For Those Who Come Next: Itinerary for Walking the Trans Canada Trail in New Brunswick

“There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you.”
 
Friedrich Nietzsche
 

How long does it take to hike across New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Trail?

 
There are moments within a long journey where it becomes necessary to step outside of the day-to-day routine of walking and reflect on what the path has actually required.   Our goal is that as we walk from coast to coast to coast on the Trans Canada Trail, we will be able to continue sharing each day of the journey and in the process, help those who might have an interest in something similar.  To this end, this entry is about sharing our itinerary for hiking across New Brunswick.

 
In the process, we hope to answer questions that anyone might have about the province that we have recently concluded, such as:
 
What is it like to hike across New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Trail?
If you want to hike across New Brunswick, how long might it take?
If you want to hike across New Brunswick, what might the daily stages look like?
 

Hiking Across New Brunswick

 
New Brunswick was the fourth province of our #Hike4Birds on the Trans Canada Trail.  We arrived after completing our trek across Prince Edward Island and entered the province via the shuttle bus that crosses the Confederation Bridge.   As we continued to walk every step of the national pathway, New Brunswick was where the TCT shifted once again on us.  Each province and each region – as we were coming to see – is different from the others in the TCT trail network.   To this end, New Brunswick’s section of the TCT was for us more fragmented and at times a more physically demanding experience than Nova Scotia and PEI had been.

 
Our time in New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Trail was defined by three very different realities: the wilderness challenge of the Dobson Trail and Fundy Footpath, the long water-route section we had to navigate around where no land trail existed, and the cumulative exhaustion of having already walked thousands of kilometres since leaving the Camino Portuguese and then beginning the TCT in Newfoundland.
 
En route, we gave presentations to nature groups for Parks Canada in Fundy National Park and to a university class. We were also dealing with the reality that we were now more than a month behind our planned itinerary, and beginning to worry that late fall weather and early winter temperatures would soon affect our trek. Despite such challenges, we walked across New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Trail.
 

Guides for the Trans Canada Trail

 
What follows is not a guide in the traditional sense. It is not prescriptive, nor is it intended to suggest that this is how the route must be walked. It is instead a record of how we crossed New Brunswick - drawn from our journals, our daily shared blog entries, and the lived experience of our trek. 
 
We offer this information as a means to plan and ground your own trek – to have the same type of insights based on experience that we would have loved when we set out on the Great Trail.  

 
However, at the time of writing this (2019), the existing guidebooks for the Great Trail are incomplete, and most are more than a decade old.  In some cases, the TCT has moved its route or expanded the trail system significantly.  Moreover, the fact remains that some provinces (Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta) don’t even have a guidebook, which means for those who come next, there is a huge absence of information about the national pathway.
 
This record exists for those who are considering a Trans Canada journey, whether on foot or by bike.  It is not meant as a template, and certainly not a promise that this is how your journey will turn out.  The information here – and in our daily blogs – is a glimpse of what one passage across the province from east to west looked like, for two particular people, in one particular year.

 
It must always be remembered that routes change, conditions vary, and circumstances are never the same twice – day to day, year to year, and hiker to hiker.
 
With that said, sometimes knowing where someone once walked, struggled and succeeded can make things easier at the end of a hard day on the trail.  Knowing that you are standing and walking where others once also did to can make a world of difference in moments of doubt.  We certainly took faith in knowing that Dana Meise, Sara Jackson, Dianne Whelan and Mel Vogel had come before us.
 

The Trans Canada Trail in New Brunswick

 
The Trans Canada Trail in New Brunswick, as in much of the rest of the country, is not a single continuous footpath but a network of distinct trail systems connected by transitions that are not always seamless. In New Brunswick, those transitions included long stretches on roadways, regional trails, rugged wilderness paths, and a 122 km water route where there was no accompanying land trail for us to follow.

 
From the base of the Confederation Bridge at Cape Jourimain, the route carried us toward Sackville before leading us along roads toward Moncton and into the Dobson Trail and the Fundy Footpath. After emerging from that demanding coastal section, the TCT once again led us onto roadways toward Saint John. Soon after, the land route disappeared altogether, where the official trail became a 122 km water route, requiring us to navigate our own way around it until we could reconnect with the trail near Oromocto and Fredericton.
 
From there, we returned to road walking until Woodstock, before following riverside trail sections through Florenceville-Bristol and Perth-Andover to Grand Falls. Beyond Grand Falls, the route led us along another 44 km of roadway toward Edmundston, where we finally crossed out of New Brunswick and into Quebec.


The sections stand out as defining experiences within the province are the Marshes, the Dobson Trail and the Fundy Footpath.
 
The Marshes is a wonderful 66 km scenic trail that spans from the Confederation Bridge to the community of Sackville.  The path is graded, well-maintained, and clearly used by many.

 
The Dobson Trail provides a forested inland crossing, linking the Fundy region toward Riverview. It is a marked hiking trail, but one that feels rooted in local use rather than national continuity. The terrain is uneven, often wet, and shaped by the realities of backcountry trail maintenance rather than rail-grade conversion.
 
In contrast, the Fundy Footpath is one of the most physically demanding sections of the entire Trans Canada Trail. Following the rugged coastline of the Bay of Fundy, it is defined by steep climbs, descents to sea level, and constant elevation change. Progress here is measured differently. Distances are shorter, but the effort required to cover them is significantly greater.

 
Between and beyond these sections, the route transitions onto a combination of roadways, informal connectors, and regional trails. What emerges is not a single defined corridor, but a route that reflects both the ambition of the Trans Canada Trail and the reality of how it exists on the ground.
 

Stages and Itinerary for Hiking Across New Brunswick

 
Remembering that our trek on the Trans Canada Trail across New Brunswick took place in 2019, following our hike across Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and PEI. 
 
