The Discovery Centre Trail - May 25th, 2005

Yeah, I know. We've covered this trail several times already. But this is just such a GREAT trail and offers perhaps the most spectacular view in the entire park. I think it's even better than the view from the top of Gros Morne itself.

This is a fairly challenging trail. It starts directly behind the Discovery Centre on what we consider to be the neglected side of the park, the South side. It's uphill for about forty five minutes, with another twenty minutes or so looping through a mountain meadow. This mountain meadow is the nicest part of the hike; it's almost all boardwalk and offers the wonderful view of the Tablelands that you see in the picture. You'll often see moose browsing up there.

After you loop through the meadow, you come back out to the view of Bonne Bay and Gros Morne. That's where there's a little lookout and a spot to stop and eat your snack. Take your time there; it's almost spiritual. I'll tell this story again: The first time we did this hike we met a fella on the way back down. He was from Ontario. He told us about all the places he'd been, and he told us that the view from the top of this trail was the most breathtaking he'd ever seen. After he left I said to Carol, "What does he know? He's from Ontario."  Well, it's the first time I've ever known anyone from Ontario to be right.

We always prefer to do the loop through the meadow on the way up; you can choose instead to climb the last

 very steep set of steps to the top and continue from there around through the meadow. We prefer to come DOWN those steps.

Altogether yesterday, we were gone about three hours. We had a wonderful chat at the lookout with some nice acquaintances, and took our time with our lunch. (We've gotten into the habit of buying Subway sandwiches for our hikes.) This hike is a good workout for Piqa also; she doesn't rest at all, and she travels at least twice as far as we do. She's been resting all day today. So have we.

So, if you can only do one hike in the park, and if you're in reasonable shape, this is the one we'd recommend. And please don't spend all your time on the North side. The South side offers the very unique landscape of the Tablelands, an informative visit to the Discovery Centre, and several worthwhile hikes. The nicest restaurant in the park is also in Trout River, The Seaside Restaurant.

Click on any of the pictures below to see them full sized. There are more pictures HERE in our SmugMug gallery.

April - 2005

Quidi Vidi

This is Quidi Vidi the lake, not the village. The village is just around the corner.

St. John's is a city of history. Quidi Vidi has its own history within the bigger story. St. John's makes the claim of being the oldest city in North America. Quidi Vidi hosts North America's longest continuously running sporting event, the St. John's regatta. The shells they use have fixed seating, and I think that's unique also. All Newfoundlanders recognize the sounds of "Up the Pond" as the various races start. The lake is lined with concession stands, nothing spectacular, but some of which have had their spots on the lake for hundreds of years. They go up in a day; they come down in a day. The spots are jealously guarded. The entire regatta is made up of those races only, and the concession stands. The lake is visited by thousands of visitors during the regatta, held the first Wednesday in August every year. The city shuts down. Everyone waits by their radios in the morning to find out if the races will be going ahead. Weather can stop it. If it goes ahead, it's a city holiday; if it doesn't, it isn't. Quite unique I think.

This little hike around Quidi Vidi took place Tuesday (late April). It was a typical St. John's grey day. We were dressed for it, with heavy jackets and wind pants, hats and gloves. The clothing was appropriate. This is not unusual for St. John's. St. John's is stuck right out in the North Atlantic and at this time of year (or any time), you can have several days (weeks, months) in a row of rain, drizzle and fog. 

St. John's has its own character, epitomized by the row housing downtown. The city has been decimated by fire several times as once a fire starts in the row housing it's almost impossible to contain. Even in the past couple of years there have been two fires that wiped out entire blocks. The housing around the lake and a lot of the modern architecture emulates the style of the row housing. It's very colourful and traditional. You can see a lot of this new architecture around the lake.

The north side of the lake is dominated by Fort Pepperell, the old American Army base. It's now the site of a lot of government offices and apartments, all in the old buildings of the base. It too is quite colourful, in a pastel kind of way.

