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Hiking Newfoundland's East Coast Trail (ECT)

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Welcome to our East Coast Trail blog!  During June and July 2018 we hiked over 253 km of the East Coast Trail on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada.  We thru-hiked the section from St. John's to Cappahayden, camping along most of the way (see entries for days 5 to 18 for details), and then we walked the trails from Flatrock to Quidi Vidi Village as day hikes (see days 24 and 25 for details).  We also walked the Piccos Ridge trail (see day 3 for details).  During our trip we visited two Important Bird Areas, spent a day exploring the Colony of Avalon at Ferryland, took a trip to Bonavista, and hung out in St. John's.  For those interested in hiking the trail, we have included a description and review of the gear we took with us.  Thank you for reading, and we hope you enjoy!   Sean and I are passionate about hiking, nature, photography, and birds.  To some degree our posts reflect these interests.  We tried to describe as many of the species and natural wonders we
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Important Bird Areas : Ocean Centre to Quidi Vidi

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We awoke early to begin our final walk along the East Coast Trail , which we think will bring the total number of kilometres we've walked to somewhere over 250 during our trip! Although the weather forecast this morning mentioned thick banks of rolling fog off the coast of the Avalon Peninsula, we decided to head out anyway. We took a taxi to the Ocean Sciences Centre , which is where the northern end of the Sugarloaf Trail is located. When we arrived we discovered that it is possible to visit the Ocean Sciences Centre, which apparently offers exhibits showing seals and other marine life. If we had known this before, we would have planned to stop by! As we climbed up the erratic strewn hillside above the parking lot in the fog, the sounds of gulls and a whale spouting in the cove below was truly magical. However, the fog was so thick we couldn't see very far at all, and at one point we got pretty turned around.   I should add here as a disclaimer tha
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Location: Quidi Vidi, St. John's, NL, Canada
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Return to the ECT : Flatrock to Logy Bay

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This morning we woke up, refreshed and thankful for the good weather forecast for today. Last night we decided to spend our final two days in Newfoundland hiking some of the East Coast Trail pathways north of St. John's. Initially we planned to get a ride back up to Cape St. Francis and for two days push to see if we could complete our missing sections getting us back to St. John's.  However, after contacting a number of taxi companies the cost of getting back up to Cape. St. Francis for the day (frequently noted by each company as being over $200.00 each way) led us to revise our plans.  Instead we opted trek from Flatrock to St. John's with our remaining time. We had breakfast and then took a taxi up to Flatrock, where we began hiking south on Father Troy's Path . As we headed away from the parking lot at the trail head everything was obscured by dense fog. Luckily the trail was well marked, and we had no trouble following it, even with the limited visibility
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Location: Flatrock, NL, Canada
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