This is a catch all page for items that were originally on the front page, removed, and didn't have a home to go to.

A picture perfect day for...

A walk with the dog...

...and a drive to the Park.

If you'd like to see more "Picture Perfect Day" pictures, just click HERE.

Snowmobiling in Newfoundland

The groomed trails are in superb condition. There's a great snow base, and they're groomed once or twice a week. "You can go where you wanna go, do whatcha wanna wanna do, with whomever..." 

It's also very nice to see that there's some policing on the trails. The shot above is of the warm-up hut, about halfway between Corner Brook and Deer Lake, a few kilometers west of Pasadena. On Saturday there were lots of MADD mothers there, accompanied by RNC and RCMP who were checking for trail stickers. They also had a breathalyzer on hand if they suspected anyone of DUI.  It was a very nice atmosphere there though, with Timmie's doughnuts and hot chocolate in the hut. Most folks were stopping and having a chat and a doughnut. The Canada Jays were stealing doughnuts right out of people's hands.  Saucy little things they are.

It's a different way to see the country. The trails make it a pleasure, and they take you around most of the West Coast and up the Northern Peninsula. They're usually in good condition from the middle of January through the end of March and often beyond that. There are plenty of lodges and guides to take you on phenomenal back country trips in and around Gros Morne National Park.

If you haven't given this growing sport a try, check it out. Dress well, be prepared, travel with an experienced snow-mobiler or guide, and make the most of this great province in the winter as well as in the summer. 

...of course, you could always go skiing, if you'd prefer not to snowmobile...

Marble Mountain, Newfoundland (February 27, 2007)

...or you could go snowshoeing...

Snowshoe racing at Pasadena Ski and Nature Park

... or you could just take your dogs for a run.

How do you survive a Canadian Winter?

That was the topic on CBC earlier this week. It seems a passing strange question to me. If you live in a part of Canada that gets an honest winter, the question of surviving it just doesn't come up. It's as normal as summer. How do you survive summer? You do things. Well, you do things in winter too.

I'm probably not the only one daring enough to say that I like winter. I may be one of few who would say he prefers winter to summer. Newfoundland isn't really built for summer; she is built for winter.

On another program I heard the comment that Canadians must be the sexiest people in the world. How could one possibly fall in love with someone dressed in a parka and winter boots? With a fur lined hood hiding half the face? With all shapes and curves hidden beneath multiple layers of clothing? 

Well, Newfoundland's shapes and curves are accentuated in the winter. Her greys are white. She's very open and exposed in the winter. Her lines are distinct.  People are warmer; rum is tastier; cold is easier to handle than heat. Wood stoves add flavour; Christmas lights and cakes and turkeys and cookies add colour and friends (and girth); winter hikes add  blooms to cheeks; frosty breath accents life.

Today started with my neighbour and I rushing to be the first one to get both driveways cleared. He promised me a meal of salt fish. (We were out to Tom and Nona's Friday night for a meal of fish and brewis and some good wine. Wine and fish and brewis you say? Of course. Why not?) Then, when Carol got back from praying for me this morning, off we went with critter for two hours. Up on the skidoo trails we went. We passed three kids who had one of their kitty kats stuck in the snow. They did quite well getting it out. (A "kitty kat" is a child sized snow mobile - a small version of the "Arctic Cat".)  On our hike we saw 27 skidoos ("Skidoo" is the generic term we use to cover all snow machines, as in, "What kind of skidoo do you have?"  "A Polaris.") (Once upon a time "coke" was the generic term around here for a soft drink, as in: "I'll have a hot dog and a coke." "What kind of coke do you want?" "Pepsi.")  We saw many of our neighbours out on their skidoos, with the little ones tucked in front, and the missus tagging along on her own skidoo. Some fellas were up checking their snares. They were optimists; they had tag-alongs behind their skidoos. Some fellas start cutting their wood around now, next year's wood that is. They'll cut it this year, haul it out, and let it cure for next year. Birch is the most popular. There's not much birch left in Newfoundland.

So how do we survive?  We hike; we go out on our skidoos; we cross country ski; we downhill ski; we have our winter carnivals (events much looked forward to); we visit friends; we drink rum; we sing; we dance; we skate; we play hockey; we watch hockey; we curl. (I don't see many kids playing street hockey any more? I wonder do they still do it?  When I was a child we played every evening in winter and every second evening in summer. But we didn't have TV or video games. Sigh!)

We have a nice new cross country ski chalet here in Pasadena. I'm told there are "get togethers" every Friday night. That would be fun. It's a short walk to the chalet. On a nice, crisp, clear night, walk to the chalet, have a bowl of homemade soup, a drop of the creature, a yarn or two, then a nice brisk walk back to the car and then home. Then warm up. I 'low I might even try some cross country skiing this winter. Critter can't come with me on those trails though.  :-( 

So we don't "survive" winter, we enjoy it. We don't even have to force ourselves to enjoy it. It's just the way it is. After all, those parkas and snow boots and layers of clothing DO come off, and there are plenty of ways to warm up.

That was a HUGE cow. Carol was CHASED by a moose. To hear her tell it it was five yards behind her and she ran like lightning leaping over stumps, two hiking sticks flashing in the light, with Mr. Moose giving futile chase. We have no pictures of either event, as things happened too fast.

Our friend Mr. Whisky Jack (Canada Jay) was waiting for us at the boat ramp. He likes dog treats. This is the second trip in a row that he was there waiting for us. It's becoming a ritual for him also. He doesn't hesitate to take food from your hand, even with Piqa darting at him. We had to tether Piqa so she didn't get the bird.  :-)

Piqa found her favourite posing rock and stood 'til we took her picture.

One more moose on the way back. We stopped at Mill Brook to change drivers. There's usually a moose or two around there. And there he was when we were on our way back out to the highway, Mr. Young Bull, probably just a year old. A very nice looking critter though.

So, it was a lovely day. Now we're settled in for several more days of lousy weather. After that I expect we'll get some snow. Could be worse. We could be in BC.

Jackson's Arm

We were there once. Peggy's Cove that is. (No! None of these pictures are of Peggy's Cove.)

We were filtered out of Halifax with 10,000 other tourists looking for something quaint, unique, homey, down-to-earth. We were filtered to Peggy's Cove.

We were filtered to a lighthouse gift shop and rocks.

Every turn you take in Newfoundland you come across the real thing. Real fishing communities; real lighthouses; real people. No giftshops.  (...and real rocks)

Last week we visited Southern Harbour, Placentia Bay.  This week we took a day trip to the Baie Verte Peninsula and visited three of the many outports on that peninsula.

We've never visited anyplace quite like Fleur de Lys. Many places we visit have lots of boats tied up at the wharfs, lots of fishermen working those boats, and lots of activity in the plants. Fleur de Lys struck us a different because of the size of the boats.

These were seiners, not long liners. We were told they cost about $2 million each. There was a lot of money tied up at those wharfs. What struck me about the boats was how immaculate they all were. They were well cared for. That could be bad I suppose if the reason they were well cared for is that there's nothing else to do but care for your boat. I'd prefer to think it's an off season, a time for mending. Or even more,  I'd prefer to think that folks are extremely busy, but take the time to take care of their livelihood.

On our day trip we also visited Westport. Lots of boats there too. Smaller, but also beautiful boats. One fella thought Piqa was one of those dogs that run and then are killed when they don't run no more. We're slow. We didn't realize he thought she was a greyhound until we'd left.

We did two trails.

One was the lighthouse trail in Westport. It's mostly boardwalk, uphill, but fairly easy. It's about a twenty minute round trip, a half hour if you take the time to have some crackers and cheese sitting at the picnic table by the lighthouse.

The other was the "Ocean View Trail" at the end of the road in Fleur de Lys. It's .8 km. It take you to, well, an ocean view. The nicest part of the trail is being able to see through the trees to Fleur de Lys as you're walking back.

You won't see any of that at Peggy's Cove.

Living here, we often don't see the attraction of the place. We don't see what those from up-a-long are blown away by. Really now, in many ways visiting places like Westport and Fleur de Lys are like steps back to the past.

That's not to say they aren't modern, vibrant communities. They are that. But they're much more. They're fishing communities, working tremendously hard to make a living the same way Newfoundlanders have made a living for centuries. They're the face of this province. And they're everywhere. 10,000 of them and counting.

Finally!  A decent day.  So off we went for our "final" trip to Western Brook Pond for the year. It was so nice though, that we'll probably do it again. We'll be going to the park in two weeks anyway for K9SAR training, so it obviously won't be our final trip to the park. 

