Snowshoeing #DarkNL

Snowshoeing the East Coast Trail
is a little tricky with a metre of
powdery snow on the ground.

Newfoundland is still in the midst of coping with a major winter storm, pre-preemptive closures, rolling blackouts and and unexpected Island-wide power failures.  The Premier and Newfoundland Power officials are warning us that this could be the new normal.  If and when the power grid becomes stable, we may be asked to conserve power for another month or two, and the dim light at the end of the tunnel that the Premier is offering us is a new power generation station in Labrador allegedly coming online in 2017.

Snow-B-Que!

Which means its going to be a great time for star-gazing, mid-winter barbeques, and winter sports.  We've got the grill set up again on the back deck, which we shovel out now before we work on the car and the front of the house.  On Sunday morning, Lori and I headed out to Cape Spear with a couple friends to snowshoe the Black Head Path. We only made it a kilometre or so along the trail before the deep powder turned us back, but it was still a great time and the Fish and Chips and pints at The Duke helped a lot.

The start of the hike had blue skies and huge waves.

The snow on the barrens leading to the foot of Black Head was easy to cross, but the drift in the trees were another story.  

We didn't make it anywhere near the top of Black Head, but we were well prepared for the mid-way break.  If this is going to be the new normal, I want snowshoe poles and a hip flask for Scotch, too.

The grey clouds and a dusting of snow had started by the time we made our way back to the car.  The waves were still impressive.

Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador.  The Easternmost point in North America.

Cape Spear Light House.

Sausage, Tea, Coffee and booze to raise our spirits after an aborted attempt to cross Black Head.

A couple hours struggling through deep snow feels like a couple hours on a stair master.

There are so many great trails, I'm torn between returning to this trail and trying to finish it, or moving on to a new spot next time.

 Photo Credits: Lori White and Tim Rast

Snowshoeing the East Coast Trail

Silver Head Mine Path

Lori and I used some Christmas money to buy snow-shoes this year and we finally hit on the perfect weekend to test them out on the East Coast Trail.  The weather cooperated with fresh snow falling on Friday and Saturday nights, but with crisp blue skies during the day on both Saturday and Sunday. Breaking through new snow on even the best marked path makes you feel like a proper explorer.

The Blackhead Path - Cape Spear to Blackhead

View of the Cape Spear Lighthouse
from along the Blackhead Path

On Saturday, I drove out to Cape Spear and hiked along the Blackhead Path to the top of Blackhead, back towards St. John's.  The road to Cape Spear starts at the bottom of our street, so I really don't have an excuse to not visit more often.  I parked at the main lot and walked back along the barrens towards the small parking lot along the road where the trail head is marked and the path to Blackhead technically begins.  The trail goes through coastal barrens, woods, and up to the top of Blackhead.  It continues on to the community of Blackhead and ultimately Fort Amherst in St. John's, but I turned around at the summit.  The hike was a little less than 3 hours at a pretty leisurely pace (I took over 200 photos).  There was some thigh high drifting at the top of Blackhead, but for the most part it was a pretty comfortable hike.

The view back towards Cape Spear from Blackhead. 

Returning to Cape Spear

On a clear day, you can easily see Signal Hill from Cape Spear and Blackhead.

Cape Spear

Silver Head Mine Path - Middle Cove to Torbay

Mouth of Motion River/North Pond River 

On Sunday, we headed to Middle Cove and hiked the Silver Head Mine Path north towards Torbay.  People had hiked and snowshoed the trail on Saturday, but we had a few centimetres of new fresh powder all to ourselves.  The path starts at Middle Cove beach, quickly ascends a steep wooded cliff with a vertical drop into the Atlantic and continues along the cliff edge towards Torbay.  There are two areas of running water along the trail - the first we met was Houlihan's River, which was small enough to jump over, but a few hundred metres from the path end at Torbay there is a larger river, called either Motion River or North Pond River.  We turned around at this river and made our way back to Middle Cove.  The hike took around two hours.

Heading back towards Middle Cove. (Click to Enlarge)

Looking down into Middle Cove

The mouth of Houlihans River.  The trail skirts through the woods along the the top of the cliff in the background.

There was no way to get across the river in snowshoes, so we turned around at this point.  Its was definitely worth the trip.

Motion River/North Pond Rive enters the Atlantic in this cove.

Photo Credits:
1-10,12,13: Tim Rast
11: Lori White

Site-seeing and Sightseeing with Family

My Uncle Gary and Aunt Marlene are visiting St. John's this week from Regina, Saskatchewan. Marlene is here for the Catholic Women's League National Convention and Gary came along to make a little vacation out of it. They are hoping to spend a few days travelling around the Avalon Peninsula later this week, but the car rental situation in Newfoundland is pretty dire. There aren't enough cars to go around and so far they only have a car booked for a little more than half the time they want to spend on the road.

On Friday we all popped up to the Signal Hill archaeology dig. It was their backfilling day, but Danielle gave us a behind the scenes peek of the artifacts in the lab. They've found a tonne of stuff. Lots and lots of food bones, ceramics, coins, copper ornaments from uniforms, marbles, and buttons. Amanda and her team have a lot of work ahead of them cataloguing the artifacts and preparing the report on the summer. With the close of the excavation for the season, the work is really just beginning.

Marlene is at the Convention for the next few days and Gary is enjoying strolling around the city. Gary and I drove out to Cape Spear last night and watched the whales for a while. The conditions were perfect for whale spotting.

I have my artifact visit scheduled for this afternoon at The Rooms. I'll need to pick up some more odds and ends at the hardware store afterwards. My first attempt at steam bending wasn't successful - among other things, I need more clamps. More on that in future posts.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top, Gary and Marlene in the Archaeology Lab at Signal Hill
Middle, Artifacts drying after cleaning in the lab
Bottom, Gary at the Eastern Most point in North America - Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador