7 January 2009
Explore Bay of Fundy
Covenhoven on Minister's Island New
Brunswick.
Minister's Island New Brunswick - When is a hiking column
not a hiking column?
I guess when you spend New Years in St. Andrews at the Algonquin Hotel and you are forced to painstakingly endure an
eight-course meal that takes three hours to consume.
Now the next day was still very chilly, but Kathy and I decided we would try a couple of hikes.
The first one starts from the hotel and goes down to Katy's Cove, a public beach run by the Algonquin where you can swim and relax in
a beautiful outdoor setting.
It has been there many years and generations of visitors and locals have enjoyed it, but it does not look very inviting on this
blustery winter day.
It does, however, connect to the old St. Andrews and Quebec railway line built in the 1860s, which is a conduit to Minister's Island,
our destination for the morning.
The walking/hiking trail goes on and on; almost to Fredericton I am told, but we bail out after about half an hour or so to go down to
the sandbar that crosses over to Minister's Island. Due to some poor planning on my part, we dare not cross the bar because I
neglected to ascertain the tide times.
You see, one can only cross the bar at low tide; you can get caught by the rising tide and be stranded for several
bone-chilling hours.
In case you are not aware, Minister's Island was the summer home of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, the guy who managed the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway from coast to coast. He made a fortune and constructed a summer home which consisted of a
huge, state-of-the-art mansion, barn, greenhouse, and circular bathhouse.
The mansion was named Covenhoven and had 50 rooms, of which 17 were bedrooms. It was built in 1890 and actually had running water,
with the aid of a windmill, underground storage tanks, and kerosene-powered engines. The island itself got its name from
the fact that a Parson Andrews lived there in a stone house (still standing) built in 1790.
Deer roam freely on and off the island year round and on any given day you can see many.
There are so many fascinating and innovative features to see on the island. My favourites are the huge barn with the
white-coated employees and the unique circular bathhouse leading to a heated swimming pool with sea water supplied by the
tides of the Bay of Fundy. You can check it out further by googling Minister's Island N.B.
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