cooperhill
New member
My wife (Jessie) and I finally made plans to visit friends in Saint John's Newfoundland. The trip wasn't an all hiking trip but we did get to spend a few days hiking in Gros Morne National Park. We decided to go by ferry (both to Nova Scotia and to NL) and this would entail a whole load of driving. The "CAT" from Portland, ME to Yarmouth, NS is a very nice ship - it was a porsche compared to the ferry we would eventually take from North Sydney, NS to Argentia, NL. It turns out the NL ferry would be delayed some 12 hours due to high winds. All in all, it took 19 hours to get over to Newfoundland from NS and it took us 3 days to get from home to Newfie. In interesting aside, we ran into a group of 30 cyclists on the ferry who were just completing a ride across Canada. Our initial destination in NL was St. John’s where we spent 4 days there relaxing and seeing the sights. Some highlights of the area were Cape Spear (the easternmost point of North America), Signal Hill, Bowring Park, Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, and the Rooms Museum.
I did get a hike in while in St. John’s. I decided to try a hike on the East Coast Trail, a circuit trail that goes around the Avalon Peninsula on the eastern coast of NL. The hike was about an hour away from St. John’s in Cupids, NL. I had a little difficulty finding the trailhead once in Cupids but thankfully had the Subaru. This was a short 5km loop on the Burnt Head trail. It starts at a little B&B/tea house on Bishops Lane in Cupids. I was thankful the weather was ok for this trip. The sun wasn’t shining but at least it wasn’t raining. The weather in St. John’s is usually foggy but it was unusually warm when we were there. The blueberries on this hike were humongous and very abundant. This was an easy hike that takes you through meadows down to a sea arch and through the abandoned settlements of Noder Cove and Greenland. Coming from New England were most of the Coast is developed; I think it’s great that they have preserved this much open space especially along the cost.
After St. John’s we traveled across NL to Rocky Harbor. The trip took about 8 hours on the Trans Canada highway. Unfortunately we only had 2 days in Gros Morne but we tried to make the most of it and mix in some hikes and a boat trip on Trout River pond. Our first hike was a small one at Tablelands. Tablelands is a unique geological feature where rock from the Earth’s mantle was pushed up at some point in our history (don’t ask me when). The main rock of the Tablelands– peridotite – doesn’t support much plant life as such it’s very barren. It reminded us of the southwest. The road to the Tablelands pretty much splits the mantle rock from the crust rock. This was a small (4KM) guided hike by the parks staff. A few interesting plants can live on this rock. The pitcher plant, which is Newfoundland and Labrador’s national plant, is a flycatcher and traps insects in the small leaves at the bottom of the plant. There were other plants (asters, daisies, goldenrod) which tended to grow near the footpath which is not natural to the area. The main trees in the area are juniper and spruce (called “Tuckamore”) and the larch. We then went on a boat tour of Trout River Pond (not sure if it is technically a fjord since it is now fresh water). Our captain used a small rowboat to get to the tour boat and it was a sight to see him rowing the wrong way. If you go to Gros Morne, I highly recommend one of the boat tours (Trout River or Western Brook Pond). Again the mountains on one side were Tablelands and the mountains on the other side was Gabbro rock. We saw a couple of moose on the trip – one of them was a rather large buck moose.
The next day after spending some time shopping in Woody Point, we made our way to the Green Gardens trail head. I highly recommend this hike. We only had 5 hours or so, so we did a shortened version of the hike rather then the entire 16km loop. Different than any hikes we’ve done, this one leads from the highest elevation (not that high compared to the Whites) down to sea level. We started the hike at the Long Pond trailhead; got part way up the trail and realized I forgot our camera so did a quick trail run back down to the car. That finished we began our hike up through the mantle rock up to a small peak of about 300m. The trail then reached a junction and began to swing down steeply to our destination. The trail was flat and pretty much devote of rocks – very unlike the trails here in the Whites. We met some Canada parks staff who were doing some trail maintenance. The trail was nicely maintained but it seemed every time we saw them they were taking a break! In terms of weather, we hit the jackpot that day – it was sunny but we had a constant sea breeze which made it perfect hiking weather. The final destination is definitely worth the hike down and back up. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
One piece of advice, don’t drive at night on the western half of the island. There are a lot of moose and visibility on the roads is poor (even the trans Canada). The green gardens hike was our last day and we got stuck out late and ended up driving at night to get to our ferry. We saw a big shadow in the road – what looked like a big Newfoundland dog – it turned out to be a black bear. We scared the poor thing half to death. Thankfully we didn’t hit it.
