The Viking Trail

July 5th

We set off this afternoon along the western coast of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula. This route is known as the Viking Trail and ends at the northernmost point of the island. The harsh winter conditions were apparent in the numerous construction zones along the way, several of these involved stripping portions of the highway back to a gravel base and we spent a lot of time inching along through these sections. The weather deteriorated as we drove, but the cold, wind, and rain really seems to fit the place, imparting a natural beauty of their own. After paralleling the Labrador coast for a while the route cuts across the interior of the peninsula for the last 60km to St. Anthony on the Northeastern coast. This last leg is as remote as any area I have ever traveled through with no towns and little evidence of humans beyond the shoulders of the road. To top off our drive, as we rounded one of the last turns before reaching St. Anthony Sara excitedly pointed out the first iceberg of our trip!

After checking in to our B&B we struck out for dinner. We ended up at a former lightkeeper's cottage turned restaurant, where we enjoyed excellent food and a stunning, if stormy, view of our second iceberg floating by. An excellent ending for our day!

Posted by Shawn

A walk in the woods

July,, 3-4

Summer is short here, the plants know this well and make good use of the season. So, right now, every growing thing is green and racing toward reproduction before it turns cold again. There are multitudes of wild flowers in every available niche and the conifers are laden with new pine cones. This all makes for very pleasant hiking. We saw lovely landscapes and beautiful flowers, and some spectacular waterfalls. We walked through enchanted forests, deserted tablelands, along the rocky coast, through peat bogs, and beside fresh water ponds. With every step we saw things that were unspeakably beautiful and all we could do is pinch ourselves and relish in the fact that we were here.

It got even better....one walk turned into a ride when we took a boat cruise on Western Brook Pond. The "pond" was once a glacier carved fjord, that has since been cut off from the ocean. It is also MUCH larger than what you think of as a pond being ten miles long. For our science friends, it is one of a very few ultraoligotrophic, pristine freshwater lakes in existence. It is 350+ meters deep in some places and is surrounded by sheer granite cliffs rising as much as 2000 ft above the water surface. It is a very unique body of water in that its water volume turns over only once every 16 years (as opposed to several times a year for many lakes/ponds). The isolation of the place is brought home by the fact that we had to hike 3.5km to get to the boat dock and were told that the boat had to be brought in four pieces by helicopter.

We left a little of our souls here in Gros Morne and are already making plans for a return trip. For now...it has started to rain, and we are now going in search of Vikings and Icebergs.

Posted by Sara (with contributions by Shawn)

Bullwinkle

For some reason I have always thought of moose as a quintessential symbol of wilderness. I've traveled to "Moose Country" several times in my life, but each time have failed to spot one. I've had plenty of encounters with their cousins, deer, elk, etc., but for some reason moose always seem elusive and special.

We arrived at Gros Morne National Park Friday afternoon and decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the southern part of the park. About a kilometer into the first trail we decided to explore we came across a large bull moose only a few feet from the trail. At first we kept our distance, but slowly worked our way closer and got to take some really close up pictures of him. It was a really cool experience.

Moose are not native to Newfoundland. Two were introduced in the late 1800 from nearby Nova Scotia. Thinking that the introduction had failed, four more were brought in from New Brunswick in the early 1900's. From these six moose there are now over 100,000 moose on the island of Newfoundland, with Gros Morne National Park now boasting the world's highest density of moose, dwarfing the population of the native caribou. They have become almost a nuisance in some areas and are responsible for numerous fatal car accidents each year.

Posted by Shawn

New found land

July, 2-3

We finally made it. It took us a couple more days than planed, and we are in a different part of the island than we had planed, but we are here. Here, is where the Vikings explored in the eleventh century, where continents collided, and home to a unique culture influenced by the french, and irish, by the land itself, but mostly by the cod. Newfoundland (pronounced by the locals as New-fin-LAND).

Our ferry didn't get in until 2:00am due to the fog, and after a little trouble we found our hotel. We stayed at an inn that had real brass room keys, and country music from the early nineties playing in the lobby. It was dated, but clean and comfortable. The next morning we started the 3 hour drive to Gros Morne National Park. Along the way, the sky cleared and we saw some of the most amazing scenery, but it was only an appetizer for what was to come.

Posted by Sara

Northward bound

Greetings from the Gulf of St. Lawrence! Impressively, our Newfoundland-bound ferry has wireless internet (. . . although very slow).

Today was a lot of fun. We rose at 6, so we could take advantage of our time on Cape Breton Island. Our hostess at the B&B prepared us an excellent breakfast, including a very tasty quiche with sausage.







We then set off for the famous Cabot Trail which traverses the Cape Breton Highlands. The area is absolutely beautiful with dense forests, swift streams, cascading waterfalls, and beautiful ocean views. In a lot of ways it reminded me of coastal Washington or British Columbia (which is among my favorite places). We spent half the day driving up the coast and briefly venturing across the interior which is more remote and comes complete with many moose crossing signs. We had no actual moose sightings, but did see an enormous bald eagle resting on a rock a short distance from us.



The national park is interspersed with private land and we were very suprised at how many for sale signs we saw. Some of the properties were right on the water and had spectacular mountain views. Very nice spot for a summer retreat.



We then retraced our route back to North Sydney and boarded our ferry. Tomorrow morning we drive to Gros Morne National Park and its even more remote wildeness. Internet may be hard to come by, but we will try to stay in touch.

~Shawn

"I now walk . . . into the wild." - Alexander Supertramp (a.k.a. Christopher McCandliss)

Success!

July, 1 2009 (uploaded later)


Not only did we arrive in Halifax without incident, (except that I tragically left my book I was reading on the plane with my favorite bookmark) we hired a car and brought it all the way to Cape Breton. Along the way we took in some lovely scenery, though it did get mistier and foggier as we drove north. We stopped at a town called Antigonish along the way, primarily because I liked the sound of its name when I said it out loud, which I did frequently enough that Shawn (who was driving) was compelled to stop. It was a cute little university town that had an interesting looking used bookstore, which was of course closed for Canada Day.






I love how everything is also in French.







Further down the road we passed through St. Peter’s (a small town, not the actual saint) which was also quaint, although it seemed to distinguish itself by painting all of its fire hydrants to look like cartoon characters. There was Tweety Bird and Marvin the Martian, Goofy and others. On the outskirts of town they became more contemporary; Homer Simpson and South Park characters. But we almost swerved off the road from laughing at the very last hydrant on the way out of town…it was none other than South Park’s infamous Mr. Hanky.

Now we are cuddled up in an adorable bed and breakfast that is well-cared for by an adorable innkeeper who has been staying up late and making breakfast early for patrons “all by herself” for 18 years.
We are so glad to be here, and to have new reservations to replace the old, and to catch up on our sleep and to wake up to coffee and quiche and waffles and crumpets. Hopefully we will also wake up to clear(er) skies, although it is so refreshingly cool here, even with the humidity, that it doesn’t really matter to us, it is all beautiful.





Posted by Sara

Enter Canada: Check!

We finally made it into the air and have landed in Toronto!

Unfortunatley we also found out that we can't catch a ferry for Newfoundland until tomorrow night (all full . . . Canada Day?). This very sadly means that we will have to cancel our Labrador/Quebec portion of our trip. But we are excited that we will get to spend extra time at Cape Breton and Gros Morne National Parks instead!

Here's to an uneventful flight to Halifax!