We were the ONLY ones on the trail, in and out. It was perfect walking weather. Piqa chased one moose. Not very far, mind you. She's too timid for that. She ran at it just far enough to make it move, and then came back when called.

...and beautiful colours

There are a few loops you can take on your trips across the island. They're wonderful, but they're time consuming if you're just making your normal day trip from one side of her to the other.

Around the Isthmus of Avalon and near Placentia Bay, Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, there are a few little jaunts you can take off the TCH that will take only a half hour to an hour and will be very rewarding. There are some beautiful communities along this portion of the highway that you'll never see unless you make the effort.

On this trip across the island we made a side trip to Southern Harbour. It's only two KM off the highway. What a pleasant surprise!  It's a fairly large community, looking fairly prosperous, but I imagine struggling from season to season as are most fishing communities. One fisherman, who was working on his boat, told me that he had difficulty selling his fish this year, and that they got only 50c a pound for their crab. Hardly worth it, he said, when you have to put fuel (at today's prices) in those big boats.

You always get in touch with this province when you make those side trips, and you get in touch with what makes it tick and the character of the people when you take the time to have a chat with someone working on his boat, or with someone cleaning squid, or drying fish.

This is a great time of year to make a few day trips. The colours are peaking and there hasn't been enough wind yet to strip away the reds.  For a few days every fall you can get all the colours, until we get our first big wind and the reds go. Now is perfect. When you're out for a stroll taking in the colours, make sure you look low as well as high. Make sure you get close as well as far.  Some of the best shots will come from close-ups of contrasting colours, like this shot of caribou moss contrasting with some low reds that Carol took. 

We also made a little more extended "sidetrip" when we went to Toronto for a wedding. We spent a lovely day wandering the farmer's market at St. Jacobs. This is in the middle of Mennonite country, and the features of the market were the Mennonite stalls and the little horse drawn buggies. If you lived in the area, you could certainly stock your home every weekend with the best of produce, meats, cheeses, etc. As it was, being from down-along, we could only take advantage of the apple fritters (with ice-cream and maple syrup), and the cabbage rolls and the pierogies and the Oktoberfest sausages. Fella could eat all day.

Time for a trip to the park. Maybe a little hike around Stuckless Wigwam while the colours are still peaking. Pity the troutin' season is over.

We are "Day Trippers"

What a wonderful day! 

It's a full day from here in Pasadena to make the trip to Little Bay Islands, but it's a day perfectly spent.

We left about 10:00 am and first stopped at Fort Birchy to let Piqa have a quick run and a swim. The campground was empty of course. They usually close right after Labour Day. There are plenty of great sites in the campground. We figured we might spend some time there next year, especially if we want to make some day trips on the Baie Verte Peninsula.

Then we went on to Springdale and had a quick lunch at Kaitlyn's and confirmed ferry times to Little Bay Islands. We weren't sure if we could get by without taking the car across. We were told we'd be much better off taking the car, and that was good advice. The ferry doesn't land right in the community, but on the near side of the island. It would be quite a walk to Little Bay Islands itself. The road to the ferry isn't the best; the road on Little Bay Islands is great.

We went to Coffee Cove on the way to the ferry, because we had some extra time.

The spirit of Newfoundland is still alive. We met an old fella at Coffee Cove. Coffee Cove has about five houses, one of which is a huge new white house that dominates the cove and looks out over the mussel farm. Within seconds of striking up a chat with the old fella, we had been invited to come and visit him at any time and stay with him in his three bedroom bungalow. He has nine daughters spread all over North America. He must be lonely now. The offer of a stay included a meal of fish. He also offered to let us set up our camper in his backyard and to run an electricity cord for us. (All of this, it goes without saying, was "at no charge".)  And all this was BEFORE he found out he knew my sister and that she had treated one of his grandchildren. He wanted us to buy the house next door; he said he'd take us out around the island, but he was afraid the wind was going to come up and he wasn't comfortable in his small boat anymore. He regretted the mussel farm, because now the seiners no longer came into the cove in the night time. It was so beautiful. He had to run to take in his fish because it looked like rain. 

Little Bay Islands is close to an idyllic Newfoundland community. It seems the more isolated the outports are, the prettier and more traditional they are. That was certainly the case here.

There is also a sense of humour, or mischief, or whimsy in the community. I'm sure we didn't see the half of it, but it was evident in signs, in gardens, boat names. If you went to a kitchen party in Little Bay Islands, I'm sure there would be yarns and humour a plenty. You just feel that way walking around. I'd love to teach there. Small school (nine students we were told - K-12), and two teachers. If anyone there reads this, and if you ever need a full time teacher or a long term substitute, just give me a call.

Don't expect a restaurant in Little Bay Islands. Pity! One could spend a lot of time sitting and watching the harbour.  Carol says she DID see a convenience store, but I missed it. We walked around several sections of the community. We did three short hikes. The hikes were nice, mostly boardwalk. The boardwalk wasn't pet friendly though; Piqa had to do the crab to keep from losing a leg down between the cracks in the boards. All the hikes were shorter than we expected and this was a little disappointing. The view from the hill overlooking Little Bay Islands is spectacular, and the hike is quite easy as it's off the main road which just about takes you up and over that same hill.

We also hiked out the lighthouse trail off the far end of the community. This is also a short hike and there's no lighthouse. Then we hiked up to the highest point on the island for the "bay view". This was intense but short (uphill - boardwalk). The view up there is encompassing, but not spectacular. Maybe if you're from up-a-long you'd find it spectacular.

Then, because we still had an hour to kill before the ferry, we figured we'd take the four km hike along the shore, but this was a poorly maintained trail and we went only a short distance. We actually had some trouble determining the initial track of the trail. We came back along the shore for a short distance.

We were the only car on the return trip.

The ferry certainly isn't expensive for an old fella like me. The senior's rate, return, including the car and passenger, was $16.00.  If you could figure some other way off the island, you wouldn't even have to pay it at all, as they only collect on the return trip.

It was a great day. It was surprising that there wasn't even a place on the island you could stop in and have a tea or coffee or some other kind of snack. There were also no craft stores of any kind. This was both the attraction of the place and the disappointment. Ah, the irony of it all.

The remainder of the shots of Little Bay Island and Coffee Cove are HERE.

Cow Head is at the North end of Gros Morne National Park. It's the home of the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, the success of which has spawned myriad theatre festivals and both serious and traditional entertainment for locals and visitors. You can certainly find something to do just about any evening during the summer evenings in Gros Morne, but you'd probably start with either Neddy Norris Night or The Wreck of the Ethie (dinner theatre), in Cow Head.

There's also a campground there, one of the nicest in the park. The campground is on Shallow Bay and boasts a beach the equal of any, anywhere (albeit the water is a little colder). The campground has both a day use area and a camping areas with showers, and cooking and cleaning areas. There are no hookups.

We just spend a marvellous Labour Day weekend there, blessed with great weather and just enough wind and coolness in the air to keep the flies in their nests.

There are several nice day hikes you can do. You could certainly hike the beach for a few hours, all the way to the Northern headland. Or you could go into  Cow Head and find the trail past the amphitheatre up over Cow Head itself to the old lighthouse.  There's a lookout area up there which will give you a panorama of the area, seeing as far away as St. Paul's Inlet and beyond to the South, and overlooking the campground and Shallow Bay to the North. It's still a mystery to me why there were only 14 campsites occupied on this beautiful weekend. A pleasant surprise to us was that camping rates are reduced if you have a season's pass. It was indeed too much to  expect to have to pay $24.00 for a campsite along with your daily pass fees. (I guess you still have to do that if you don't have a season's pass.) I don't know if this is the case at all the campsites and in all the National Parks. It should be. Camping would be out of reach for many at $45.00 plus per night. Good move Parks Canada if you've done it everywhere. Maybe you're just trying to protect the locals while gouging the rich tourists. Well, you've got it half right. Then again, maybe you're trying to reward those clever enough to get the season's pass early enough. And you CAN do that online. (Getting the family season's pass online, especially the early bird pass would be a great move for visitors.) We'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say it's the latter.