So a hike around the lake can be good exercise as well as an immersion in a lot of St. John's history and colour. The lake is right in the middle of the city (the east end), just a short drive from down town and Cabot Tower. It's about a 45 minute hike, and quite an easy one. It can be windy. If you're there in August, take in the regatta. If you're there any other time in early summer, and the weather is good, you'll see a lot of crews on the lake in their shells. They don't own their own shells; when one crew finishes their practice, the shell is taken out by another crew. This will go on all day.

Quidi Vidi (pronounced either "kiddie viddie" or "quida vida" with a long "I") isn't a bird sanctuary, but there are usually hundreds of ducks and hundreds of gulls.

Around the corner from the lake is Quidi Vidi village, a lovely little fishing community almost in the heart of the city. There are a couple of nice restaurants there, as well as Quidi Vidi Brewery, worth a tour if you have the time. If you continue along that road, you'll come out on the road to Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, so you can make a nice little afternoon of your hike, the restaurants and the brewery, and a trip up Signal Hill to its historic tower and a magnificent view of the city.  If you've done the hike and feel you've earned the right to a few extra calories, do a pub crawl on George Street in the evening.

You can see more of the Quidi Vidi pictures here.

I'm a grey jumper I am.

It was a nice day in Pasadena; it was a grey day in The Park. It deteriorated the further north we went, but like the true stalwarts we are (well... sometimes) we travelled on.

We stopped at Mill Brook to give Piqa a short run. We hiked down to the picnic area; there were no moose. I say that because other years we've found that a number of moose winter in that location.

After a quick little walk around the area, we went back to the car and moved on up the highway.

We could drive into the campground at Green Point as far as the entry kiosk; beyond that there was a possibility of getting stuck in what snow remained. We walked from there.  We walked around the campground, picked out our site for our first camping trip (Number 15), and then attempted the trail. The trail proved too snowy and wet. We went down to the beach. We decided to hike toward Green Point instead of toward Baker's Brook. It was tricky walking on the beach rocks and it was wet in places where there were small drainoffs from the banks, but all in all it was a good hike.

When we got to Green Point, the enclave was in full use. (There are "enclaves" within the park, areas where the local population has retained their traditional fishing stores and shacks. They continue to use these.)  There were a couple of lobstermen there, getting their pots ready for the season opening at the end of April. Last year was a horrendous year for lobster fishermen on the coast; the two we were talking to lost ALL their pots last year. That made for a busy summer, fall and winter building new ones. These pots are all hand made. The work is rough, but fairly meticulous and detailed. When you drive up the coast and look into the little side roads and woods

 roads you'll find literally thousands of lobster pots. They're stored there by lobstermen who have fishing rights along stretches of the coast, but no local place to store their pots.

The men we saw working were rigging their pots with ropes and floats. These all have to be fit in the trap boats for easy and safe deployment. We hadn't realized the amount of rigging and rope that was involved.

There were two young girls there with their dads. They quickly came out of the fishing shack when they saw the strangers; they enjoyed Piqa. They made their own entertainment the whole time we were there. We spent some time talking to the lobstermen and to another visitor to Green Point who had come to collect some seaweed for his garden. He was also a cabin owner, owning five summer cabins in Rocky Harbour. We talked a while about the growth of the tourist industry in the area.  He gave us some numbers, but I'm old and I can't remember. The bottom line is obvious - tourism is growing exponentially in Gros Morne and in Newfoundland.

Fishing cabin at Green Point, Gros Morne National Park. These cabins serve as temporary residences while the men are fishing and/or working on their gear. Most of the lobster pots/traps in the foreground would have been built over the fall and winter. Fishermen along the coast lost almost all their traps in a horrible wind storm early last spring.

So, lobster season is about three weeks away and from the looks of the work that's already been done, everyone will be ready.  That's good! Carol loves lobster.

...is spectacularly beautiful in the winter. It's the side of the park that features the most interesting geology, with the tablelands on the left as you drive to Trout River and the mountains and forests of the park on the right. In early spring, as now, snowmobiles and skiers try the bowls of the tablelands. Snow blows off the tops of the mountains. You can see forever.

