Posts

Showing posts from June, 2018

"Just a few more kilometres" : Little Bald Head to Freshwater

Image
After spending a peaceful and comfortable night on a level tent platform on the East Coast Trail , we woke at 6 am to discover that the torrential rain that had been falling for most of yesterday evening and last night was still persisting.  Since the rain showed no signs of abating, and the idea of getting everything wet as we packed it up and then slogging down the trail was unappealing, we decided to wait until noon to see if the weather would clear up.  The family we shared the campsite with waited until 9 am and then headed out, wishing us luck as they walked passed. By around 11 am the rain seemed to be abating, so we packed everything up and headed out.  Within minutes the rain turned mostly to fog, and we were soon removing our sweaters and rain gear. For much of the morning the footpath took us along the edges of high cliffs, offering stunning views of deep gulches, sometimes with towering spires of rock remaining at the entrances. The path was mostly forested an

Tracing Coastline : Petty Harbour to Little Bald Head

Image
After a longish day of hiking yesterday, and a very peaceful night on our clifftop campsite, we slept in until 7:30 am.  After enjoying a breakfast of raisin bread and coffee, we set off along the Motion Path once again.  It was a pleasant morning, walking among the glacial erratic, past clifftop lakes, and through fields of spring flowers and heath/heather. At times the narrow footpath, which was sunk ankle deep into the ground cover, wound very close to the edges of the cliffs, offering multiple opportunities to plummet into the sea below.  While this was a little nerve wracking, overall it was an enjoyable trek.   When we reached Motion Point on the East Coast Trail , the feature for which the trail is named, we paused to enjoy the unique wave action, which had a somewhat mesmerizing effect.  The unusual patterns seemed to be caused by waves playing around exposed rocks near shore, and wind gusts going offshore at the same time.      While watching the wave action

Hiking Cape Spear : Blackhead to Maddox Cove - Petty Harbour

Image
We were up at 6 am this morning.  As we made our breakfast of oatmeal, raisin bread and coffee we watched as a huge fog bank rolled in off the ocean, completely obscuring St. John's harbour.  The fog was so dense we assumed that our views from Cape Spear would consist only of the immediate coastline, but to our amazement, half an hour later the fog had burned off, leaving only blue skies.  The weather on the edge of the Atlantic really is fickle.   After packing everything up we set off along the very short community connector to the Blackhead Path trail head on the other side of town.  The Blackhead path, which is fairly short, began with a steep climb up a rocky slope. As we paused to catch our breath, we looked back over the harbour and to our great delight saw a minke whale!!  He surfaced a few times before disappearing.  As we watched we noticed a group of Northern Gannets circling above the whale, as well as a couple Great Black-backed Gulls cruising nearb