Hampstead Wharf to Palmer Creek

Key Highlights

Directions

From Route 2 near Gagetown, take exit 330 and turn towards Gagetown.  Drive south for 34 kilometres on Route 102 and look for the Hampstead Ferry Road on the left.  The road is between a white house and a barn that are close to the road.  Turn into the road and you will see the Hampstead Wharf Lighthouse.  Continue past the lighthouse to the wharf.

If you are coming from the Saint John area, take route 102 from Grand Bay-Westfield and drive north for 40 kilometres.  Look for the Hampstead Ferry Road on the right.

Description

There are 13 old steamboat wharves in the Lower Wolastoq (Saint John River) valley that are maintained by the Saint John River Society.  There are several more maintained by local municipalities.  These steamboat wharves provide important public access points to the river.  The Hampstead Wharf provides several paddling adventure options.  

Turn right at the wharf and you can head down river towards Spoon Island.  This is the main channel of the Wolastoq (Saint John River) so boat traffic can be busy.  Use caution while crossing.  The main channel is also more exposed to the wind.  Spoon Island is a long narrow island with a small wetland in the middle.  You can find the channel that accesses the wetland at the far end of the island.  A better option for accessing Spoon Island is from Gerows Wharf on the other side of the river.  This way you don’t have to cross the busy main channel.

The better options from this wharf are to go left into the channel up along Long Island.  Fun Fact: there is a Ducks Unlimited logo carved into this lower part of Long Island that you can only see from the air.  To see it, check out the video from our last visit.  You can continue in this channel along Long Island all the way to the Queenstown Wharf.  After about 4 kilometres you will come to the channels in Long Island (to the right) that take you into the lakes and wetlands on the island.  These are always amazing places to explore full of wildlife and birds.  Although this is not the main river channel, you may still run into boat traffic and windy conditions, so use caution.

A third option, and the one we chose, was to head left into the channel along Long Island.  In a short distance (less than a kilometre) turn left into Little River and Palmer Creek.  Before entering the river and creek we watched several osprey diving in the water for fish.  We continued into Palmer Creek with a goal in mind.  We wanted to get to Clay Design Pottery studio.  It was quite breezy on our paddle but the large hardwoods lining the channel provided good shelter.  The creek would make a great paddling option for kids.  

After paddling for 2.5 kilometres in the creek, look for a large beaver hut at the mouth of a small dugway (channel) on the right.  Directly across from it you will find a gravel boat launch in the grass.  Park your boat on the gravel boat launch and walk up the hill to the studio.  On our visit we learned all about pottery from David Eastwood and bought a couple of amazing mugs.  I am drinking coffee out of one now, as I write this.

The channel continues for another 1.5 kilometres past the pottery studio.  We had planned to explore the rest of the channel and Little River but spent too much time at the studio.  Little River runs along the road on one side and is an open meadow on the other.  It passes under a bridge on route 102 and opens into a larger wetland with several ducks unlimited features.  How much of the wetland you can explore may depend on the tides. 

Nearby Amenities