We drove to Trout River and went for a hike up to the campgrounds and around. We've never camped there, although I think Liam did some camping there with the scouts once upon a time and maybe even Carol was there.  We picked out a campsite for later this spring.

On the hike we came upon a 70 year old grandmother sliding with her grandchildren. She barreled down that hill. She was not  afraid. The children were. At her age she knows the right things to be afraid of.

Once again our breath was taken away by the beauty of the place where we live.

Along with the few pictures we've placed here, we've added a few to our photo gallery.

If you'd like to see more pictures of our trip to Trout River, just click here:  http://artgriffin.smugmug.com

Gros Morne, Gros Morne National Park - Newfoundland and Labrador

Well, it WAS SuperBowl weekend; hence, the very poor pun.

Who says you can't hike in the winter. Some call it cross country skiing; others call it snowshoeing. It was our first hike on snowshoes, and really our first hike in Gros Morne this time of year. Altogether a pleasant experience it was.

We bought recreational snowshoes when they showed up on sale this summer. I suppose they're OK; we don't know enough about them to say one way or the other. They got the job done; the sizes seemed appropriate for both of us. Mine are twice the size of Carol's; that doesn't seem quite fair.

We didn't leave until about 11:00. There were two stops in Deer Lake, one for gas and the other for "gaiters," not what Newfoundlanders call gaiters, but what fancy Nordic skiers and hikers call gaiters. I'd probably call them big spats if I didn't know better. And I don't. There were none to be found in Deer Lake; go figure.

The day started out promising (weather wise), turned a little disappointing, and then turned nice again.

We had four options: Green Point, Lomond, Western Brook, or Western Brook Pond. We passed on the Lomond option right away. It took us four hours to do that hike last year, and it was over frozen, crusty snow. It would take about six on snowshoes I'm sure. Green Point seemed most likely, but the road in wasn't even touched, not even the entrance. (I thought there was winter camping at Green Point; I expected at least part of the road to be plowed.) We didn't want to leave the car on the road and take Piqa out of the car on the highway, so we passed on Green Point. 

The parking lot at Western Brook Pond was cleared, so we stopped there. That was fine. That was where I wanted to go anyway. On with the snowshoes and in with the snowshoe hares we went. Piqa was wonderfully excited. She loves chasing bunnies. I'm past that. 

Those snowshoes take a little getting used to. You have to walk a little differently, and it takes a little more effort to lift your legs. I found my hip starting to bother me; my hip NEVER bothers me. Carol found her hip starting to bother her; Carol's hip ALWAYS bothers her. Too bad in both cases it was the right hip. If it had been left and right, maybe we could have gone three-legged. Anyway, we went in for about an hour and fifteen minutes; we made it just about to the fork where you can take the route through the moose park if you want. That was enough for us.

It was SO nice. A little strenuous yes, but it didn't exhaust us. Our decision to turn around was based on other factors than exhaustion. It was bright with high overcast; not clear sunny skies, but close. There was plenty of moose sign, all over the trail. Plenty of rabbit sign also. Nary a caribou or moose to be seen; they were watching us though; we could feel them. The snow was deep in most places, so the snowshoes were necessary. Piqa didn't mind the deep snow. On the boardwalks that were blown free of snow, we chose to walk on the frozen bogs. Easier on the snow shoes and less danger of getting the cleats caught in the cracks and tripping.

We had lunch/dinner at the Gros Morne Resort. Their restaurant offers you a magnificent view of the mountains and St. Paul's Inlet. There were two munchkins hiking out to the ice to do a little ice fishing. There were skidoos in the distance.

Driving home we were treated to a magnificent sunset. Very appropriate. We arrived home about six o'clock. Piqa's asleep; I'll soon be asleep; and Carol will sleep until 12:00 tomorrow.

Nite all!

