 5.4 km RIGHT (Approx Latitude 45º28' 58.77" North, Longitude 65º20' 13.64" West) which is where you turn and head back to the parkway. Another 300 m brings you to the parkway where it crosses the Cradle Brook access trail – there are wooden swing gates at this point, STOP out of sight of the parkway;
– the fourth important junction is the T-junction to the right at 3.0 km (marked with a No Trespassing sign in a white barrel) which might be handy if you need to abort the hike and get back to the parkway in a hurry. This junction leads to a maintenance area and then to the parkway, a distance of ~ 500m or 700m depending on the route you take through the maintenance area.
If you’re staying naked to cross the parkway pretend that it is a railway crossing – STOP, LOOK and LISTEN for traffic and, if the coast is clear, hustle your butt across the road and get down the trail out of sight of passersby. We don’t want to annoy either tourists or parkway staff, right? Right!
Phase III – You are now walking on the Cradle Brook access trail, a long-disused forest harvest road. Very suddenly (150 m from the parkway) you will come upon a T-junction on your left. By the condition of the two forks of the road the one on your left appears to be the obvious route – it is NOT. GO STRAIGHT AHEAD on the road less travelled, it gets better quite soon. Continue along the grassy lane to the next T-junction on the LEFT at 1.8 km. Turn LEFT and go up a gentle rise for 200 m to where the road makes a 90º turn to the RIGHT. Follow the road another 1.1 km to its dead end. This brings you to the start of the Cradle Brook access path which takes you out of the sunshine and into the forest. Follow the YELLOW blazes painted on the trees to where it joins the Fundy Footpath 300m on.
Phase IV – You are now on the Fundy Footpath, a hiking trail that has welcomed naked hikers for years before the parkway was built and ruined it. It used to be that when you met people hiking the Fundy Footpath you had a 50/50 chance of them being naked. Now, the chances are lower but it still happens. There are directional signs at the point that the access trail meets the Footpath – turn RIGHT, Seely Beach is 2.1 km westward – follow the WHITE blazes painted on trees. Much of the trail dipsydoodles up and down through uncut forest until maybe the halfway point where it begins a long descent along the spine of the ridge that separates Seely Brook from the seacoast. Watch for change-of-direction markers (double blazes) especially near the bottom of the ridge where it looks like the trail continues straight but actually makes a sharp LEFT turn and a sharper descent. The final part of the descent to Seely Beach is on one of the Footpath’s many cable stairways installed with much labour and now in need of some maintenance.
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| Not the cable ladder at Seely Beach but much the same |
Congratulations, you have reached Seely Beach. There are two campsites here so you might want to ensure there are no textiles hanging about before deciding to take a rest and catch some rays on the beach in the altogether. I don’t recommend going for a swim in the sea because the Bay of Fundy is just too perishing cold for it to be fun.
Phase V – Leaving Seely Beach. Go to the point on the beach where Seely Brook drains into the sea and you will find the second campsite and a rough trail – an old horse road, really. Follow the trail to the point where it crosses the brook without benefit of a bridge – there is usually some place a bit downstream where you can find stepping stones and get across the brook dry shod.
From the brook the trail takes a fairly steep 1.3 km diagonal course up the flank of the ridge to meet the parkway 122m above sea level – this is the cardio portion of the hike. Be aware that you may meet people coming down this trail and there is almost no opportunity to quickly leave the trail or to get behind cover. Far better to keep well aware of the trail ahead and to have a hiking kilt or a pair of shorts that you can step into very quickly.
Return to the trailhead. Once you have reached the parkway you have two options: get dressed and cooly walk back to P14, or stay naked and cross the parkway when circumstances permit. If you decide to cross the parkway remember to STOP, LOOK and LISTEN for traffic.
You’re back. Hooray!
Now, that’s the route I took because of the circumstances of the day, BUT you could as easily do the whole thing in reverse, hiking down to Seely Beach as your Phase I. Two items to note about hiking the loop counter-clockwise:
(1) if there are no other vehicles at P14 the chance of meeting anyone on the trail down to Seely Beach is pretty low. However, be aware that there may be overnighters at the campsites; and
(2) the long downhill section mentioned within Phase III above now becomes a very long UPHILL cardio section.
But . . . different strokes for different folks.
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