Winter Storms on the East Coast Trail: Return to St. John's Newfoundland

Winter Storms on the East Coast Trail

Change of Plans for ECT Hike

Bauline Newfoundland

Well, we survived the night – warm, dry, and in our tent.  Every trip involves a moment when the best-laid plans give way to reality, and during the night we decided that the realities of Newfoundland's shifting weather fronts meant that a change in approach was required.

It was a hard night without sleep, during which I had to leave the tent at one point to re-peg down the tarp.  The wind was blowing so hard it had ripped the pegs out of the ground and flung them over the tent along with the tarp.  All I will say about that is that they were hard to find in the dark and driving rain, but I now know how to peg a tarp where it can withstand 70-80 kph wind gusts for over 9 hours.  This was meant to be a learning experience, and so far it has been just that.

As it started to get light the rain hadn't abated any, the wind seemed to be picking up, and the temperature felt like -1 C.  The next section of the trail is described as being harder than yesterday's, with more roped ascents/descents.  There is no way those would be anything other than rivers of mud today.    So, we decided there was no way it was safe to continue on the next section of the East Coast Trail, and we didn't much want to stay put in the rising winds either, so we decided to head back to St. John's, dry our gear out, and re-think our itinerary.  We packed up our stuff, gave the friendly folks at Newfound Cabs a call, explained where we were, and then proceeded to take our tent down in the driving winds.  I'm actually proud of our efforts – the tent itself wasn't too wet, and we managed to remove the tent fly, and collapse the tent, while everything was still under the tarp.  

On top of that, nothing inside our awesome little tent got wet, despite it standing in about 6 inches of water in the morning, and enduring driving winds all night.  Only our clothes, boots, and rain gear (which we sadly had to put back on) were soaking wet, as well as the groundsheet and tarp.  This trip is a test of gear for our 24,000km trek on the Trans Canada Trail / Great Trail, and so far, I am pretty happy with everything!

 

 

Return to St. John's and Memorial University 

Our very nice and helpful cab driver promptly arrived and was dumbfounded that anyone would be out camping on the coastline in such weather.  We arrived back at Memorial University at 9:30 am and the young lady who had previously checked us in rushed to a room clean for us to get in and dry, despite the early hour.  I do not feel that we could adequately express our thanks for her aid over these past two days.  Soon we were in our room, had stripped our bags, put on laundry, hung our tarp to dry, and taken showers to warm up.  By 11 am our lives felt much improved as a result of the good advice and goodwill of others.

 

By 2 in the afternoon, we had entirely dried out our equipment, repacked our bags, and were researching our choices for the coming days.  It did not seem practical or even possible to get a cab north to Cape St. Francis where we should have continued hiking if we hadn't evacuated, so we spent the afternoon exploring our options.  Option 1 was to spend an extra day in St. John's, let the trails dry out, and take a local birding tour.  However, we had no luck arranging this with most local operators already fully reserved for the season.  Option 2 was to return to Bauline and begin hiking again.  However, even the online Facebook forum for hiking in Newfoundland had people advising us against this with the condition of the trail and the predicted high winds for the coming days.  Option 3 was to agree that we have missed out on the northern sections of the ECT, and continue hiking south out of St. John's, beginning on Deadmans Bay Path and adjusting our timing so that our future reservations in Witless Bay,  and Bonavista would not be disrupted. 

Uncertain of how to proceed, we decided to continue our discussion over dinner at the nearby Ft. Amherst Pub – which turned out to be an amazing experience!  This pub seems to specialize in unique food creations, and the ones we tried were delicious.  I had the Veggie Taco Duo, which was a mixture of BBQ summer squash on a bed of corn, red peppers, green peppers, and onions, topped with guacamole, on flatbread. It was delicious.  

Sean ate a local Ft. Mac burger, which was served well done with caramelized onions, local cheese and huge slices of bacon – also amazing.  The hostess – one of the most polite individuals we have met so far (and that is saying a great deal in Newfoundland) convinced us to try their new dessert, a black pepper vanilla ice cream with smoked plum compote and granola.  Though dubious of such a concoction at first, we decided to try it and as a result, we were treated to one of the best desserts I have ever had!  It was both smoky and hot, yet sweet.

I think this unexpectedly good and creative meal was the perfect thing to lift our spirits.  If anyone is ever in the region of St.  John's looking for a quiet, quaint restaurant with good beer and great food I would highly recommend stopping in at Ft. Amherst pub!

Tired, but still uncertain of what to do tomorrow we returned to our rooms.  By 8 we had decided to keep hiking along the ECT, but to head south out of St. John's, beginning from Fort Amherst along the Deadmans Bay Path.  Hopefully, our second attempt will prove more successful!

 

See you on the trail!

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