September 9, 2004 - La Manche is a "resettled" (read "abandoned") community on the East Coast (on the Avalon) just about 45 km south of St. John's on The Irish Loop. The hike into the actual East Coast Trail (see our "Hikes" and our "Hikes of the Weeks") takes about twenty minutes from our starting point, which was just south of La Manche Provincial Park. The hike in on the old road to the community brought you to the coast and to the site of the abandoned outport. La Manche was resettled in 1966 after a severe storm demolished the community's wharfs and stages. The population of La Manche peaked at 56 residents just after confederation. A visit to this site will leave you wondering where they actually built houses on the cliffs and on the few open patches of soil. The foundations of some houses and the rock walls that protected exposed soil are still visible. "Nothing beside remains." The lone and swelling seas stretch far away.

These days La Manche is just a stop on one of the paths of the East Coast Trail. Its most remarkable feature is the suspension footbridge that spans La Manche Gulch. This footbridge was a project of the East Coast Trail Association and the Canadian Military. It's very impressive for a bridge on a trail. We went along the trail as far as Doctor's Cove where we sat and had a snack. (On these hikes along the coast we're constantly in fear that Piqa will take a header over one of the cliffs. It's worse than having a toddler on a hike; actually, it's kind of like having a toddler that can run three times as fast as you can, one that can run off chasing smells that you can only guess at. We keep working on her recall. It's very important.) A geologist would be able to tell you more about the features of Doctor's Cove. Big rocks. Tossed. Quite impressive in their size and arrangement. At least I was impressed.

On the way to St. John's we took our obligatory hike around Sandy Pond. Piqa demands it. When we came to the bridge at the end of the hike we thought we might have to turn around and retrace our steps. There was Mr. Moose challenging our right to cross the bridge. Robin Hood and Little John. This Little John was a little more obliging as he ambled off into the woods as I approached. Good. (I didn't get a good picture.) One of the features of this trail is the Caribou moss; it's like snow. The partridge berries were just about ripe too. Can't pick them until after the first frost though when the worms are driven out of them. (Now is that a myth or what?)

If we get a good day or two on our way home we may make a side trip to St. Albans (and maybe take the coastal boat to Gaultois and McCallum, or maybe the ferry in Little Bay Islands). PS - We're home. We did neither of the above, just had a leisurely drive and a lovely hike. I just put in this picture ^ to show you Mr. Moose waiting on the trail for us. (Piqa:  I would have driven him off for you Pop! You just had to say the word. Really.)

August 18th, 2004 - Well another trip to the Lookout Trail (behind the Discovery Centre) has moved Shanawdithit off the front page. You can still find her and Missus Grouse and Mister Moose in our Hikes of the Week, over there <<<<<<.  Today we had a caravan. There was Carol and Piqa and Neala and Myla and Vince and Corliss and Barb and Jim and I,  anchoring the tug of walk.

Myla fell in a bog hole. Maybe even the same one George Bush fell in. (When George Bush visited Newfoundland he fell in a bog hole and had to be rescued by his Secret Service.) We saw four moose, all at a distance. The trail wasn't that crowded, but we had to share the Lookout with a few people. It was sunny and warm, with a nice cool breeze at the top. We had to take the dogs to Trout River Pond for a swim after, both because they were warm and because they were filthy. Piqa had some fun in the bog hole too, but didn't get total immersion as Myla did. Myla was like a little mud pie when she finally managed to get out of it.

We had lunch at the Lookout, some lovely pastrami on rye sandwiches, lots of water and bars and stuff. We stayed there for a long time as those folks from up-along had to soak up enough of the view to take back with them. We couldn't have chosen a better hike or a better day.

This trail starts uphill from the Discovery Centre. It's a little bit of a struggle for the first 40 minutes, but if you take frequent breathers and turn around often enough to take in the view even old out of shape fellas like me can make it. Then, just before you climb the final set of steps, you'd be smart to take the turn to the left. This takes you in a loop through a mountain meadow that overlooks both the bay and the Tablelands. It's quite spectacular. On this portion of the walk we've almost always seen moose in the distance. Today we saw two. Then the trail loops off the meadow around the mountain and back to the lookout. If you go this way you get to go DOWN the steps. It's much easier and walking the meadow in this direction is much more pleasant.  All told, with a 20 minute stop for lunch, the hike should take you about two and a half hours.

