Deep in the heart of Kouchibouguac National Park, resource management officers Jillian Duplessie and Andrew Joseph are boating along the Black River to reopen a smolt box net used to catch and study Atlantic salmon.

Call them what you like — outhouses, pit privies, vault toilets, washrooms, bathrooms or just plain old public toilets. When you spend the year touring Parks Canada's national historic sites and national parks for stories — like I just did — you'll need to use the facilities on a regular basis. And by facilities, I don't mean the "facilitrees" when you're desparate and have to go in the great outdoors, and I don't mean the cush indoor ones with flush toilets found in heated/air-conditioned visitor centers. I mean the standalone ones that aren't always as clean and fragant as you'd like and where you consider yourself lucky if there's a good supply of toilet paper and sanitizer.

It’s actually a good sign that the endangered Atlantic salmon eluded me as I snorkelled starfish-style through a river pool known as Black Hole in Fundy National Park.

As we fight our way across Saint-Louis Lagoon against robust winds and under threatening skies, gray seals sporadically pop their hooked-nose “horseheads” up from the swells and stare intently as if to lead the way to Tern Islands.