Our Walk Along the East Coast Trail (ECT)

Winter Storms on the East Coast Trail Soaked through on ECT Hike 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 at all; the wind seemed to be picking up, and the temperature felt like -1 C. ...

Beginning the East Coast Trail ECT Hike Begins Well, today we hiked the Piccos Ridge Trail from Portugal Cove to Bauline.  They say that the best views in the world are the ones you work for, and if that is true, this must be the most beautiful place on earth! We recently read someone's Facebook post, which claimed this stretch of trail was the hardest hike they'd ever done, and I think we ended the day in full agreement! To backtrack a little, we innocently began our day with a breakfast of coffee and bagels in MUN.  As we ate, we admitted to being a little nervous about today's trek, partially because of the weather advisory, which still called for temperatures to drop to -1 by the evening, 1-3 mm of rain throughout the day with an additional  10-40 mm projected overnight (or snow!), and high winds, and partially because of the description of the trail itself.  In short, our first day on the ECT and Trans Canada Trail was nothing like we expected - especially...