October, 2014
The Forty Five River bridge is located on a gravel road on the north-eastern perimeter of Fundy National Park. This bridge is in a beautiful out-of-the-way spot and was a bit tricky to get to last summer (road closed by ongoing park construction work), so it was with great joy and a sense of achievement that on the third attempt, one of my trusty Hounds and I finally got to the 'other' park bridge on an October afternoon. After all the years of visiting Fundy, I had not even realized that there was another bridge in the park until I began to research where all the remaining bridges were located.
According to Mary Majka's book, Fundy National Park, the river gets its name from the time it took for water held upstream by logging dams to reach the Alma River after being released, i.e. 45 minutes.
The Forty Five River bridge is located on a gravel road on the north-eastern perimeter of Fundy National Park. This bridge is in a beautiful out-of-the-way spot and was a bit tricky to get to last summer (road closed by ongoing park construction work), so it was with great joy and a sense of achievement that on the third attempt, one of my trusty Hounds and I finally got to the 'other' park bridge on an October afternoon. After all the years of visiting Fundy, I had not even realized that there was another bridge in the park until I began to research where all the remaining bridges were located.
According to Mary Majka's book, Fundy National Park, the river gets its name from the time it took for water held upstream by logging dams to reach the Alma River after being released, i.e. 45 minutes.
If you plan to visit this bridge, be aware that the road is quite rough, and using a vehicle with high ground clearance is recommended. Note that it is also inaccessible in the winter, except by snowmobile, despite what GPS may say.
[Later entry: Asking the people who work in the main information center at the park headquarters what the current condition of the road is also a good option. They were helpful to me when I wanted to go back in May 2016 and saved me getting stuck in impassable mud].
*
After a seemingly endless drive through the woods, at last! A sure sign that there will be a covered bridge around the next bend in the road: a steel frame height restriction barrier.I didn't scramble down to the river to get profile pictures of the bridge, as I was by myself in the middle of nowhere, and a sprained/broken ankle would have been undesirable. Next time, I will make sure that I bring other people with me.
***
June 24th, 2016 We finally braved a return to the bridge on a hot, dry day. The road was very rough still, and it took us 15 minutes to drive the 6 km from the branch in the Forty Five Road where it turns from decent gravel road to a track (from the southern approach). We still haven't tried coming in from the Shepody Rd. on the northern perimeter of the park. That might be a better road.
 |
| The view down from the window on the bridge. |