From Cow Head/Shallow Bay, it's also just a very short hop to the Western Brook Trail and the boat tour. On this early September weekend the parking lot was chock-a-block full. Lots of motor homes and CFAs. Where are they all camping?  There's a little "campground" with hookups just about out by the wharf in Cow Head. It's just a few parking spots really, with hookups. I guess that's what people in those big rigs want. I've said many times, they're not campers, they're travellers. A few hookups in a campground like Shallow Bay would bring them in there I guess, where they could enjoy the camping experience along with the convenience of their three-way hookups (for their satellite dishes, TVs, microwaves, etc.) If you're camping in Shallow Bay, it's also an easy hop to Hawkes Bay and beyond if you wish. Port a Choix has the Point Riche lighthouse and a hike along the seashore to Phillip's Garden (an archeological dig).

It's easy to see how you could spend a week of more of great daytime travel and hiking and get your culture (local or classical) in the evenings. There's even lots of craft shopping for those so inclined.

It just keeps getting better and better. And there's still no McDonalds.

Neddy's Harbour, looking across at Norris Point.

Carol and I spent our first weekend in the park since we've been home. We were there for a weekend's K9SAR training with Piqa, so we spent the weekend at Herbert and Bettina's with the camper parked outside their front door. It was a busy weekend, but there was time on Sunday afternoon to take a short stroll around Neddy's Harbour and take a few shots.  The weather, which was horrible all weekend, cooperated for just an hour or so.

Neddy's Harbour is just around the bend from Norris Point.  Neddy Norris. It's a great place both to visit and to stay.  There are several local "cottages" for rent, including Herbert and Bettina's Perfect Getaway. There aren't many places to eat. When Herbert and Bettina finish the renovation of their inn, it will be a magnificent place to stay, to be entertained, and possibly to eat. I'm not sure if they'll have a restaurant there or not. The Inn is magnificently located, commanding views of both ends of the bay. All around the bay now you can visit communities that are rapidly developing accommodations, restaurants, and entertainment for summer park visitors.

Last week Carol and I made a quick trip to Trout River, just to get back in the park after our five months in BC. We visited our favourite restaurant, The Seaside, and had their Fisherman's Scoff.  The still increasing popularity of the restaurant and their expansion may necessitate a larger kitchen. The service was a little slow. It's still our favourite restaurant, but we just won't be going there quite as often. The combination of their rising prices and the price of a tank of gas make it a little prohibitive for us. It's an expensive day  trip now. You can't really begrudge them their prices though.  The cost of operating a restaurant in Trout River, and having it open only five months of the year, must demand a decent return. The food was wonderful.

Neddy's Harbour, looking South. Click on any of the pictures below to see them full sized.

You may see a few more pictures of Neddy's Harbour HERE.

If you'd like to see some shots of our return from BC, including Jasper National Park and Yellowstone, click HERE.

Picture of the Week

Lobster Pots

Winter hiking can be more fun than summer hiking, and not so perfect day can still offer some great photo opportunities (even if you do have to do a little more "post processing").

One of our favourite winter hikes is the "hike" into Lomond Campground, on the south side of Gros Morne National Park.  We just hike the road that leads into the campground. Some days you may need snowshoes; you may want to use cross country skis; you may choose to just wear your winter boots. This time it was snowing lightly all the way in and out. The hike in took about an hour; the hike out about an hour and fifteen minutes. You don't realize on the way in that you're going slightly down hill most of the way; you certainly realize it on the way out. Piqa loves this hike. It's wide open, and there are lots of interesting tracks to follow.

The several times we've done this hike, we wore our winter boots. Monday was a good day. There had been a few skidoos over the road, so that provided a little firmness. The road had been plowed at least once, a few weeks before probably, so until you got to the turn off to Kildevil, there wasn't that much snow on the road anyway. It was only the last couple of hundred meters down to the campsite that provided a challenge. The road was so covered with moose tracks that we had the "pothole" effect in the snow. You had to watch your footing.

The cookhouse was enclosed as a shelter; there's a door. I guess you could still use the stoves in there if you brought in your wood.  What I think was a cross-country ski track drag was leaning up against the gate at the beginning of the road, so I guess there's a prepared track laid at some point. On our way out we saw that two cross country skiers had come in the road about 100 yards and then turned around. I wonder what happened?

There are precautions you need to take when hiking in the winter; make sure you speak to experienced winter hikers, skiers, before you do anything extended.

Because of our temperate climate, you can have many enjoyable days in our Newfoundland winter.

(I've removed the Lomond pictures and inserted pictures I took just yesterday hiking on the snowmobile trails heading east from Pasadena. The trails are pretty good, even though there hasn't been enough snow yet to merit grooming. There are a few "yesmans" along the trails and occasional tiny gullies where there is still running water. I wouldn't hesitate to go for a run, though, if I felt so inclined.)

The Queen Mary II in Corner Brook

On the beach at the Ocean View Campground, Leading Tickles

It's at the end of the road. It's near the edge of the world.

During one of the nights we stayed at the Ocean View campground, we thought we were going to be blown off the edge of the world. But that's a poor way to start; we were in the campground for four days; we were the ONLY campers there; the entire place was ours. Piqa was ecstatic.

We went to Leading Tickles to camp and to see one stage of Targa Newfoundland. Both experiences were truly wonderful.

The campground featured 16 campsites, four immaculate showers, two immaculate washrooms, a HUGE park facility (a hall), that they served all the drivers and spectators for Targa from, and a young family of Osprey. There are two beaches, one on each side of the spit of land that the campground is on, hence the frequent high winds that whistle between the two headlands on the island. (Ocean View Campground is actually on Cull Island.) The picture above doesn't give you a true picture of the beaches; they feature black rock and black sand and are quite "swim able" on days when the wind isn't howling.  There's a short hiking trail that takes you to the top of the headland, near where the Osprey were playing and fishing; there's a magnificent view of the area, including the numerous islands, and Triton just across the Bay. Triton is about a three hour drive by car; it looked to be about an hour or less by boat.

Leading Tickles itself is a prosperous and beautiful little fishing community. To get there you take the exit to Botwood, follow the signs to Point Leamington and Leading Tickles. The road ends at Leading Tickles. The drive through Botwood and on to Northern Arm and Point Leamington is quite nice. The drive from Point Leamington to Leading Tickles (this was the stage of Targa), is over the "mountains" and through the woods, on a narrow, twisty road. It's not a particularly nice drive, but it's only 30 km so the trip to Leading Tickles is worth it. Leading Tickles and Glover's Harbour (a short side trip before you get to Leading Tickles) have a decent fishery, and the fish plant processes all the fish from the area as well as that from the South Coast, so they're very busy. 

The lady at the campground was very good to us; she even went out and brought us back a few movies. She made sure we were perfectly comfortable in the campground and recommended the site to use to make sure our camper wasn't blown away by the wind. Site 10 is the best site, but it's also the one most exposed; we would have liked to have stayed there, but we didn't. It would be perfect for a bigger vehicle, one that doesn't flop in the wind the way a tent trailer does. 

During the days we made the trip to Glover's Harbour and saw the giant squid, had a long chat with  two fishermen who were getting ready  to go out after mackerel in their  big boats; with the price of gas, they  said, they had to be sure of a good catch to warrant going out. Their boats took about 300 gallons. That's a lot of money to put into a run out the bay at today's prices.

We hiked the short trail up to the headland; we also did part of a longer trail (Nature Trail), that makes its way from the end of the community all the way back to the campground. This was very  lovely too. The "walking trail" portion of it is labeled as "moderate", while the hiking trail portion is called "strenuous". We hiked only about 20 minutes in and 20 minutes out. We enjoyed it.

This was a very nice four days; we'll go back there, maybe for Targa Newfoundland again next year.

At the end of our hike on the Nature Trail (at the end of the road, Leading Tickles)

This was just one stage of a multi-stage race, the longest stage. The road from Point Leamington to Leading Tickles is closed about mid-morning. The cars leave Point Leamington, slowest first, at 30 second intervals. It's done in this order to minimize the amount of time the roads will be closed; the other way, fastest first, the field would spread rather than compress.

From our vantage point near the causeway between Leading Tickles and Cull Island, we could see the cars race by the fish plant, across the causeway, and on up the hill to the finish line.

The cars are raced in several "classes", ranging from the old classic cars, to "stock" cars, to modified  racers, Porsches and the like. All the cars are also licensed for highway driving, so they proceed from one stage to the next at civilized speeds along regular roads. Targa Newfoundland is one of only three such races in the world, the other two being in New Zealand and Australia. It is the only one raced on tarmac. Drivers from all over the world come to Newfoundland to participate in the unique racing experience.

