Gaspereau River, New Brunswick

[Thatsapaddlin]

In June I had the great pleasure of running the Gaspereau River in New Brunswick with my brother, father, and uncle. It was my father's and uncle's first canoe trip in over 10-years, and my brother's first ever! The trip was great, the weather wasn't. The Gaspereau is a river most New Brunswickers have never heard of. It doesn't have the lore of the Miramichi or the St. Croix, but it's a great wilderness river -- by NB standards. In four days we didn't see or hear a soul, it was just us and the fish -- and there were many, although there are no salmon in the river. I liked it so much that I later returned on a solo trip. My family now has the tripping bug again, and we're already planning our next trip.

We put-in at the snowmobile warming hut -- see map in detailed report -- and took out at the Burpee Covered Bridge -- perhaps the most New Brunswick take out you could imagine, because NB is known for covered bridges. In total the trip was ~45-50km, most of which was covered on the final day. The paddling was easy, no real rapids to contend with and minimal sweepers.

The nearest gauge in Salmon River was between was nearing 11.0 as we started, but was down near 10 on our final day. Not quite sure how reliable this reading is for the Gaspereau, so I defer to local knowledge.

A more detailed report is available here, including a pdf map complete with campsites: https://maritimeoutofdoors.com/2017/09/16/gaspereau/

Thanks!!!

 

[Murat V]

Appreciate your writeup and pics. Great that you got your "elders" and brother to come along. Looks like that stretch of the river is a fisherman's dream for tasty brook trout.

 

[Gerald]

Thanks for the trip report. Where you able to drink the water as is our is it too close to habitations.

Gerald

 

[Thatsapaddlin]

Thanks for the replies! It really was a good trip, and the fish were delish.

Gerald -- we treated the water first as a precaution, but you could likely drink from the river without issue. Although there is some forestry activity in the area.