Climbing a snow covered rock face and sliding down through a deep ravine on a frozen waterfall made for a great adventure.
It all started after we dropped the kids off at their grandparent’s house. It is rare that we find ourselves on a Saturday with no kids and no plans so we decided to make the best of it. We hit the highway in search of adventure. Would we go north to Mount Carleton, south to the St. Andrews and St. George area, or east to the Saint John area? All were places that had trails yet to explore. We decided on Saint John, not because of the trails, but because at this time of year it would be the best location to find a place to eat when we were done. That would be the perfect way to end date.
We drove out to Rothesay and went down the road the Rothesay Yacht Club. From google maps this looked like our best way to access the river. There were several cars there from people presumably out on the ice but the sign reading “Warning Thin Ice: Deicing units being used” made us think twice about accessing the river here. We continued on Gondola Point Road to see if we could find a better place to access the river. We drove out through the next subdivision on Maliseet Drive. There we found a small lane between the houses that accessed the river. We parked the car along the side of the road, packed the camera bag full of snacks and water, and put on our snowshoes.
The closer to the falls we got the more impressive they became. It’s about 1 km across so they just kept getting larger and larger as we walked. The people coming and going at the base of the falls were dwarfed by their size. We eventually got to the falls. Vicki was perfecting the use of the panoramic function on her camera while I explored around the base of the icy falls. The rock cliffs were an interesting conglomerate of larger rocks held together by what I am assuming was lava (I only had one geology course in University so correct me if I am wrong).
Once we were done exploring the falls and taking our pictures we continued up river to the right. We knew there were two trails on the island above us on the cliffs. We just had to find a way to get up to them. There is an old road that runs from one tip of the island to the other. The trails were usually accessed from this road. We decided to try to find another way up to the trails without having to walk all the way around to the road. In a small cove just below the peak for the Crow’s Nest Trail there seemed to be a reasonable slope. It looked like it could be climbed on snowshoes so we started into the woods. It was a strenuous climb but workable until we came nearer to the top. From the map on the Nature Trust website we could see that the Crow’s Nest Trail followed along the top of a ridge. The problem was that the side of the ridge was made up of a rock face.
We made our way to the lookout and enjoyed the views through the trees. We could still hear the faint sound of ATV’s, snowmobiles and dune buggies racing up and down the river below. We had a snack and some water and discussed our plan of action. It was about 4:30 PM so we were slowly running out of time. We decided to work our way back the Crow’s Nest Trail to the junction. We would then start the Minister’s Face Trail and evaluate our time before we had to find our way back down over the steep hill to the ice below.
When the trail dipped down into a ravine and started to climb up the other side we decided it might be best to find our way down to the river. The closer we got to the cliffs of Minister’s Face the more difficult that search would become. We decided to try to descend the ravine we now found ourselves in. It looked steep but not impossible. After slipping down a stream bank and ending up upside down with the camera in the snow I decided it was time to put the camera in the pack. The stream became increasingly steep and deeper as we got closer to the river. The last section was quite steep but we could see the shore of the river so we knew if we made it down we wouldn’t have to climb back up.
We took off our snowshoes and threw them down, then we started to slide. The stream was frozen into small icy waterfalls that went back and forth across the narrow ravine. It has been a long time since I have slid like that and it made me feel like a kid again. There was enough snow to slide on and land in. I wouldn’t want to have to climb up this way but coming down was a ball.
I found out after this posting that Minister’s Face is named because of the shore to shore profile of the island if you are looking at it from up river. It looks like a face looking up in to the sky. Next time I will have to go to the north of the island and see if for myself. For more information about the trails go to the Minister’s Face Nature Preserve page.
About 60 years ago in winter a friend and I were walking along the top of the Minister’s Face and we could hear people trying to climb up the waterfall area. He suggested that we take this route as a shortcut, rather than walk the island to the gentle slopes west of the Face.
As we neared the cliff face, I noticed that the ground was ice covered beneath the snow, so refused to go further, and we walked out the long way. As we walked east on the ice, past the Minister’s Face, we saw that the fire department had come out to rescue the climber ( high school kids like us) from the icy face on which they were stranded, since they could not go any higher and in climbing had knocked away the snow and left their return path a sheet of ice too step to descend.
I am glad that the area is well mapped now and you were able to make the descent (perhaps in a slightly different area) safely.
I have a property on Long Island that I rent for camping if anyone is interested. It is listed with
Hipcamp.