Before they start the stage back to Point Leamington, the drivers have about a two hour rest stop at Ocean View campground; they're fed, WELL fed. Most of the local church groups contribute to the fare: there's Jigg's Dinner, fish and chips, moose stew, moose soup, moose meatballs, and too many desserts to mention.  The cars and drivers are all accessible. All of the drivers are wonderfully friendly; they enjoy their cars and they enjoy talking about them.  They'll pose; they'll let you look at their cars, sit in them, and they'll answer your questions.  They help each other. Several of the cars needed repairs; they share parts; they stop on the road to help their buddies in trouble. One car was rather seriously damaged; before the two hours were over, it was back in the race. (See the picture at bottom.)

The road closing must take some planning, along with the cooperation of local communities. All the driveways are taped up; all the side roads are taped; several vehicles travel the length of the stage with sirens and lights, letting folks know the road is closed. Residents of Leading Tickle, for example, would be "trapped" in their community for about three hours in the morning and about two in the afternoon.  We had to be in at our vantage point by 10:30. It was 12:00 before we saw a race car. After that things happened fairly quickly, as the 66 vehicles that passed our spot did so in rapid order. They had bunched up quite nicely by this point of the race; there were several passes on the stretches near us.

Those of us who went to the campground for lunch, were given timed warnings as to the re-closing of the road, so you had to get out of there, back to your vantage point if you wanted watch the race go in the other direction; we chose to stay and look at the cars and talk to the drivers.

Within a hour after all the cars left, the campground was cleaned up and essentially empty, except for one little tent trailer sitting on site number five. There we stayed for two more days, four days in all that were interrupted for about five hours by the marvelously oiled machinery of Targa Newfoundland. The came fast; they left fast; they cleaned up fast. We highly recommend this event, and there's no place better to watch one stage than Leading Tickles. Maybe we'll see you there next year. There were fifteen empty campsites this time around. Pity! There are only sixteen campsites.

The pictures below are thumbnails. Click on any picture to see it full sized.

Many of our Leading Tickles/Targa pictures have been uploaded to our SmugMug site. You can access them HERE.

(We've added the first of the pictures from this weekend's ElopeFest right here. The password is Ara's last name (all lower case). These are just the group shots. It will take another day or two before all 250+ pictures have been uploaded.)

Just happened to come across this family at a wedding on Lawrencetown Beach in Nova Scotia. Fine looking crew they are too.

Pit stop? Home away from home? Or back to nature?

First let's talk about camping. Then we'll talk about Shallow Bay.

May we establish some credentials? Carol and I have camped in Shennandoah National Park, in Yellowstone, in Zion Canyon, in the Grand Canyon, in the Rockies, in Northern Ontario, in Quebec, in just about every provincial park in Newfoundland, and in many places between all those destination sites. There is no better place to camp than in Newfoundland!!!

Having gone out on that limb, a little hedging may be in order.

What do folks look for when they're camping?  The answer defines the different types of campers.

First, there's the parking lot camper. This is not judgmental. Some "campers" have invested a lot of money in their rigs. They have huge motor homes that expand like a transformer; they pull dinky little cars behind them; they live in them. In fact, some of these folks have nothing else in the way of a permanent residence. They're travellers. This is what they do. They see campgrounds as a convenience, a place to come back to after they've done their touring in their dinkies. (Well, we see more and more "I go where I'm towed" vehicles in the SUV category.) For them glorified parking lots are perfect. If they have cable television, cable modems or high speed wireless, so much the better to contact you with my dear. Don't judge them!  They have what they want. They're seeing the world; they have their home on wheels. Some are wealthy; some just have everything they own with them. Wal-Mart parking lots are fine for them.  It's a nice life style, cramped a little these days by the price of gasoline.

Then, there's the "get away from it all" crowd. They just want to get away from the city.

Last year, Carol and I camped at Danforth Bay in New Hampshire, and The Northpole Campground near Lake Placid. These were nice campgrounds. The sites were relatively good, apart from the one section that was for the big rigs. They featured a lot of "livyers", the all summer long folks who had permanent campsites and in some cases even mobile cottages. They had their cable, their internet, their golf carts to go to the camp store, small swimming areas and swimming pools, great washrooms, etc. They were wooded. They were far enough way from the cities so that you could not see the city lights. You can perfectly understand that, can't you?  Weekends away from the city? The noise? The smells?  So, these "get away from it all" folks, have found their Shangri La. Good for them. We enjoyed our stay at both places, and there are many more such places that come highly recommended in camping directories such as the Trailer Life directory. Getting away from it all doesn't actually mean "all". You must have your cell phones, and be able to watch your ball games and movies. It's the escape that's important. (Did I already tell you my Danforth Bay story, where they have the golf carts?  Out for a morning stroll around the campsite with Piqa, on a beautiful fall day in New Hampshire, with the foliage in all its glory, we came across one of those mobile cottages. And there was mister camper with his leaf blower, blowing leaves off his campsite. From all around his boat he blew them, from around his golf cart, from around his SUV, from all around his cottage. Dang leaves! The nerve!)

Do we want to talk about "gravel pit campers"? Or, as the Americans call it, "dry camping"? They're a different lot all together. What are they in search of? The everlasting party or cheap thrills? Do they get off on highway noises? Closet Nascar fans? They just don't want to get hooked up. (In deference to the gravel pit campers, I have to comment about camp fees. I love Gros Morne. The camp fees are absurd. $23.00 for an unserviced lot, vs. $23.00 US we paid for fully serviced (cable, etc.) at Danforth Bay. AND you pay a park entry fee. AND, this tops it all for me, it costs $11.00 just for the convenience of making a reservation. That's right! If you phone and make a reservation, they charge you for phoning and making a reservation. Non-refundable. Absolute bummer! If you don't show up, you're charged for the first two days, and you MAY get the remainder back, if you ask politely. Federal parks, federal tax money, federal employees. Nice place though! A few years back they tried to charge you just to drive through the parks. They couldn't get away with that.) 

Ultimately you come to those who just like the camping experience. They're not altogether unlike the "get away from it all" folks, but they're not as concerned with the amenities. (In many cases they don't really need to get away from it all. Newfoundlanders, for example, have already gotten away from it all. The entire province is "cottage country".) Pit toilets are fine, if they're well maintained, and all the campsites in Gros Morne are well maintained. They want private and roomy campsites; they don't like crowds; they like the vistas, the hiking, the serenity. They want the moose, the birds, the wildflowers. They want an open fire, "s'mores", dark rum or fine wine under an open sky. They can live like this. Tents are fine. Actually, tents are not only convenient, for some they're a way of snubbing their noses at the motor homes, a kind of "You don't really understand, do you?" statement and question, wrapped into one.

Green Point in Gros Morne National park is for the latter. Shallow Bay is for the latter with children, or Berry Hill if the chilluns don't like beaches and water.

Now let's talk about Shallow Bay.

It's shallow. That's a necessary redundancy because of the implications. Swimming in the North Atlantic is usually just for the polar bear club. In July and August, at Shallow Bay, because it's an enclosed, shallow bay, the water actually warms up. You'll see children swimming there. You can walk for miles (quite literally) on the beach. There's sand. Not tiny rocks. Real sand. (Now don't misunderstand me: It's still the North Atlantic, not Florida.) You'll see fishing boats leaving Cow Head and coming back with their catches of herring, crab, lobster, or whatever's in season. You can see the mountains behind you; the Strait of Belle Isle in front of you. Go into Cow Head; hike up over the headlands; magnificent!

Your campsites are large and private. You have real toilets and a shower. You do not have cable, or wireless, or even electricity. (If you need electricity and water, go to Spirity Pond KOA near Rocky Harbour, and Gros Morne Resort, just down the road from Shallow Bay, is opening of has opened an RV Park. They even have camping cabins there (Spirity Pond). It's not a bad place; it has a parking lot for the big rigs and three way hookups.) 

Shallow Bay is a short hop away from the Western Brook Pond trail and boat tour, a short drive away from Rocky Harbour where you can go to the fish plant and buy some nice fresh fish for your supper and lobster at $6.50 a pound when it's in season. It's free when it isn't.  (We recommend the halibut if they have any, and the cheap mussels, and please try the cod tongues. You probably won't like the big cod tongues, but you may like the little ones. Fry them well. Cod cheeks, on the other hand, are a delicacy; treat them with respect.) Cow Head has wonderful entertainment. There's dinner theatre and evening shows such as Neddy Norris night. You can get a decent meal at the Motel and there's a take out fish and chips place along the main road.