This trail has become our favourite in the park. It certainly provides enough exercise and the scenery is so varied and so spectacular that you can do the trail a lot and still come away from it with a sense of awe. We'll probably do it again in the early fall, perhaps before we leave for Vermont. The hike today was particularly nice because of the company. It was wonderful having Neala and Myla with us, as well as Corliss and Vince and their friends Barb and Jim. Thank you all!

July 25th, 2004

Let's start at the very end, a very good place to start. Yesterday we made an eight hour trip into a fourteen hour trip as we made our way back from St. John's.

I saw one of the most beautiful and appropriate pieces of art I've ever seen. The Spirit of the Beothuk. There she stood, in the woods, a ghost. You could walk by her and not notice. She was just ignoring you. As she should. She was just someone you could sit and watch. Watch her moving; watch her blending with her environment; watch her walking into history; watch her questioning you. The only thing around her was trees. No platforms; no concrete; no lights. Just trees. She made me feel so guilty. With the death of Shanawdithit, the last of the Beothuks, the Beothuks became extinct. This is a part of our Newfoundland shame.

Boyd's Cove Beothuk Interpretation Centre is on the Road to the Isles, on the way to Twillingate. The trail to the archeological dig (which isn't very exciting unless you're an archeologist and can actually dig there) is about 40 minutes round trip. Shanawdithit makes the trip to Boyd's Cove, the trip from St. John's, a 14 hour drive, all worth it. Thank you Gerry Squires.

Now let's start at the very beginning.

We left last Sunday. Our only stop on the way to St. John's was at Sandy Pond, in Terra Nova National Park. (Sandy Pond is mentioned in our Hiking Trails section.) Unlike other times we'd been there, usually in the off-season, it was crowded. We didn't get to throw a lot of sticks in the water for Piqa, but we did make our way around the pond, about a 40 minutes hike. On the way we saw a group of canoeists from Europe, making their way back from one of the waterways.

While in St. John's we did a few of the obligatory things, mainly to take new pictures. Piqa made several trips to the dog park on Quidi Vidi to meet new friends. We walked around the lake once, Morning on Quidi Vidi. It was inspirational seeing the boats in the mist as various obsessed people prepared for the Regatta, the St. John's Regatta, the oldest continuously running sporting event in North America in North America's oldest city.

We also made our way up Signal Hill of course, the site of Marconi's first successful radio transmission across the Atlantic where he first discovered that radio signals would bounce and could be picked up past the horizon. Good for him. Signal Hill also overlooks the Harbour of St. John's, and Fort Amherst, and Cape Spear (the Easternmost point in North America). An old friend of mine used to live in Fort Amherst and row his boat across the harbour every day to go to school at Holy Cross.

I think I'll have to re-evaluate my opinion of the East Coast, in part because of our initial experience on a portion of the East Coast Trail. (See my notes on the East Coast Trail in the Hiking Trails section.) This small portion of the trail was from Witless Bay to Bay Bulls, a mere 7 km hike. Good enough for us though. All our time in St. John's was in the midst of hot, humid weather. It was foggy on the coast, so this hike was cool (both senses). There were cliffs, small sharp coves, the sound of tour boats in the fog, the sound of The Irish Descendants singing Sarah. Out of the fog zoomed in a high speed zodiac. All those CFAs (Come from Aways) out searching for whales and puffins. There were plenty out there.(Whales AND CFAs) Whales, apparently, don't much mind the fog. Bay Bulls is where you'd go to take all the boat tours. There are several there; the best may be O'Briens. We stopped in there after we got back to the car, just so say hi to Reagan and get a quick snack. (Reagan is a friend. She's the manager there. But I'm not biased. Really.)

We also made a quick little dart down to the Silent Witnesses Memorial, the site of the crash that killed so many of the Screaming Eagles on their way back from the Middle East. It too is an inspirational spot.

