Words by Virgil Dessouroux
In 2018, North Bound Expeditions Inc. (NBX) hosted the several events, which will form the foundation for two hosted events in 2019. With tens of thousands of kilometres of dirt roads and trails created by a century of logging, the Province of New Brunswick has a lot of hidden gems just waiting to be explored.
South Shore Overland Rally (SSOR)
This was a two-night weekend event of trails and camping along the New Brunswick south shore on the Bay of Fundy. The idea was to have a season opener event in early spring and we had a group of nine vehicles. We chose the two most iconic campsites in southern New Brunswick for this event, Martin Head beach and Cape Spencer. In order to make this a fun overland style event, we found a way to connect trails, forest service routes, and some paved sections into one big route that made this experience special, and kept our tires primarily on dirt. It was a great experience and we will be hosting it again in 2019 with new trails and new campsites.
Virgil Dessouroux
NB Expedition (NBX)
This was our main tour. We have since renamed this event to Adventure New Brunswick, after our “Adventure Canada” tour with Mountain State Overland (more about that below). The idea behind this tour is to cover a large portion of the province exclusively via its trail networks and only cross pavement when necessary, while tackling some of New Brunswick’s more challenging trails along the way. In 2018, we had a small group of six vehicles, which makes for a great group dynamic and offers a wide variety of campsites. We limit attendance to ten vehicles for this trip in order to preserve this tight knit group dynamic. After all, it’s always the people that make an experience unforgettable. One of the factors that makes overland adventure so rewarding is dealing with the unknown. For this reason, we tend to add trails to the itinerary that we have never been down before, while having a ‘plan B’ in case of a dead-end trail, despite the map indicating otherwise. These sections always add a nice challenge that really brings the group together as we forge on to reach the end of an overgrown, unmaintained trail or get over or around an obstacle like a collapsed bridge or culvert.
1 of 3
Virgil Dessouroux
2 of 3
Virgil Dessouroux
3 of 3
Virgil Dessouroux
Adventure Canada with Mountain State Overland (MSO)
This one was a bit special in the sense that we were asked to be the trail guides for MSO to film their fifth season called Adventure Canada. With a few iterations of the NB Expedition under our belt, we put together a five-day route that would provide the widest variety of scenery. Since their ultimate goal was to reach the tail end of the continuous Appalachian Mountain range, we knew we had to finish up north. To that end, we created a very scenic overland route from the southern coast along the Bay of Fundy to the northern mountains across New Brunswick. We added this to our itineraries as an option to offer on our guided tours, which we now call Adventure New Brunswick.
1 of 4
Virgil Dessouroux
2 of 4
Virgil Dessouroux
3 of 4
Virgil Dessouroux
4 of 4
Virgil Dessouroux
South Shore Overland Rally Trail Recce
As with every event, we go out and conduct a trail recce for upcoming events to confirm our mapped routes and campsites. We always invite North Bound Expeditions members as well as friends, to come along on these events as some of the most fun is to be had exploring the unknown. We linked up with our friends from Massachusetts, as well as one of our local conservation officers who's also an avid overlander. Through local knowledge, we learned of a new trail that we had a blast on and it will be featured on the 2019 SSOR. It was also during this trip in 2018 that we discovered the campsite that we would later use to link up with Mountain State Overland, and it has since become one my favourite camp sites in southern New Brunswick, providing a spectacular view of the tides of the Bay of Fundy.
1 of 3
Brandon Campbell
2 of 3
Brandon Campbell
3 of 3
Brandon Campbell
Upcoming events and tours 2019:
South Shore Overland Rally: May 24-26
Adventure NB: Aug 16-22