Hello, hello. Welcome back!
I have clearly not mastered the art of picking one day a week to publish a post i.e., have a posting schedule. I am not organized or prepared enough to do that. Maybe one day (who am I kidding, I’m drinking an iced coffee at 7 pm with cream in it despite the fact I have recently discovered I am lactose intolerant).
I digress, I’m getting something typed up so better late then never. I thought I would do a July round-up (even though July isn’t over yet) and I want to make round-ups a thing except with product, recipe, and trail favs (if you haven’t guessed yet, I haven’t prepared for that either). I should be editing a surplus of digitized graphic logs right now but…. I’ve been working on those for over a week and don’t feel like doing that either. Here’s a real quick boiled down version of what I hiked these past few weeks and some peppered in exhausted quips after doing field work for the last 27 days.
- Berry Head Arch (Spurwink Island Path: Aqueforte to the Arch and return, ECT); 18.58 km, 5 hrs.
- Pacquet Harbour Ocean View Trail; 3 km, 1 hr.
- Jackson’s Cove; 2.5 km, 25 minutes.
- Harry’s Harbour; 9 km, 3 hrs.
- Rattling Brook Falls; 1 km, 15 minutes.
- Alexander Murray Trail; 8.9 km, 2 hrs 20 minutes.
- Caribou Walking Trail; 6.3 km, 1 hr 46 minutes.
July trail total: 49.28 km (30.62 miles for all my imperial friends out there.) in 13 hrs 6 minutes.
Jackson’s Cove; Storms shouldn’t stop you from hiking. 
Pacquet Harbour Ocean View Trail 
The best view from the Alexander Murray Trail 
A view from the ocean of Newfoundland; Ming’s Bight 
An unexpected arch on Jackson’s Cove
July was/is an interesting month. I’ve spent damn near the entire month in the field moving from town to town to do my field work (aka look at rocks all day long and then write down what I see on paper). I wasn’t anywhere near trails I knew or had a consistent schedule where I knew I could hike during certain hours. On the flip side, I was in new areas which meant I got to hike ground I haven’t seen before. Normally I would be stoked for this except I’ve been exhausted trying to get more work done in the field then I previously ever have.
I haven’t gotten on the trail near as much I wanted to and when I had an afternoon “off” I was just tired and wanted to do nothing all day. It has been super easy to slip into the mind set of just being mad at myself and disappointed that I let so much good outdoor time slip thru my fingers. I would love to say that I had some inspirational ah-ha moment that said, “writing this down I see that I hike a lot, and everyone should be proud of what they did” or “I did what I could”.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
That’s how my brain is programed and that isn’t going to change any time soon but, I did get to see cool things. So… diverting away from my exhausted irritated brain let’s chat about the trail highlights.
Spurwink Island Path
If you have ever googled pictures of the East Coast Trail or hikes near St. John’s you’ve likely seen pictures of the arch and I must say, it is worth it.
The hike? Great.
Seeing what nature can do? Always amazing.
Plus, a whale stopped by just off the coast while eating lunch with the arch in the background. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.
One perk of this trail is that it isn’t a short walk off the highway, it takes roughly 8 km to get there. Chances are you’ll get the arch and trail to yourself (which let’s be honest, sometimes you don’t want to see anyone when you’re outside).
Trail Tips: You have three options to hike this one: 1) Aquaforte to the arch and back; 2) Port Kirwan to the arch and back; or 3) thru from one entry to the other. If you have one car and want to best views hike from Port Kirwan. The Aquaforte hike is almost entirely in-land so you’re deprived off all the good coast views that makes the ECT breathtaking. It was still a great hike but, learn from my mistake of not reading the topo map prior to embarking. If you’ve got friends with cars or are wanting to chance that someone will give you a lift back to your car, definitely hike all the way thru.
Harry’s Harbour
This was a hidden gem that I want to explore again. I did this hike after logging core and getting on the trail at about 6 pm (shout-out to it staying light out late). It’s a trail about an hour and half off the main high-way here in Newfoundland (yes, there is basically one high-way running across the island) and it isn’t often hiked. Most people hike the well-known Alexander Murray Trail (which is more like a nature walk with a lot of stairs but, that’s for another day) and don’t even bother looking into this one.
All you do is hike in and explore. It’s along a peninsula with little coves off the main trail. You can’t hike for five minutes without finding something to climb around or just sit and take in the sounds. I didn’t get to explore everything, and all I did was find little pathways to small coves. I felt like I was discovering places that people hadn’t seen in a long time. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, and I haven’t found a trail that brought the kid out in me in a long time. I think I may have forgotten what it was like just to have fun while hiking.
Trail Tips: I don’t have any for this one except that you should find some lesser known trails in your area and do them, you never know what you’ll find.
After reading this post over again I pretty much hate it (which you can probably tell from these little editing bits) but, the entire point of this blog is that I’m not supposed to guilt myself into have the best writing. So up it goes.
This month didn’t go great but, I am so fucking excited for next month. I have a thru hike and a few weeks of camping planned.
As always, see you on the next post from your (very) over-caffeinated friend,
Carly
Forever Nomad 