If you don't intend to camp at the Shallow Bay Campground, there's also a wonderful day use area, with picnic tables, washrooms, showers (I think), and an semi-enclosed cooking/eating area. The beach is right there too.

Now this is as nice as the PEI beaches, but not as crowded; as nice as Shediac, as nice as Kouchibuquac (however you spell it), as nice as New Jersey, Florida, or wherever the hard bodies congregate. You just won't see many co-eds or have to worry about broken beer bottles and dumping gulls. (Well, wherever you go you may have to keep an eye out for broken beer bottles. Pity that. And these are campers, not exhibitionists - well, you can keep your eyes open for those too. We did see two nude sunbathers there once; certainly not hard bodies though. Pity that. They needed bell buoys or warning lights or something. Fog horns perhaps. Somebody called GreenPeace to rescue them.) Sandbanks Provincial Park in Burgeo is just as nice. Northern Bay Sands on the East Coast has black/blue sand. Probably the water temperature turned it blue.

(Stay tuned! This will be continued and photographs inserted when we get back from Shallow Bay. Y'all take care now, y'hear. We're gone.)

Well, we're almost back! One more night. And I guess I was wrong. Shallow Bay obviously isn't one of the best campgrounds in North America. It was practically empty. The lovely, grassy field, where big rigs can park, was empty. Completely. I would estimate that the campground was one quarter filled. At it's busiest time of day, the beach may have had twenty people on it. There were a few kids in the playground. These were two beautiful days, sunny and warm. The water was swimmable. And there was no one here. Sigh!

There are three possible explanations for this:  One, I'm completely wrong in my assessment of the campground; two, the cost of camping here is indeed completely unreasonable (the $23.00 fee PLUS the day pass, amounting to almost thirty dollars or more, depending on the number and type of day pass you purchase (After all, you can camp just outside the park with full hookups for less, and still visit the beach with or without day passes.); three, people REALLY like their hookups.

I refuse to contemplate the first explanation; the second applies to everyone; the third applies only to those who need the full hookups. So number two wins. Does that make sense to you? Maybe Berry Hill is more attractive; it's a wonderful campground, but it doesn't  have the beach. Maybe the entire park is empty? Maybe the cottages, hotel rooms, B&Bs are completely full? Let's hope that is the case.

I guess not everyone is as enamored of camping as we are. Regardless, we had a wonderful three days, a great campfire/sing-a-long with our guests last night, and we'll have some lovely peace and quiet tonight. Maybe another campfire.

Talk to you later. Maybe we'll talk at a campfire somewhere, over a glass of Screech.

A family group from Texas, Illinois, Florida, Ontario, Nova Scotia, with strong roots in Newfoundland. They're back from the Western Brook Pond boat trip.

Click HERE for the link to Mac and Cindy's password protected 25th wedding anniversary pictures.

July 30, 2005

Norris Point is quite growing on us. A few years ago, for us, it was a place in the park we visited once in a while because that's where my Grandmother was born. Other folks were much more perceptive than we. They moved there; they set up businesses.  Memorial built its Marine Research facility there and that is now the focal point of the  community. Now it seems Norris Point is a hub of activity. It doesn't yet have the proliferation of restaurants, craft stores, cabins, accommodations, etc., that Rocky Harbour does, but it's getting there. It's a perfect getaway. Just ask Herbert and Bettina who have great houses/cabins for rent; ask Sue Randall as she watches her kayaks on the bay.

Yesterday there was a three masted schooner in port, bringing its clients to another scenic spot along the bays of the Atlantic provinces. The water taxi was making its way across to Woody Point; the Emm Cat was returning from its tour. 

So now we tell you, when you visit Gros Morne National Park, make sure you visit Norris Point. Visit the research centre and aquarium; take the water taxi across to Woody Point; enjoy the tour and the entertainment on the Emm Cat. Rent yourself a house or a cabin for a week or two; make it the centre of your Gros Morne experience. (Go somewhere else to eat. Pittman's is the only restaurant we've found in Norris Point; it isn't bad. We've only eaten there once. "Adequate" describes it. Go back to Rocky Harbour, or take the boat to Woody Point and eat at The Loft.)

There's a nice hiking trail leading up and around Burnt Hill. It gives you a wonderful view of Norris Point and, as you circle around, of Neddy's Harbour. It leaves from just to the left of the water taxi dock. If you want more exercise than that, rent a kayak for a couple of hours or take a kayak lesson or join a tour. It's all available to you, right in the heart of Gros Morne and the Long Range mountains.

Altogether wonderful it is.

The pictures below are thumbnails. Click on any picture to see it full sized.

The sun came out at 11:50. The elite women athletes were in the water at 12:00, and the 2005 Corner Brook World Cup Triathlon with its usual superb roster of world class endurance athletes was off to its usual superb start. Corner Brook with its unequaled base of volunteers and organizers continues to host and run world class events. This year's event is being picked up by sport's networks all over the world and was broadcast live on the Internet.

Now, if you had a set of those tweezers, or calipers, or clamps, or whatever they're called, you wouldn't be able to gather up enough loose flesh on any of those athletes to do a decent skin graft on your pinkie. You know, they go a lap of the pond (swimming), just to loosen up? They swim, bike, and run for over two hours. It doesn't seem to me that it's a matter of conditioning; they all do the course and do it effortlessly.  It's a matter of being a world class athlete in better condition and perhaps having slightly better skills than the other world class athletes. We walked from the swimming venue to the bicycle staging area; it's about 500 meters; up hill. It takes a little effort. This crowd does that after swimming (at top speed), for about a half hour, and they do it while they're stripping themselves of wet suits. They finished the stripping (just the wet suits) in the staging area, and run their bikes to the start of the race venue. They then bike 40 km, over one of the hilliest courses on the world cup circuit.

You feel up to 10 km of running after that?

The best of them seem to excel in the run and that's where they make up the ground they've lost in the swim and bike segments. The swimmers want to get far enough in front so they  can hold onto their lead in the bike and run; the bikers want to be able to catch the swimmers and get enough of a lead so they can hold off the runners; they runners don't want to get so far behind that they can't catch the swimmers and the bikers. It's great sport. If you know the strengths/weaknesses of the athletes, then your enjoyment of the event increases.

You've got to be a little knowledgeable to appreciate what's happening out there, and Corner Brook spectators have 20 years or so of watching the various developments of the sport and the better levels of competition so they do know what's going on; the elite athletes return year after year, some years being more important that others. Some of the host families grow quite attached to their athletes. The athletes appreciate the event in a small city like Corner Brook because of the interest and the level of support they get.

There was a new component added this year - the duathlon. (I don't even know if that's spelled correctly; someone will let me know.) That attracted many more athletes in preparation for next year's World Championship to be held in Corner Brook. It will be a HUGE event, bringing thousands of athletes to the city over a period of two weeks. It will be exciting.

The pictures below are thumbnails. Click on any picture to see it full sized.

There are more pictures HERE.

...is more stories like this.

She wanted mountains. He wanted ocean. (She's from the west; he's from the east.)

She wanted Europe; he wanted Africa.

Newfoundland? Sure! It's got both.

"Find me a photographer," says Alicia.

"OK," says Brian. "I think there's someone in the Nikon Forum from Newfoundland. Let me see."

E-mails were exchanged. Suggestions were made. A nice scenic spot you'd like? Well, there are plenty of those around here. Can you get someone to hike to the top of Gros Morne to perform the wedding? Probably not. Well then, close to Corner Brook? How about Captain Cook's monument. Here are some pictures of a few locations. If the weather's good, I'd suggest the monument.

So, on a nice sunny, windy day, at Captain Cook's monument, Brian and Alicia were married by Mayor Butcher, with Art and Carol as photographers and witnesses. Alicia wore a beautiful, simple white dress; her wonderful bouquet she arranged herself with flowers she purchased at Dominion. Alicia was stunning. They made a beautiful couple.

The original plans called for the platform, but when we got there students from the Fine Arts School at Sir Wilfred Grenfell were about to perform their summer play. They toasted the young couple. We moved the wedding a little farther out, onto the rocks. It turned out to be nicer there. You can't come 3000km and expect everything to work out; but it did.

Brian and Alicia, from Colorado, were married at Captain Cook's Monument in Corner Brook.

The next day Brian and Alicia continued their Newfoundland tour camping in Gros Morne, and then on to Burgeo where they went sea kayaking.

They stopped by our house for lunch and to look at their pictures. Wedding photography is easy when there's only two people. Weddings are nice that way too.

They're safely home now.

