In my last post, I was still in St. John’s and only about one-third of the way along the East Coast Trail. I’ve now completed my hike and have some stories to tell and photos to present. So let’s go.

Hiking solo, I set out on another glorious day on the 15km Cape Spear path, which would take me back to Blackhead and Deadmans Bay. I was once again treated to a heath-like landscape with ocean views. In this photo, you can make out the new and old lighthouses at Cape Spear, the most easterly point in Canada. I intended to stop for lunch or a latte at Cape Spear as it’s a popular tourist spot, but I was spooked by all the tourists! So I walked through after admiring the view. I’d attended a light show there a few nights earlier and we’d seen some minke whales swim by so I kept an eye out for whales too. But no luck.

As I continued on this hike that began in Maddox Cove, the wind picked up. Since I as walking across open cliffs, I was glad it was an onshore wind as at times I felt a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and that I’d become airborne. I caught an Uber back to St. Johns where my cozy apartment waited for me.

Next up was the Motion Path between Shoal Bay Road and pretty Petty Cove. I’d been advised to walk this route from south to north so that the 6.3 kilometre access trail would be at the start of the hike and, more importantly, downhill. Combined with the 14k-long Motion Path, I’d have to cover over 20k, my longest day yet. As it turned out, it was also my toughest hike too. It wasn’t the length or the terrain, it was that the condition of the trail deteriorated. Try negotiating the bit of trail pictured above in hiking sandals! In reality, I managed to keep my feet dry with a little tiptoeing. But my legs took a beating since the trail, as you can seen in the photo below, was in need of a good trim. You can just make out the trail at the bottom of the photo.

Nevertheless, it was a great hike on a spectacular day.

I referred to Petty Harbour, as “pretty” Petty Harbour. Take a look at the photo and see if you agree. Without exception, the small fishing villages were lovely. The colourful clapboard houses were well kept, in keeping with the coastal architecture and small. They fit into the landscape in a way that was refreshing when compared with the monstrous homes with a dozen or more roof-lines being built around where I live. These villages made me want to pack up a few belongings and head east.

I toured around St. John’s the following day as I waited for my friend Ute to join me. We hiked up Signal Hill, before catching a lift to the Brown Rabbit Cabins in Tors Cove. I’d stayed at the Brown Rabbit Cabins about 17 years earlier and hiked some of the local trails. It was fun to be heading back as I had great memories of my stay with Isabella and Bill. They offer a great 6-day hiking package that includes everything! They pick you up in St. John’s, give you 3 meals a day, take you to the trailhead each morning and pick you up at the end of day and accommodate you in a hotel room or cabin all for between $220 and $250 per person per day. When you add it up you’ll realize how great it is.

There were two women from Nova Scotia as well as a couple from Quebec City also staying at the Brown Rabbit Cabins, so Ute and I hooked up with them for a few hikes. It was fun to be with a group again. I like my solo hikes, but sometimes it was a nice change having company.

As a group, we set off from the end of Mickleens Path near Witless Bay and walked the 7.2 kilometres up to Bay Bulls. It was a misty day for a change, but there was no rain. When we arrived in Bay Bulls, we stopped in at the Stone Ducky restaurant where we enjoyed local draft beer. It was an easy 7.2k for me as I’d been hiking for a week or more. More importantly, it was a great warmup hike for Ute and others who hadn’t been on the trails so much. It was fun for me to not be walking the long distances I’d walked on the Alpe Adria in Europe the year before and on the Bruce Trail two years earlier. There’s something to be said for having time to stop for a decent lunch and take advantage of viewpoints — things I often don’t do when hiking on my own over 20+ kilometres.

The following day, I was on my own again for the short, but sweet Tinkers Point Path. The others were walking part way along a different trail that I hoped to do in its entirety, so we parted company for a day. The Tinkers Point Path, was a gem. The sun had reappeared, as you can see from the photo above, and the trail wound through forest and along the coastline with views of sparking water. I never tired of coastal views.

I also loved the story of “Tinkers” Point. There is or was a colony of razorback auks that nested in Tinkers Cove. In Newfoundland, “Tinker” is a nickname for these black and white seabirds that are related to puffins. When razorbills stand on land, they tilt their heads back and point their long bills upwards. To Newfoundlanders, it makes the birds appear to be thinking, or, as they say on the Rock, the birds appear to be “t’hinking.” As a result, they call them “t’hinkers” or “tinkers”!

There were a pair of old “saltbox” houses, one red as appears above, and one white, near the end of the trail in Tors Cove. As eye-catching as this one is, it’s not really a saltbox as saltbox houses typically have two stories in front and slope down to one in the back. This house sort of does that.

The following day was the only really rainy day I had. Ute, the couple from Quebec City and I headed out with great hopes that the rain would hold off, but no luck. It wasn’t horrible as the wet stuff let up just when we were ready to have our lunch, but the trail seemed to track endlessly through a deep dark black spruce forest. It was slippery with rocks and roots. Fortunately it was only 7.1 kilometres long. We’d hoped to include a boat trip out to see the puffins in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, but even the boat captains had gone home. In the photo above, Ute is poised to take on a good climb.

The East Coast Trail has lots of little ups and downs as the trail goes into and out of small coves or gulches and crosses myriad streams, but overall it’s pretty flat. I found it a much easier trail than the Alpe Adria in Europe where I often climbed well over 1000 metres a day, but the trail was tougher than the Bruce Trail because of all the roots and as a result of it being seriously overgrown. Although I ran into two maintenance crews, one with about 20 people who were camped out on the trail for a month, I had to deal with black spruce, sheeps laurel and Labrador tea that completely covered the trail in places all the way to the end of the ECT in Cappahayden.

This photo doesn’t show very well in a blog, but that’s the nature of a suspension bridge. This one was built by the ECT on the La Manche Path. I really liked this short hike that ended up being about 8k. We combined it with the boat trip we’d missed the day before though with a different company. Our two-hour trip to Great Island began in pretty little Bauline East. As you’ll see below we saw thousands of puffins with their short little wings and colourful beaks. They were everywhere. We also saw razorbills (t’hinkers!) and as the the photo below illustrates, we had a close up with a humpback. Our captain told us the humpbacks are very curious, but don’t seemed to be bothered by the boats. Minkes, he said, were unpredictable.