So 2 days of ferry and driving and we got home. That’s our trip – it’s not all hiking and the hiking we did wasn’t extensive but I thought I’d share it with you all.
Cheers.
Pics
I did get a hike in while in St. John’s. I decided to try a hike on the East Coast Trail, a circuit trail that goes around the Avalon Peninsula on the eastern coast of NL. The hike was about an hour away from St. John’s in Cupids, NL. I had a little difficulty finding the trailhead once in Cupids but thankfully had the Subaru. This was a short 5km loop on the Burnt Head trail. It starts at a little B&B/tea house on Bishops Lane in Cupids. I was thankful the weather was ok for this trip. The sun wasn’t shining but at least it wasn’t raining. The weather in St. John’s is usually foggy but it was unusually warm when we were there. The blueberries on this hike were humongous and very abundant. This was an easy hike that takes you through meadows down to a sea arch and through the abandoned settlements of Noder Cove and Greenland. Coming from New England were most of the Coast is developed; I think it’s great that they have preserved this much open space especially along the cost.
After St. John’s we traveled across NL to Rocky Harbor. The trip took about 8 hours on the Trans Canada highway. Unfortunately we only had 2 days in Gros Morne but we tried to make the most of it and mix in some hikes and a boat trip on Trout River pond. Our first hike was a small one at Tablelands. Tablelands is a unique geological feature where rock from the Earth’s mantle was pushed up at some point in our history (don’t ask me when). The main rock of the Tablelands– peridotite – doesn’t support much plant life as such it’s very barren. It reminded us of the southwest. The road to the Tablelands pretty much splits the mantle rock from the crust rock. This was a small (4KM) guided hike by the parks staff. A few interesting plants can live on this rock. The pitcher plant, which is Newfoundland and Labrador’s national plant, is a flycatcher and traps insects in the small leaves at the bottom of the plant. There were other plants (asters, daisies, goldenrod) which tended to grow near the footpath which is not natural to the area. The main trees in the area are juniper and spruce (called “Tuckamore”) and the larch. We then went on a boat tour of Trout River Pond (not sure if it is technically a fjord since it is now fresh water). Our captain used a small rowboat to get to the tour boat and it was a sight to see him rowing the wrong way. If you go to Gros Morne, I highly recommend one of the boat tours (Trout River or Western Brook Pond). Again the mountains on one side were Tablelands and the mountains on the other side was Gabbro rock. We saw a couple of moose on the trip – one of them was a rather large buck moose.
The next day after spending some time shopping in Woody Point, we made our way to the Green Gardens trail head. I highly recommend this hike. We only had 5 hours or so, so we did a shortened version of the hike rather then the entire 16km loop. Different than any hikes we’ve done, this one leads from the highest elevation (not that high compared to the Whites) down to sea level. We started the hike at the Long Pond trailhead; got part way up the trail and realized I forgot our camera so did a quick trail run back down to the car. That finished we began our hike up through the mantle rock up to a small peak of about 300m. The trail then reached a junction and began to swing down steeply to our destination. The trail was flat and pretty much devote of rocks – very unlike the trails here in the Whites. We met some Canada parks staff who were doing some trail maintenance. The trail was nicely maintained but it seemed every time we saw them they were taking a break! In terms of weather, we hit the jackpot that day – it was sunny but we had a constant sea breeze which made it perfect hiking weather. The final destination is definitely worth the hike down and back up. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
One piece of advice, don’t drive at night on the western half of the island. There are a lot of moose and visibility on the roads is poor (even the trans Canada). The green gardens hike was our last day and we got stuck out late and ended up driving at night to get to our ferry. We saw a big shadow in the road – what looked like a big Newfoundland dog – it turned out to be a black bear. We scared the poor thing half to death. Thankfully we didn’t hit it.
So 2 days of ferry and driving and we got home. That’s our trip – it’s not all hiking and the hiking we did wasn’t extensive but I thought I’d share it with you all.
Cheers.
Pics