It was a thrill for us to be a part of this. It was a striking ceremony in a beautiful location between two lovely people.

We wish you all the best. Let's hope the rest of your lives together continues as wonderful and exciting as it started.

(The full gallery of Brian and Alicia's wedding is on our SmugMug site, but you'll have to get the password for that gallery directly from Brian or Alicia. We will not direct you there or give you the password without their permission.)

Our Trip to St. Anthony, June 2005

Newfoundland is still about three things: the fishery, forestry, and natural resources.

Having been born and raised here, and lived and taught here most of my life, but spending most of it in two "cities", two paper towns, I feel incredibly "stund" (a Newfoundland word meaning going around most of the time like you've been hit over the head with a two by four - synonyms = dense, stupid - usage: stund as me arse). I'm stund (some spell it "stunned"), because I know nothing about the fishery, nothing about its significance and importance, and nothing about what's happened to it and what's continuing to happen. But I'm not going to preach; that's just a fact. Newfoundland is about the fishery. If you go at all off the beaten paths, you discover that.

This week we camped in Green Point, in Gros Morne National Park. Green Point is a primitive campground; there are no services except a few taps and pit toilets. The campsites are beautiful. They're large and private. A few of them are open right to the ocean; most of them have views of the ocean through the trees. There are fire pits and drains for grey water.  Folks who camp at this campground, the only park campground open yet, REALLY like it here. We love it for its size (small), privacy, and the wonderful hiking trail from Green Point to Baker's Brook through the woods and along the "beach".

This week the campground was a staging area really. We went to Cow Head on Tuesday; drove to St. Anthony on Wednesday and took a few side tours and hikes along the way, were treated to an impromptu show by the Newfoundland Air Force (our fleet of water bombers putting out a small forest fire), and went on into St. Anthony before coming back to the motel for the night. We really did all this just so we could have a shower.

The next morning we went back into St. Anthony, visited the ceramic mural in the rotunda of the hospital, and went to Norstead in L'Anse Aux Meadows (worth a story all by itself, Newfoundland's Viking communities), visited Abiel Taylor's carvings in Raleigh, and came back to Green Point along the East side of the Peninsula so we could make side trips to Roddickton, Englee, Bide Arm, and whatever else was along the way.

Over the next few days we'll be adding the two new hiking trails we discovered to our Hiking Trails page, I'll try to do a feature on the rotunda and the incredible mural, and we'll do quick little features on Englee and Roddickton. We also discovered a few new wildflowers to add to our Flora page. One trail was up around Cow Head, and the other was along the Torrent River all the way to the falls and the salmon ladder. The flowers include marsh marigold and a little purple flower that we're still trying to figure out.

In the meantime, just enjoy this quick little synopsis and the pictures on this page. It was a pretty full week with enough experiences to keep our page busy for a week or so.

This is the forest fire on the Great Northern Peninsula and one of two water bombers working the fire. Check out the thumbnail below to see just how low they come in to release their load.

Click on any of the pictures below to see them full sized.

If you would like to see additional pictures of our trip to the Great Northern Peninsula or like to see any of these in different sizes, just click HERE.

The Rotunda, Curtis Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony

So, he has done Our Lady of the Sky Chapel at Kennedy Airport in New York, done works for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and centerpieces for magnificent architecture around the world, and the Rotunda of Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony Newfoundland you say?  Now why would he possibly have done all those other places?

I felt the same way seeing this ceramic mural as I felt when I saw Gerry Squires' Shennandithit in the middle of the woods at Boyd's Cove. Shennandithit was in her natural environment, but it was still a surprise to come across her there. Where better actually. (See her pictures and links in our photo gallery.)

Jordi Bonet's mural depicting the native peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador is equally in place in the Rotunda of the hospital, across from the  Grenfell properties. Both Sir Wilfred Grenfell and Charles Curtis worked in Labrador and in northern Newfoundland and are internationally recognized for their service and heroism. 

This is a ceramic mural, covering the entire rotunda, broken only by a few doorways and an information area. Pity that.  This is not a HUGE rotunda; you could fit a fair sized bungalow in there. It's dimly lit; that's deliberate; I asked if I could take a few pictures and was told it was OK.  That surprised me also.  I see more in the pictures than I could see standing there in the twilight of the rotunda. I don't know if the colours in the photographs are accurate, not having been able to see the original properly. The photos show the interesting play of colours in the ceramics; they make me realize I should have spent a lot more time looking at the detail in the mural.

You know, to draw an absurd comparison, one of the best ballplayers in present day baseball was virtually unknown when he played for Montreal. This is one of the great works of modern art, virtually unknown because of where it is. Don't neglect seeing it if you're in St. Anthony. Anywhere else in the world they'd have ropes around it and you wouldn't be allowed flash photography. They'd have little conveyor belts to drag you around.

Jordi knew what he was doing.  So did Gerry Squires.

The International Grenfell Association   Jordi Bonet   Letter from Charles S. Curtis

- May 6th, 2005

This is what Newfoundland is. Now I don't know enough about what goes on in a typical fishing community to say very much, but I hope that it's a lot like what we saw going on the past two days. Now mind you, they were just about picture perfect days, so conditions were optimal for the small boats going in and out of the "bay".  And that they did.

On Friday afternoon the boats were coming in with crab; I don't know how long they'd been out. These are small boats, with outboard motors. Well, not tiny boats; large enough to bring in a fair load of crab and several hundred pounds of herring. One after another they came, met at the wharf by what I assumed was a fisheries' inspector. I only assume this because he looked in the hold of the larger boats, so he wasn't just keeping accounts for the fish plant.

The boats pulled up one after another to the winch, where the boys from the fish plant hoisted up the bins and a fork lift ran them in to the plant.

We were told to come back before "dinner" the next day if we wanted lobster. Carol has a passion for lobster.

So around 11:00 the next day we were back on the wharf. The boats started coming in. The first boat unloaded a load of herring, and we thought that was all he had. Then he reached over the front and brought up two bins of lobster, about 180 pounds he said. We asked if he'd sell us a couple. It wasn't a problem. Carol had to run into town (about 100 yds), and get some money from the Interac machine (not an ATM). The lady only had a one hundred dollar bill, but a lady who had just come into the store had the money from her Western Stars and her DownHomers, so between them all Carol got her lobster money.

She bought eight lobster. She cooked all of them tonight. We had four and Carol brought the rest of them to her mother, tomorrow being Mother's Day and all that. Just to think, just this morning the poor little critters were crawling around looking for rotten fish. Oh well!  Life goes on. Or doesn't.

On our way home we stopped at Lomond and hiked to Stanleyville. This is about a 45 minute hike, one way. Altogether this took about two hours. This hike has been covered several times and you'll find it on our "Hiking Trails" page.

What  a glorious two days. We went to the high school drama festival Friday night to see my old friend's group do their play, and it turned out to be a play I had done a couple of times. They did well. It brought back a lot of memories. We were glad we made the effort to get there. We stayed Friday night at Crocker's Cabins, right in Trout River. These are VERY nice cabins, tucked away up in the back corner of town, near the bottom of the lake and the campground/boat tour. It was quiet. In the morning Piqa and I hiked down to the boat launch and just a short distance up the hiking trail. Piqa thought she was in heaven, being able to run that free right out of the cabin door. These cabins are on the neglected side of the park, so they're probably not that well known or used, but they should be.

We continue to discover the wonders of our marvelous province.

You may see other pictures of our visit to Trout River HERE.

It was another day you could see forever. Carol and I and the critter were in the park for our bi-weekly hike and adventure.  We'd just done a fairly uneventful hike, just in to Berry Hill campground and in to the pond. There was lots of moose sign, but no moose. We didn't see an eagle; no caribou; not even a blue jay. It was a nice walk though; Piqa had her run; she just didn't find a moose to chase. Carol and I picked a few nice campsites that would be probably the first ones we'd use in a month or so when we made our first trip to the park in our new camper.

We stopped at Fisherman's Landing for lunch. I had the pan fried cod; Carol had liver and onions. I'm glad she eats that in restaurants.

Then...

Driving back along Bonne Bay, at one of my favourite spots for taking pictures, looking across at grandfather's home and seeing grandmother's home in the foreground, there it was.

Right there in Bonne Bay.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

According to Captain Loof Lirpa, they were conducting trials on entering deep, ice-covered bays. Bonne Bay was perfect for this. It's so deep and so sheltered it's possible to study ocean life forms and various depths, and because it's such old rock, amazing things have been discovered there.