Taken together, New Brunswick took 34 calendar days to hike across, which was completed over a span of 44 days in the province.  The larger number reflects days off trail, rest days, resupply days, and days we spent giving public presentations about our #Hike4Birds citizen science outreach.

 
That time was not defined by distance alone, but by a combination of factors including weather, terrain, resupply points, days off the trail, nature presentations, and of course, the realities of the world. There were also days built around necessity rather than rest: pauses for resupply, birding, public presentations, school classrooms, and nature groups — all of which shaped the pace of our progress.
 

Itinerary for the Trans Canada Trail in New Brunswick

 
September 22, 2019 – PEI to Port Elgin, NB
September 23, 2019 – Port Elgin to Sackville
September 24, 2019 – Sackville - Nature Presentation
September 25, 2019 – Sackville – Resupply day off
September 26, 2019 – Sackville to Dorchester
September 27, 2019 – Dorchester to Moncton
September 28, 2019 – Moncton - Day off
September 29, 2019 – Moncton to 10.8 Dobson
September 30, 2019 – Dobson 10.8 to Dobson 27 km
October 1, 2019 – Dobson 27 to Dobson 48 km
October 2, 2019 – Dobson 48 to Alma
October 3, 2019 – Alma NB – Day off
October 4, 2019 – Alma NB – Day off / resupply
October 5, 2019 – into Fundy National Park
October 6, 2019 – Fundy NP Presentation and Hiking
October 7, 2019 – to Wolf Pt. Campground
October 8, 2019 – Fundy to Primrose Campsite
October 9, 2019 – Primrose to Quiddy Campsite
October 10, 2019 – Quiddy to Salmon River
October 11, 2019 – Little Salmon to Big Salmon Site A
October 12, 2019 – Big Salmon to St. Martins
October 13, 2019 – St. Martins – Day off
October 14, 2019 – St. Martins – Day off / online Presentation
October 15, 2019 – St. Martins to Hampton
October 16, 2019 – Hampton to Quispamsis
October 17, 2019 – Quispamis – Day off
October 18, 2019 – Rothesay to Saint John
October 19, 2019 – Saint John Falls and Museum
October 20, 2019 – Oromocto to Fredericton
October 21, 2019 – Fredericton to Woolastook
October 22, 2019 – Woolastook to Nackawic
October 23, 2019 – Nackawic to Meductic
October 24, 2019 – Fredericton Presentation
October 25, 2019 – Meductic to Woodstock
October 26, 2019 – Woodstock to Hartland
October 27, 2019 – Hartland to Florenceville-Bristol
October 28, 2019 – Florenceville-Bristol to Perth-Andover
October 29, 2019 – Perth-Andover to Grand Falls
October 30, 2019 – Grand Falls - Day off
October 31, 2019 – Grand Falls – Day off
November 1, 2019 – Grand Falls – Day off / resupply
November 2, 2019 – Grand Falls to St. Leonard
November 3, 2019 – St. Leonard to Edundston
November 4, 2019 – Edmundston to Degelis, QC (NB and into QC)
 

Position Within the Larger Journey

 
New Brunswick was not only a province to be crossed. It was the continuation of our journey across Canada on foot, from coast to coast to coast, and it marked the point where our understanding of the Trans Canada Trail continued to develop.

 
As our fourth province in our first year on the Great Trail, there was no denying that physical and mental exhaustion were beginning to catch up with us by this point.  Indeed, by the time we had stepped into New Brunswick, we had already walked roughly 2,850 km this year. By the time we crossed into Quebec, New Brunswick had added another 748 km, bringing our 2019 walking total to roughly 3,600 km -  with the possibility that we still have more than 2000 km left to go before we could stop by the year’s end.  
 
Given this, the physical challenge of the Fundy Footpath and the amount of time navigating along the side of roadways and finding our own way in the long stretch where the TCT was a water route, our time in New Brunswick was certainly a different kind of experience than in other provinces. 
 
For those looking to explore more, this entry connects directly with our broader series:
 
 
Each offers a different perspective on exploring the TCT.
 

For Those Who Come Next

 
In total, it took us 34 days to walk approximately 748 km along the Trans Canada Trail from Cape Jourimain and the Confederation Bridge to Sackville, to Moncton, to Saint-John, to Fredericton and onward to Edmundston before passing into Quebec.   While we trekked most of the TCT in New Brunswick, the main route is not the entirety of the national pathway as there are a number of scattered sections throughout the province.

 
If you are considering walking across New Brunswick, know that it is possible to do so within a defined period of time. The route exists, the connections are there, and the province can be crossed in a continuous line from North to South before turning westward again.   This makes it a wonderful hike in a beautiful region. 
 
If you are reading this because you are considering hiking across New Brunswick on the TCT, whether for a weekend or weeks at a time, we hope this listing helps in some small way.

 
Not because it tells you what to do, but because it shows what was possible under a specific set of circumstances, at a particular moment in time.
 
Your journey will not look exactly like this. It shouldn’t. Weather, wildlife, wildfires, construction, health, timing, and luck all shape how the TCT, each province and Canada as a whole reveal themselves. Some days will go farther than planned. Others will end early. Some will feel almost effortless; others will ask more than you expected to give.  Some will end in the joy of that day’s achievements, others will end in doubt and tears. 

 
What matters, in the end, is not matching someone else’s itinerary, but learning how to move through this landscape with the willingness to be adaptable, leaving no trace and with care.  If this record helps you plan, adjust, or simply imagine your own path, then it has done what it was meant to do.
 
We wish you safe walking, open eyes, and the grace to take each day as it comes.

See you on the trail!
Location: Saint John, NB, Canada
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