05 Aug: Failed trails, peanut butter brownie in a cottage, and a local celebrity

9am we left our accommodations to go a little bit North to Sea Breeze park. We tried to tackle the small South trail, but flying neener bugs and trail stair reconstruction prevented it.

    Heading North we hiked the North Longpoint trail and admired the high cliff views. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the side trail to the lighthouse.

    Needing some calories, we drove to Crow’s Head and stopped at the Crow’s Nest Cafe. It was started by a fellow who converted his parent cottage into this popular spot with caffeinated and mouth watering delights. My moka was fantastic and the peanut butter brownie brought back memories.

    Driving to the lighthouse, we first went to the observation platform to see the landscape. While leaving the platform to proceed to the lighthouse, Angie pointed to an old guy in a car chatting with someone and exclaimed she “knew” the guy. That guy she knew was Lloyd Colbourne and she got to chat with him for a bit.

    Famous within Newfoundland, from 1975 to 1995, Lloyd shared local nature, culture, and the heritage of communities and regions all over the province during his half hour segments. He used a handheld film camera and it was broadcast on CBC. It was done on the cheap with rough edit cuts. However, after watching part of an episode while writing this, his clear dulcet tones and narrative commentary was excellent. His “travel by map using a pencil to point out the trip” made me laugh and acknowledge respect for using maps everyone used for conveying information to his audience. Link to Youtube for a double episode of “Newfoundland Outdoors” from 1979 is here: Newfoundland Outdoors.

    Walking around the lighthouse, it was time to tackle hiking trail #8; Lighthouse/Cuckhold’s Point Trail. It's maintained by Rockcut Twillingate Hiking Trails. At 6km and marked as medium we descended and ascended repeatedly while turning this way and that along its route. Terrain and coastline was as varied as the route. We each felt we got a tough workout while enjoying the wonderful scenery on this 2.5 hour hike. At the time I would have hated to do one of their hard routes.

    It turned out, while I was writing this and researching details, on the Rockcut website the name of the trail had changed from the signage. It’s now called Horney Head Cove Trail, it is a HARD trail, and we missed a hidden cave along the trail. Alas.

    The trail ended near the Crow’s Nest Cafe so we took washroom breaks. I noticed two posters, for “The Amazing Root Cellar Race” and another for bands playing at a local venue, that captured local events. Rarely do they create webpages or broadcast it out by any electronic method. 

    Leaving the ladies at the cafe, Kirk and I walked to the lighthouse to get the truck. On the way we discussed ideas for his D&D one-shots he was planning on running that would be subtly interconnected.

    Returning to our hostel, we relaxed and had an early supper to regain the calories spent. While we were preparing the meal, we chatted with some of the guests and about music. That led to choosing different songs to play on one fellow’s cell phone and bluetooth speaker. In particular they liked an Acadian band I really like from PEI called Vishten. Check them out here. On the menu was BBQ’d steaks with Montreal steakspice, cut potatoes that had been microwaved then finished in aluminum foil on the BBQ, fried mushrooms, and mixed salad with a nice red wine. Yum!

    After the meal, boardgames and a dice game were played until the sandman came calling. We walked/hiked 10.7km and climbed the equivalent of 92 flights of stairs.

04 Aug: A view for a Smallwood head, the People who were lost, and staying inside a textile woven gate

Two-night roadtrip! First stop was outside of Gambo at a lookout for Joey, aka Joseph R. Joey Smallwood.

With an early life in news, campaign managing for the Prime Minister of Newfoundland (under the British), and hosting a radio program for six years he decided to run a pig farm at the Gander airfield. In 1946 he became part of the Newfoundland National Convention to recommend options for the future of the province as he pushed for joining Canada. His past skills in broadcasting led to a very strong rural vote for joining Confederation in 1948. He became the province's Liberal party leader in 1949 and was elected Premier the same year becoming Premier of Newfoundland for the next 23 years. After retiring, he wrote two autobiographies and his Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador was completed after his death in 1991. Here there were nice views of Freshwater Bay, Gambo River, and the Newfoundland T’railway (a hiking trail that replaced the rail line and goes from St. John’s to the West side of Newfoundland near Port aux Basques; 890km). 

Near Gander we stopped at the Thomas Howe Demonstration Forest, named after the Province’s first Chief Woods Ranger, for a sandwich lunch and short walk. Many trees, undergrowth, and wee beasties were present, including a 90-year-old White Spruce with above ground curly-fry shaped roots. Some trees had odd growths where the branch sprouted tiny branches everywhere. K mentioned it was a type of tree cancer and often held bird nests. The intricate design was mesmerizing.

Taking a right turn at Gander and continuing down the road, for an hour or so, we took a stretch and pee break. By the shore there was a river boat with a long hull, narrow sides, and shallow flat bottom. K&A said it looked like a good design and they would know from their knowledge of boat designs of different families. Some Newfoundland companies have purchased limited rights to some designs and make molds to manufacture fibreglass versions.

A short distance South of our two-night accommodations is the Beothuk Centre. I’ll let the Centre’s website explain what they are: “Around 300 years ago, this site in Boyd’s Cove in Notre Dame Bay was a Beothuk village. Tour the interpretation centre where exhibits and artifacts foster an appreciation for this unique, and now vanished culture. From the interpretation centre, follow a 1.5 km groomed walking trail to the village site – today an outline of housepits is the only evidence of the Beothuk people who once lived here. Along the trail, a sculpture designed by renowned Newfoundland artist Gerald Squires evokes the tragedy of the Beothuks’ demise.”