So, we didn't do as much hiking as we'd planned for a number of reasons, mainly because of the heat and humidity, but those we did do were memorable. Come to think of it, in seven days we did three hikes, numerous side trips, as well as several trips to the dog park and a "hike" around Quidi Vidi. So that was plenty. We also got to spend some time with friends: a lovely breakfast will Bill, a lovely breakfast and some time spent with Ben, a visit to Rudy and Alma and a nice evening there, a magnificent dinner with Bill and Denise (Thank you!), and a nice week with Laurie Ann. Needless to say, Carol got to do a little shopping, both by herself and with Sandi. Sandi drove back with us.

I took well over 200 pictures with our new camera. But the best of them, and the highlight of the trip, was herself, Shanawdithit.

The Spirit of the Beothuk

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July 27th - 2004   Today we left late for a hike to Baker's Brook Falls. This is about a two and a half hour hike. It's not terribly exciting. You walk through a lot of deadfall, and you walk for quite a while on narrow boardwalk. It's  muddy off the boardwalk and Piqa got in  a mess. The view of the falls when you reach the end of the trail is very nice. Not spectacular.  We were rewarded on our way out with a view through the trees of two browsing moose (IE I think), and mommy grouse and her two chicks. She stood and let us take some shots; I think she was afraid to leave her chicks. Mommies are like that.  Piqa, fearless hunting dog, didn't see them until after I'd almost walked on them. By that time I had her by the collar and she was quite brave.  I'm impressed with the new camera, particularly how fast it powers up and focuses - 1/2 second from power on to ready to take the picture. I still missed the best shot though; I had the camera slung behind my back and couldn't get at it fast enough to get the best shot, the mother with her two chicks. The chicks very quickly disappeared into the grass. Nice day. Lots of people on the trail. Ice cream in Rocky Harbour. Fresh fish when we got home. I've added a few pictures of the falls to the description on the hiking trails page.

August 4th: We made a quick little trip to Green Point yesterday. Short little hike. We bought some fish at the fish plant (and a lobster) for our visitors today. On the way home we ran across Mr. Moose. It think this is the same bull we see every year at the top of the SouthEast Brook Falls hill.

It was a very good day...  We made a quick trip to Shallow Bay, and "hiked" from the day use area to the brook and back, altogether about two hours. Shallow Beach is one of Newfoundland's best beaches, and the water temp there today had to be close to 25C. Amazing! We saw mommy moose and her twin on the drive up. This is unusual, the first time we've seen moosie twins.

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The Caplin Scull - June 29th - Today we were going to hike to Stanleyville before Piqa's training session. I got delayed a little and we left late, so we just walked from Kildevil to the Lomond Campground and back. After the session was over we drove to Trout River (see our favourite restaurant on the recommendations page). The beach was filled with caplin (some say "capelin".) Now, you say, (if you're not a Newfoundlander), what's a "caplin"? Well, it's a tiny salt water fish. About four to five inches long. They come up on the beach to spawn; millions of them. One female with a male on each side of her squirting sperm on her eggs. They often die there, hence the expression: As much sense as God gave a caplin. (The Japanese are crazy about the spawny females.) To be in the middle of a caplin roll (They weren't rolling when we were there; they rolled lunch time; they were on the menu tonight at the restaurant.) is a roiling experience. You can take a dip net and dip them into buckets. Old skippers used to dip them into the back of pickup trucks to use as fertilizer after the one or two compulsory meals. A meal of caplin is its own experience. Some people clean them. We don't. If you clean them there's nothing left. You just throw the fresh caplin in a pan, fry the BJaysus out of them, and eat them whole, usually with boiled potatoes cut in quarters and lathered with butter (and maybe some scrunchins if you're lucky). (You can also dry them, salt them, and keep them forever to BBQ and eat with a dozen or two beer to wash them down.) Tonight "Da Byes" were out there with their spinning rods, jiggin' a few fresh ones; the whales were out in the harbour havin' the munchies. Several tourists were on the beach and on the boardwalk wondering if this was a throwback to more primitive times. (Nope! Not a throwback!) All this silhouetted against a setting sun. I just thought I'd tell you about this and show you a few pictures.  I should have taken a few closeups of the caplin. Sorry!  :-(  Maybe we'll have some frozen in the freezer the next time you visit and we'll cook you a few.

