The Saint John River
Of Beauty and Bounty
Story by | Mark Stevens
Photos by | Sharon Matthews-Stevens
For the past 90 minutes we’ve been driving north along the Scenic Route hugging the shores of New Brunswick’s Saint John River.
We’ve stopped roadside on a stretch of water called Long Reach, gazing out at a bucolic vista, listening to the sound of bird calls and the liquid melody of gentle waves lapping the stone shore.
Cloudless blue skies look down upon an undulating green ribbon, a backdrop for sun-dappled waters; those selfsame waves glitter in the early morning sun. That green ribbon is forest, dominating the hills on the far shore. Except for one lonely farmhouse, that shore is devoid of human habitation.
A weathered picnic table lounges just below where we stand, an overturned canoe beside it. A raft ten metres offshore spins lazily in the gentle current.
Now we hit the road once more, stopping at a tiny marina beside a faded buttermilk-painted Victorian mansion with red candle-snuffer dormers: Evandale Resort and Marina.
Already I am taken with the sheer beauty of the river and its shores.
Over the next few days we will also partake of their bounty.