Hence, our first sight of an American nuclear submarine. No wonder there were no moose around, or eagles, or caribou.

In order not to attract too much attention (though they had informed the Canadian government of their intentions) they had only surfaced for about an hour or so, to allow the crew to see the area and get a little breath of fresh air. They were soon on their way.

But to those of us who were fortunate enough to be driving along at that time, it was the strangest sight we'd ever seen in the park, or ever will see. Photographs were forbidden, but I managed to sneak this one. I hope I don't get in any kind of trouble over it.

American Nuclear submarine in Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park.

March 24, 2005 -

It was supposed to be just our regular morning walk to the pond and back. It was a spectacular day, so we (Piqa and I), decided we'd go up the little skidoo trail that leads off to the right from the pond. We had no idea what was up there, but we'd heard there was a falls. What a nice little hike. It added about an hour to our regular stroll. There was a falls, very hard to photograph because it was back lit, and at this point in time it's all snow and ice anyway. I expect it's quite wonderful in early spring. The greatest adventure, however, was not the falls.  It was what greeted us when we stepped back onto the main trail. Two moose. Piqa had a great chase. She immediately turned and ran back to me when one of the moose turned to go in the woods. She thought they were coming after her. She's very brave when things are running away from her. 

For just about a year now, at least once every two weeks, we've been involved with canine search and rescue training with Piqa.  This has been a wonderful experience for all of us. It exercises Piqa's mind and body, and certainly works some of the kinks out of our systems. Along with the exercise, we've come to appreciate the marvelous talents of the dogs, we've learned additional skills in map reading, GPS, and survival techniques, and we've worked with wonderful trainers and colleagues.

Let me walk you through a typical day's training. Yesterday for example.

Yesterday we got up around 8:00 and did some hasty packing. We had to go to Blomidon Brook (at the base of the Blomidon Mountains) for search and rescue training. It was a little difficult because I had been up at 4:00 a.m. for a trip to the airport. The trip to the training site took about an hour and fifteen minutes, including a stop a Tim Horton's for a hot chocolate and a few apple fritters.

We were the first ones at the site and we waited for a few seconds on the road because we didn't want to risk getting stuck in the snow on the way into the parking lot. Christine came along a few seconds later and beat the way in with her truck.

While we were waiting for the others we did a few quick sessions with her dogs. Phoenix is her youngest dog, and he's just started his training.  What we do with him at this point is try to make a game of his going to strangers and returning to his handler. It's just a back and forth session. Soon the "stranger" will disappear after the initial sighting and the dog, knowing the game, will go find him. Slowly the "finds" will become more difficult.

Piqa is well along in her training, and her finds are becoming quite difficult. We've very pleased with her as she now knows her task and sticks with it. We tried quite a long search with her today, just to see if she had the focus and was able to hold it for a longer period of time. She did. Today, however, the search conditions weren't optimal. We train our dogs in air scenting and the way we did the hide today allowed her to track almost all the way. She was taken off track as much as possible and was seen to be visibly working and trying to pick up the air scent. The find though was as a result of the track which she picked up toward the end of the search and then raced to the victim. Me.

As a part of the "find" process, the dog must alert the handler that it has found the victim. The dog will return to the handler, do its alert, and go back to the victim. This process repeats, gradually narrowing the distance between the handler and the victim, until the dog has led the handler right up to the victim.  Piqa's alert is getting better; there's never been any trouble knowing that she found the victim, but her alert hasn't been good. Now, instead of barking, we're having her jump up and "punch" Carol. She's doing that better and better. Other dogs such as Cypher have wonderful alerts. Cypher will practically knock Lisa off her feet and bark continuously. There's no doubting that he's found something.

Today Carol and Lisa and Christine and Krista worked with Piqa, Cypher, Presto, Mythos, Phoenix and Huxley. We worked for four hours, a lot of it on snowshoes and through deep snow. It was fairly windy and the wind was from a direction that made air scenting a little difficult, but we adapted and the dogs did extremely well. Any problems they had were because we didn't set up the searches well enough, but then again, it was difficult to do so because of the wind direction. We can't expect real situations to cooperate either, so in that sense it was a great learning experience for all of us. 

We took a little break for lunch.  Christine brought along some wonderful chili. I warmed up the chili on our Coleman stove, and also threw on a few hotdogs. There were various other snacks. We started a small fire to warm ourselves.

Blomidon is a good venue for training as it's so open and you can watch most of the searches from a distance and observe the dogs' behaviour. It's such a thrill to see them working. Their sense of smell is beyond belief. How they can discriminate between a ground scent, an air scent, the scents of all those around them and the victim, is astounding. They'll ignore all the tracks that have been laid during the day and pick the fresh air scent of the victim out of all the interesting and fresh things that are happening around them. It's mind boggling. And to see a dog focused on the task at hand to the exclusion of everything else makes you realize just what they're capable of with the proper training.

Thanks all for another good day with our dogs.

(Pictures:  Top - The search terrain at Blomidon; Top left - Piqa bouncing off Carol after an alert; Mid right - Cypher alerting Lisa; Mid Left - Presto and Carol and Lisa returning for a successful search; Bottom - Lunch time.)

That was us this afternoon, and it harkened back to 45 years ago when we'd all pile in the car and go for a drive, usually to Botwood or sometimes Gander. The Gander trip to watch folks with chickens or pigs under their arms was a special trip, and a bit tough because it was sixty miles over a dirt road. Gander was The Crossroads of the World, literally. Everyone plane crossing the Atlantic stopped at Gander. ... but I stray.

This afternoon, one of the most glorious days of the winter so far, Carol and cousin Connie (and Piqa of course) and I drove to The Park (again). We did a couple of short hikes, but the photo ops were spectacular and we managed to catch a couple that we thought you might like to see. I'm doing them a little differently. All but one will be thumbnails. Once you click on the thumbnail, you see the large picture. It will be larger than usual; it may take some time to load. If you hold your cursor on the large picture, you may see a little box in the bottom right hand corner that will allow you to further enlarge it to its best size. Click the "Back" button on your browser when done.

The picture immediately below is simply of reflections in the round windows of the Marine Research Centre at Norris Point, Bonne Bay.

This was "almost" a spur of the moment thing, and a lot of variables all came together, so it's worked out very well. Air Miles, free lift tickets, serendipity, have all worked towards making this a great trip. We're only three days into it, and everything thus far has been perfect. Bill and I spent the last two days skiing on Liam's hill, Bolton. Tomorrow we're going to Stowe and I'll add a few more pictures. On Sunday we're going to Boston, compliments of Jake Burton, and we're taking in a Celtics game. Then on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Bill and his son Stephen and I will be at Stratton for some serious recreation. We MAY go to Killington on Wednesday.

Life Styles of the Poor and Unknown or Fifteen Minutes of Fame

- Wednesday, February 2, 2004

Well, you know, I haven't skied everywhere; I haven't skied very many places actually. I've skied Killington, Jay Peak, SugarBush, Stratton, Stowe, Whistler/Blackcomb, Mt. Baker. The main attraction of skiing different places is skiing different places.

But if you just want to ski, if you want nicely groomed slopes, a magnificent lodge, trails that aren't crowded, lifts you can ski up to, and two or three hours of continuous skiing, you can't beat Marble. I don't think in any of those places I've mentioned could you have as satisfactory a day as I had today. You can see in the picture above how uncrowded it is, and this on one of the nicest days so far this winter. You won't find a baselodge like this ANYWHERE. Now, in Whistler, for example, you will find places to have a better meal; you will find a village at the base of the mountain. As a matter of fact, Whistler/Blackcomb is the only ski hill where I've enjoyed the actual skiing as much as I enjoy Marble. But what do folks to at Whistler or at any of the monster destination hills? They go to the middle of the hill; they find a nice couple of slopes that are no better than our own Corkscrew or Bonavista, and they ski that section of the hill. There IS more variety; you CAN ski different trails all day; however, these trails are more crowded; they get torn up very quickly; the lifts are crowded and sometimes the lift lines are long.

Now Marble isn't perfect.  The food is barely adequate; there's no restaurant as such at the hill; not all lifts run all the time; the skiing day is relatively short. In mid-week skiers are often disappointed that they have to struggle across the hill to get to two of the better slopes. I'd love to see the cabin at the top of the hill opened as a small restaurant where, if nothing else, you could get a bowl of soup and a sandwich. Back in "the good old days' there was a smaller cabin where you could sit on crude benches and get a nice bowl of soup. I also remember WAY back when there used to be a lot of parties on the hill, folks just gathering for a snack and a cup of coffee. Maybe that still happens; what do I know.

