Cunningham Falls, New Brunswickwhere money fell into my hand

Not far from the city limits and the road north from West Saint John feels significantly less urban immediately.

Harding's Point/ Westfield ferry where I returned from the Apple U-Pick weeks before.  According to AllTrails, I didn't have much further to go so this was an ideal place for a lunch break.

This was not the biggest bike trip I'd been on and I was sure I would be back in city limits before sundown but I had been riding against a wind the whole way and that had cost me some time.

I began to doubt AllTrails accuracy.  I hadn't seen a trailhead and wondered if I hadn't ridden on by somehow.

There it is.  It's not the most obvious place in the world.  There is no sign.

This is what you should see if you look back to the south.

I took those pictures so other people could find the trail more easily and that kept me on the side of the road just enough to spot this in the dry roadside bushes.

It felt real but you know what they say about things that seem too good to be true.  I took it to a bank to get checked before spending it.  I learned that 100 bills are plastic now so this could have been there a while or been blowing across the countryside for years, floating down rivers, blown along by winter storms. 

The odds of anyone spotting this bill, where it blended in with the terrain so well, let alone someone stopping at that exact spot on the road in the first place were pretty slim. Naturally, I looked around those bushes further but didn't find anything else.  That doesn't mean there was nothing to be found.

So, this is Cunningham Falls.  Quite a bit smaller than I expected but nice enough for woodland scenery in its way.

Just guessing by the rock formations, I would say this is a more impressive torrent in the spring and early summer.  

I wasn't even sure if I was I was in the right place so I followed a trail that only led to the highway.  I could hear some intense rapids off the trail but there was no way to push through the brush to get there and  I knew there was a deep bluff hidden in the brush.

Crossing the stream was just a bit tricky.  There were lots of (untrustworthy) rocks to jump on and a doubtful tree trunk.  I made my way but I was super careful.  Falling into icy streams can spoil the fun and it is particularly bad for smartphones.

From the other side of the bridge.

Careful on the way up and down.

 

shopping with dad

One thing I wanted for my stay in the foggy city of Saint John was mobility.  I was hoping to find some old beater of a bicycle with a for sale sign in someone's front yard but that hadn't happened.  It was Dad's idea to visit Hayward's Bike Shop on Lock Lomond Road.   I was skeptical. This wasn't a place I would have considered.  Obviously, it was a bike boutique with high end bikes beyond my price range.

Sure enough, look at these beauties with the super fat tires.  These marvels of engineering are made for handling mountain bike trails in gravel and snow.  They are wonderful rides but definitely more than I needed or could afford. 

 I love the maple leaf rims on this one.

But Hayward's also takes in old bikes and refurbishes them.  We told the man, who immediately dropped what he'd been doing the moment we entered the door, what we were looking for: a cheap bike that wouldn't fall apart.  He turned and wheeled out the perfect bike, just like that.  There were 2 affordable options but the first one was love at first sight and touch.  It certainly didn't look like a secondhand bike but that's what it was.  Polished and tuned to perfection, with a new chain, it was ready to ride and well within my price range.

There it is.  What a beauty.  I like it better than my Huatulco bike. It is staying here for future visits.

Dad insisted on buying new lights for the bike.  I wasn't going to bother.  The plan was to just ride during the day, no lights necessary.  I didn't even like the lights we found in stores.  They were over-priced, cheaply made and they all took batteries.  This is 2022!  I asked him to wait until we found something better but I couldn't stop him.    

These terrifying monsters were menacing customers at the

first hardware mega-store we visited.

Dad humored me and stood between evil skeletons to provide a sense of scale.   Just look at how fearless and calm the man is!    

More than once, I have been glad he went ahead and bought those lights without my blessing.  A few times in the first week, I had over-estimated how far I could travel and return in one day.  In the early evenings, traveling into the dying sun, all west-bound traffic is partially blinded and I love to have those red warning lights flashing for the drivers coming up behind me.

So, now I am more mobile than ever and better equipped to see the whole city.