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The Lookout Trail (Discovery Centre) (Saturday, June 19th, 2004)

The mountain meadow at the top of Lookout Trail, the Discovery Centre, Gros Morne National Park

Well, we've been waiting for quite a while for this one. We wanted the first, sunny, cool day of June to do this hike. The wait was worth it. One wonderful day like today makes up for caplin weather we've been having for the past two months. Hopefully this is the start of it.

I didn't even hurry to get out of bed this morning. The light through the curtains didn't seem encouraging; but when I peeked out, lo and behold - sunshine.  "It's nice," I said to Carol. "Give me fifteen minutes," she said.  Two hours later we were on our way. (I must do a rant in the very near future. "Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus?" But that's the same solar system. Far too close.)

It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from base camp (home) to the Discovery Centre. It's on the south side of the park at the beginning of the road to Trout River. We stopped at Subway and at Coleman's to get our lunch and a few oranges.

We started the hike at 1:20. It's 40 minutes uphill before you make the turn on to the meadow and that wonderful view of the Tablelands.  The Tablelands have exposed earth's mantle, some of the oldest rock on Planet Earth, a geologist's Mecca. We consider this the best hike in the park; it's challenging because those first 40 minutes are uphill; its photo ops are without equal:  you have both arms of Bonne Bay in one direction (one of the arms up there ^) and the Tablelands in the other. Today was a clear day, one of those crystal days when you can see forever and you get a headache from the brightness and the fresh air. It was cool, in both senses of the word. There were other people on the trail today, far more than we're used to. Bummer! (It was Saturday, and there was an event at the Discovery Centre, and it was the first nice day in a while, so they were all out.)  The trail was far too crowded; we must have seen twenty people or more in the two hours we were hiking - he says tongue in cheek.

There was snow at the top. Piqa was excited. When we stopped to have our lunch, there were actually other people at the lookout, maybe about seven or eight of them. We were crowded, and one of the folks was afraid of dogs so we had to keep Piqa on lead. Piqa was not impressed. She did condescend to pose for a few pictures though. She plays to the camera; she'll be wanting her own trailer soon.

On the way down Carol was rewarded for her pokiness (oops, I mean vigilance), by spotting some Lady Slippers on the side of the trail. Once we saw the first ones we became aware that there were many around. We took a lot of pictures of the Lady Slippers, but of all we took only two or three are any good. We need a better camera with a manual TTL focus.  (A new camera is in the works for the fall.) We've learned a little about taking close-ups with this camera; take lots. The wildflowers we're beginning to be more and more aware of on our hikes, all have their seasons. There are different ones in bloom during just about every week of the spring, summer and fall, and they only last about a week.  We were very lucky to see the Lady Slippers.  I think they're the first ones I've ever seen.

All in all, a spectacular day.  I'm doing this now before I fall asleep. Gotta go do a BBQ in a second too. Some days are just too good!

Berry Hill Pond, Berry Head Pond, Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse  (June 2004)

Yesterday was a wonderful day! We had training for Piqa scheduled for 6:00 pm, so we decided to make a day of it. We left around 12:00 and drove to Berry Hill Pond. This trail is just inside the entrance to Berry Hill Campground. The campground isn't open for the season yet, so we had to take a short walk through the overflow area to get to the pond. It was a picture perfect day for hiking, cool and sunny. The hike around the pond takes about 45 minutes, but when you tack on the initial five minutes and the time we took coming back through the campground and letting Piqa play on the playground equipment, it took us about an hour. It's nice walking around a pond, particularly this time of year when it's still too cool for mosquitoes and black flies. There was lots of moose sign, a big beaver lodge (but no Mr. Beaver this year), and this week's array of wildflowers.  Then we drove on up the road to Berry Head Pond and hiked around that. It was pretty similar except there was more boardwalk and a little more time spent away from the pond.  Having finished that we went to Green Point Campground for our little snack.  Then it was on to Piqa's training at Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. We had plenty of time so we hiked the short trails around the Lighthouse. It started to cool down pretty rapidly so we had to put on another layer. There was a raven's nest on the cliff with four pretty big fledglings in it. The training went well. After the training we were going to go to Fisherman's Landing for a meal, but Bettina and Herbert and Lisa invited us to come back with them for a BBQ. We did of course, and three or four hours later, after a beautiful meal and some wonderful company, we made our way very gingerly back through the park to home. It's always a challenge driving through the park at night because Mr. Moose is a little more difficult to see in the dark. Missus Moose and her wee one (this year's) started across the road in front of us but changed their minds. Carol was driving; so was I.

