Why "Tin Can Beach"?

There are few mentions of Tin Can Beach in information about Saint John. There are even fewer in the tourist literature. Yet I think it is one of the city’s small treasures.

At first glance, it’s an industrial wasteland. It’s tucked behind the barracks, between the former Lantic Sugar site and the Potash terminal, strewn with garbage and graffiti. Follow the path past the wild trees and old railway tracks, and you will find it.

And yes, there really is a beach, a slippery rocky beach where you can walk right down to the ocean’s edge. On the land side, you can look at the old wooden beams where a wharf once stood, and farther down, part of a boat slip lies half-buried.

If you wait for low tide, you will find a stretch of soft sand along the water’s edge. The receding tide leaves behind a jumbled landscape of shell-encrusted boulders, forests of seaweed and small pools of seawater.

Tin Can Beach is worth a second look. So is Saint John. I thought it seemed like a good name for this blog.

See http://tincanbeach.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/tin-can-beach-high-tide-low-tide/ for more on Tin Can Beach.