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

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 and relatively easy to navigate, making it an enjoyable hike in the mist.

 

At one such spot we found a Bald Eagle perched atop a towering rock spire, like the undisputed king of his castle, surveying his ocean domain in the fog.  It was very magical looking!

As we continued through the fog we were serenaded by White-throated Sparrows and the odd cry of a Herring or Great Black-backed Gull, and a few times we glimpsed some interested seabirds skimming the ocean surface, including a Sooty Shearwater skimming the ocean's surface, but most of them were too far away in the fog for us to identify them.

Although the trail offered many beautiful ocean views, there were some hard climbs over the coarse of the day, and the slippery trail edges and prevalent mud patches made for a slow a tiring hike, during which we seemed to make little headway.  At one point we passed a very happy group of other hikers who were singing as they hiked, and at another point we passed a group of MUN students who were out for a weekend hike to the Spout.  They were very friendly, and advised us that it was probably "a few more kilometres, or a couple hours to reach Bay Bulls".  Again, it was the seemingly standard answer of encouragement, that at least to us seems to bear very little relationship to reality.

As the afternoon wore on we encountered more marshy sections of trail than we had earlier in the day.  Although it was a pleasant change of scenery, the trail description hadn't mentioned anything like it.  We were left, not for the first time, thinking that perhaps the descriptions provided on the backs of the maps could use some updating.  The description for today's hike had suggested we would make a "precipitous descent over a cliff edge," which had made us a little nervous after our experiences on the Piccos Ridge Path, but thankfully we never encountered anything that we felt matched that description, although the trail did run very close to the cliff edge in some places.  This did provide some beautiful views however.

We reached the remains of the re-settled community of Freshwater, where there is a waterfall crossed by an old trail bridge, around 3:30 pm.  It was a beautiful spot overlooking a little cove, and it offered a nice flat, grassy patch of ground sheltered by some trees, so we decided to stop here, set up the tent, hang up some of our gear to let it dry, and relax for the afternoon.  As we sat on the rocks looking out over the cove, tired from the slippery, challenging hike, a pregnant lady waved to us as she jogged past, clearly having covered the trail we had just done on her way into Bay Bulls.  As they say - on the trail you can either be humble or be humbled!
 

As evening set in we purified water from the nearby waterfall, which is very powerful and large at the moment, and made a dinner of re-constituted chili.  We ate our dinner on a pair of rocks, looking out at the beautifully sculpted coastline slowly disappearing into the evening fog, while in the cove below us two seals fished and played in the tide and the waves.  It was the perfect ending to a magical day.

If all goes well, tomorrow we will trek the Trans Canada Trail and find ourselves in either Bay Bulls or Witless Bay, where we will have a chance to resupply.  We have reservations at the Bears Cove Inn and for O'Brien's Puffin and Whale Watching tour, but we are three days ahead of schedule, so we will have to see if our arrangements can be changed when we have cell service again.

See you on the trail!

Remember to follow our entire adventure here : www.comewalkwithus.online

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Practical Information:

Paths: Spout Path

Distance Hiked: Trail = 6.4 km

Max Temp: 18.7 °C

Min Temp: 11.1 °C