We got home about 12:30, just in time to see the end of the hockey game. Good try Flames!!!

Here's our "Hike of the Week" (April 2004)

Today we hiked to Western Brook. Ben was with us. It was cold, and windy until we got into the woods. Nice hike though. Just a little snow still in place in the woods, but hard and easy to walk over.  We didn't see a moose on the hike in.  We saw three moose altogether, MANY caribou, and a possible lynx sighting.

The caribou are still quite white and just starting to get a little shabby.

The caribou herds are moving back down to the bogs now, where they'll spend most of the summer. On the bogs just north of Western Brook Pond you'll always see caribou from May on into September. They're very curious creatures. They're not afraid of you and will often come quite close.

May 15th, 2004 (a totally insignificant day in the annals of mankind)

Today we took Piqa to Norris Point (Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park) for a training session. The weather, on a scale of one to ten, was about a five. Initially it was cold and windy, but it warmed up a little and the wind died down as the day went on.  We started with some simple recall exercises, then went on a hike for about an hour. The hike was one we'd done before, up and around Burnt Head. It's a nice hike, a little tough perhaps as it starts off up hill for about 15 or twenty minutes with a lot of steps. Once up the hill there are several loops, all of which offer you nice views of the bay. After the rain and wind stopped it was quite pleasant.  As our instructions for the hike were to focus on our dog, we didn't really look for the photo ops as we usually would most of the pics here were taken after the hike.

This picture was actually taken from inside the B&B where we had lunch (a lovely lunch btw, two kinds of homemade soup and sandwiches). This was right in Neddy's Harbour, around the cove from Norris Point. As the lady told me, it's all actually part of the same community. (If you're from Neddy's Harbour, you're also from Norris Point; but if you're from Norris Point, you're not necessarily from Neddy's Harbour.) This is where my grandmother is from; my grandfather is from across the bay at Woody Point. I always imagine him rowing the dory across the bay to visit Mom Jack. But I'm a romantic.

This is taken just up the hill from the B&B, our "staging" area before we started the third stage of the work with the dogs.

The bottom picture was taken on a little side hike I took while Carol was off with Piqa doing the recalls again. We had decided beforehand that we'd spend the night in Rocky Harbour, so I'm writing this in an efficiency unit (see, it works) while Carol is doing other stuff. We're going to go on up to Shallow Bay for a hike if weather permits.  Y'all have a good day now, y'hear.

May 28th, 2004

Today we made our first trip to Green Point for the year. This is a trail we do several times a summer.  It's along the coast, from Green Point campground (a lovely, "primitive" campground) to Baker's Brook. It's probably an hour round trip, and you'll want to spend a little time at the Baker's Brook end of the trail to sit on the rocks and watch the old fella with his "crackie" fishing for sea trout. There's another old fella and his dog and his missus up sitting on the rocks. Wait! That's us!

Piqa sits on the rocks with Carol, waiting for her snack. There's a fella out there fishing, but Piqa hasn't quite learned that skill yet.

On this hike you'll see plenty of driftwood, and maybe the odd goose or two in the small ponds along the coast. Parts of the trail are rocky. Sneakers should be fine, but good hiking boots are always better as they may keep you from getting a turned ankle.

What we usually do on this hike is take a snack to eat at Baker's Brook, and a lunch to eat at one of the picnic tables when we get back to the campground.  It's a very nice day spent this way. This hike and picnic will take a couple of hours, and the ride to and from another two hours. We stopped at the fish plant (again), and bought lobsters for all hands and halibut for me.