The Beothunk’s were a First Nation that entered Newfoundland around 1CE and had three cultural changes before becoming the Beothunk culture around 1500. They lived in small extended family groups that lived in seasonal villages. They were known to use red ochre to paint themselves and most of what they used, reapplying once a year in the spring. The Beothunk avoided interacting with Europeans as most meetings led to injury, death, and/or anger. Pressure from the European settlers, Inuit, and Mi’kmaq had them retreat further inland where resources were more scarce. Two Beothunk women captured by Europeans in 1819 and 1823, Desmaduit and Shanawdithit (Desmaduit’s niece), taught some of their language and provided drawings of their culture as a way for Europeans to understand the Beothunk peoples. At this point the Beothuk peoples were in decline, due to Smallpox/TB/violent interactions. After Shanawdithit died in 1829, and no more Beothunk were found, the Beothunk were declared extinct yet there is evidence that some Beothunk may have integrated into Inuit, Mi’Kmaw, and European communities.

The trail walk to the Beothunk camp site was shaded and very pleasant, with American toads and dragonflies in abundance. On the walk back I enjoyed looking at an interesting rock with mossy blankets. After returning to the Centre, and using the washroom, K and I went to the Spirit Garden that was made to honour the Beothunk and others who have passed away into history. In the Centre you can get a bag of items to make a token, free of charge, and hang it here. In the garden, the combined feelings of loss and the strength to persevere were present.

In front of the Centre, I almost stepped onto an American toad on the wooden walkway. After pointing it out to an attendant, who was walking the perimeter, she scooped it up and placed it into the woods.

Arriving in North Twillingate, at the Hi Tides Hostel, we briefly unpacked before walking around to explore the active and colourful town. We saw a fishing boat returning to its harbour, two pet goats in a yard, and several shops for art, conveyance, food and drink. 

After supper was made in the hostel we relaxed then went to bed. 9.8km walked and 14 flights climbed.

03 August: Big Back Yard, Moving a House by Water, and Nature Made at a Glacier Pace

Chatting, breakfast, coffee, and showers done it was time for local exploration…in the back of K&A’s property.

There was an abundance of variety: tall fireweed blooming pinky purple, miscellaneous greenery of sharp shapes and round, rhododendrons, Balsam fir, Norway spruce, leopard spotted toads, tall cliff faces providing an unanswered challenge yet tempting us with a collage of deep time, light green lichen, and a multi-species inhabited marsh. All this and more after an hour’s walk.

With lunch in our bellies, we took the boat to Loreburn. Once used as a winter hunting camp in the early 1800’s by the Dean family of Southport, shortly after it was then settled by the Price family of Hant’s Harbour Trinity Harbour. Growing to ten families and 46 people, in the 1939 census, and only grew 3 by 1945. The main work here was shore fishing. Currently there are none of the original houses, a rough road has been made to get here by its residents, and several cottages as well as wharfs have been built here. You might wonder why I mentioned all this. Well sit right down kiddies and I’ll tell you a tale. The tale of resettlement.

From 1954 to 1975, after Newfoundland entered Confederation, there were three attempts to resettle isolated and distant villages to be closer to communities with roads connected to hub communities. 300 communities and almost 30k people were resettled. Still regarded as controversial by Newfoundland’s citizens, it was an attempt to cut down on costs to link communities by public marine transport. Even today it costs millions for the province to provide it for ~100 residents. So if you see a picture or painting of houses being moved on the water by pontoons and small boats, that is because of resettlement. In the case of Loreburn, the ancestors of the original residents petitioned the province to be permitted to build their own very long “driveway” and build cottages here.

K&A saw some folks they knew at one cottage. We were invited onto the deck for a chat, offered water, also offered freshly fried cod, then also offered pickled surf clams. The short chat turned into a half hour of catching up, exchanges of news, and who Natalie and I were. This, at its root, is what rural Newfoundland is like so plan accordingly with your schedule. Nobody is a stranger after a conversation and it's likely you will turn into a friend. Saying our goodbye’s we snaked around the cottages towards the North until we found the pathway that led to the East.

The multitude of biomass present in K&A’s property were multiplied immensely. After the climb up the semi-steep embankment the views became royal in their greatness. Here was the terrain that greeted European settlers. The landscape that had most of them staying safely by the shore, especially after meeting the various First Nations. These indigenous peoples had encyclopedic knowledge yet still could not completely encompass all of Newfoundland. So many hills and valleys. So many water features from ponds and marshes to lakes, rivers and waterfalls all created by gargantuan glaciers retreating during the last ice age.

Hiking East we were passing flowers, insects, and interesting geology. We started to see Ford’s Harbour and the town of Southport in the next peninsula across Trinity Bay. We reached a point where we needed a little snack, so after pulling our preferred calorie filled items A’s bar dropped a bit of dark chocolate. When she looked down, she exclaimed “The chocolate’s moving!” Looking closer, it indeed was moving but not by itself. An enterprising black ant had immediately seen an opportunity and was carrying it to its lair.

Returning to Loreburn we hiked an hour and a half up semi-steep hills and weaved around many features, but only went 1.6km as the crow flies.

    As it was still early once we got to the boat, we went past the harbour of Saint Jones Within’s to the West of Bailey’s Cove. On the shoreline and cliffs were astounding examples of deep time geology. Layers of lollypop hues with diagonal stripes and folded layers. Cooled rock pushed to the surface and manipulated in one direction or another by pressures deep within the Earth. In particular there was one huge hexagonal shape, with what looked like quartz dancing within it. Normally the hex column is straight up and down, but I have since found out the cooling method of the rich molten lava must have been at an angle to cause this formation.

Time for supper, chatting, and rest before heading for a comfy bed. 7.2km walked and 27 flights climbed.