The bottom line is, though, that we have it exceptionally good. Prices are good; skiing is as good as it gets. Once in a while we all want to go somewhere different and ski a few different slopes. There is, however, no need to go anywhere if all you want is a good ski.

- January 29th, 2005

It was -20C when I first looked at the temperature this morning. Piqa was rarin' to go, but it would have been too cold for her. She's like a child; she doesn't know what's good for her.  I made her wait for an hour or so. It was sunny; the sun would warm things up pretty fast. Tea. English muffins. E-mail. Website. Check the temperature. -13C. Another half hour.

Oh. Herself is about. "You wanna go for a walk with us?"

"Yeah! I should."

Half hour later, off we went. Temperature about -10C. Down the road; up to the field; onto the skidoo trail. There should be a lot of machines on the trail this morning, being Saturday and all and so nice. There were. Piqa had only one good chase. We have to apologize to the fella she chased, whoever he was. She ran back to us when she heard him coming; he came around the turn, downhill, pretty fast; he skidded a little. We didn't have time to grab Piqa, so after he passed, off she went; he sped up a little; so did she; he sped up more; so did she; eventually she came back. The only real danger in this is if there should be a skidoo coming in the other direction. Then she could get badly injured or worse. But it's like everything short-circuits when the chase begins; if we don't control her before she starts the chase, there's no calling her back once the chase is on.

We were gone for about an hour and a half this morning; we walked about 5.6 km. It was lovely. Then when we came back I dug the skidoo out and off we went for a short run. Or a short "stuck" as Carol called it. In the first 400 yards or so we got stuck three times. The machine just won't turn with two people on it, and the snow is so light and soft off the trail that you'll get stuck in a second unless you've got up a good head of steam. There seemed to be something wrong with the engine too; it lost power going up hill; usually that machine has no trouble dragging both of us. This is the first time that's happened. Time for a tune up I guess. 

IMOK. UROK2.

Talk to you later.

Practice random acts of kindness.

These are ice crystals growing in the moving water of a brook. Pity I couldn't get closer. This is taken with a long lens from the bridge over the brook.

I'm starting a new page entitled My Town. This page will build over the year to a complete article/description of my town, Pasadena, Newfoundland. It will start with coverage of the Pasadena Winter Carnival, starting in just a few weeks. The shot above was taken this morning.  There's a new link over there <<<<, on the left, that will bring you to the new page. The new page is currently empty, but I'll begin working on it this evening. My plans are to do (eventually) a similar page for Corner Brook.

This is part of our routine, Piqa's and mine. "Up in the mornin', out on the job, work like a devil for my pay." That was years ago. Now I have more in common with that lucky ole sun. We just roll around (heaven) all day. 

We've had a LOT of snow over the past two days, perhaps the largest single snowfall we've had in a couple of years. After I finished the driveway this morning (the third time it's been done in two days), and after Carol had headed to Deer Lake for her swim, Piqa and I headed up the road for our morning walk.  It was VERY difficult. I should have taken snowshoes. There had been only one skidoo on the road, and the snow was still quite soft and deep. Walking was difficult. We walked up to the skidoo trail and back. Difficult, but quite nice. I thought I'd throw in a few pictures just to keep the page content current.

Skiing tomorrow! Maybe a short run on the skidoo tomorrow afternoon. Liam asked me to take some pictures of the ice-face near Marble, so I may throw in a picture of that tomorrow too. Hmmmmmm.... just thought of this. I'll also take a picture or two of the Man in the Mountain, you know, the one Blackbeard and his men carved there to protect the treasure buried on Shellbird Island.

It may also be a nice day to take some pictures of the river and of Corner Brook. We'll see.

February is Winter Carnival month, a good time to visit Corner Brook, Pasadena, and Deer Lake. The carnivals run consecutively, so you can have three good weeks of food, entertainment, and skiing/skidooing. There's really a lot going on; you just have a get the various carnival programs and take advantage of the various events and meals.

The opening ceremonies of the Corner Brook winter carnival are usually quite impressive. They're held at Marble Mountain and feature fireworks and events on the hill, including a torchlight parade.

In another week or two you'll be in prime time for a snowmobile trip to Gros Morne. The ponds will be safe if the weather continues cold, and there'll be plenty of snow. So y'all come on down, y'hear. We have plenty to offer here in the winter, as well as in the summer.

Well, you all know by now that we're doing quite a bit of training with Piqa, both for Search and Rescue and for agility. Today we had a wonderful training session at the Pynn's Brook Experimental Farm. The folks there have been kind enough to let us use their property for the past several months. Today we were there with Lisa and Christine and Krista and Isabelle and their dogs (Mythos, Phoenix, Cypher, Presto, Huxley, and Kate). What fun it's been to watch these dogs developing. We've only been at this since last April. We train every second week; some of our sessions are "regular", as today's was, and other are extended and involve additional training in map reading, compass, GPS, and other elements of SAR.  Piqa today did three searches. Typically one of these searches involves a "victim" who will "hide". Our dogs are being trained in air scenting techniques rather than tracking, so we have the victims go to their spot by a circuitous route so there will not be a track for the dogs to follow. Wind direction becomes very important in search techniques. The dogs may walk past a victim before they pick up the scent because of the direction of the wind; however, they don't have to cross the actual track in order to find the victim and it can be much faster.  (The picture above is of Isabelle, Piqa and Carol returning successfully from Isabelle's "rescue".

I was Piqa's first victim today. We haven't done that before because she doesn't associate me as being someone she needs to find. We were afraid that when she found me she would simply stay with me.

So, off I went into the woods. Carol and Krista went past my entry spot further on up the road and then entered the woods.  I was upwind of Piqa, but the wind was swirling a little; the woods were quite thick.  Now, a common mistake we've been making is not observing/trusting the dogs enough. We just can't seem to get our heads around just how good they are at this.  With Piqa it's even more difficult because she doesn't have a good alert. (The alert occurs when the dogs have found the victim and return to the handler. Most dogs will bark. Piqa won't. She just turns and runs back to the victim.) The process is that the dog will return to the handler and then start a back and forth sequence to the victim, shortening the distance each time.  Piqa does this well, but unless you're reading her well you may not notice that's she's made her find.  This happened today. Carol was a little apprehensive because she was in thick woods and thought she may have gone astray herself. The first time Piqa came back to her after finding me, Carol missed the alert. But Piqa OVERCAME the handler mistake, returned to me, and then back to Carol again. Then it was all routine from there. It never ceases to amaze us.  Now, don't misunderstand. We and Piqa are FAR from being ready for a real search. Piqa is developing much faster than our ability to train her.

Piqa's third search was just what we call a "hasty" search. The hasty search is basically covering both sides of a defined trail. Isabelle had hidden off the trail and had gotten there by the "backdoor". Again, Piqa found her and came back to us through the woods rather than by the route she had gone in. This caused us a little confusion and required Carol to beat her way through the woods, but it was no problem for Piqa.  Piqa's first hasty search today was a little confusing for all of us. She found Lisa quite easily, but ran right past her. Lisa thought that doing another one right away was in order. We did.

All of the dogs had very successful days. We all had fun. From beginning to end we were at it for about four hours and fifteen minutes.  The dogs had a free-for-all at the end.

Show me the bunny! Now let me tell you about yesterday's little adventure. Piqa and I go for a walk every morning, usually up across the field onto the skidoo trail. The circle takes about forty-five minutes. Every day Piqa checks the rabbit snares that are set along the trail. She ran ahead of me a little and went into the woods where I know there's a snare set. Then I heard squealing. I ran ahead. (I carry wire cutters with me all the time in case she gets caught in a snare.) I saw her in the woods chasing a rabbit. She caught it. (Stop reading here if you're squeamish!) Then she treated it as she treats all of her squeaky toys. She chewed it to make it squeak. When it stopped, she started pulling it apart to get at the squeaky thing. When I got to her she had a mouthful of fur and there were several tufts of fur around her. (I had to beat my way through thick woods/brush to get to her.) She gave up the poor thing easily, but kept jumping at it as I carried it out of the woods. I put it up in a tree near the snare.  Now the poor fella who finds the rabbit is going to have a bit of a mystery. What exactly exists in those woods that would scare a rabbit up a tree and scare it to death. Maybe he won't go back in the woods for a while. (You know, I had the small camera with me in my pocket, but didn't take a picture. Carol thinks I was traumatized.)