July 29,30 – Blow Me Down Provincial Park

Yesterday was a rainy day made for sightseeing from a car so we drove around looking at the bays, inlets, nooks and crannies around the Humber Arm west of Corner Brook. We had lunch at Subway which was serving lobster subs, $12 for a foot long. It was delicious and meaty. Then we went shopping for a vacuum cleaner and book shelf to go with the desk after we removed and disassembled one of the comfy chairs.

The rainy days cost the most because we end up fixing thing and changing the interior of the RV. We have removed one of the wing chairs and installed a desk for the laptop and underneath there are shelves for our shoes. This change means that the fold out bed is just a sofa, not a bed anymore. We are finding our needs are evolving and to keep organized we need more shelves and an office like area. We rarely entertain at campgrounds, as we get up early to tour and hike, then come back late to have dinner, upload pictures, make notes, study guides to plan the next day and rest. We do meet many of the same people over and over again in the various campgrounds, shopping in town, at museums, hikes and other places.

Today we headed to “Blow Me Down” Provincial Park and along the way, we spotted a waterfall from the highway, that starts at the top of the mountain with a stunning vertical drop from an elevation of 200 metres. The hike to the base was ridiculously long and seemed to follow a wet stream bed so half a kilometre in, we felt it was too arduous with all the water drowning the trails so we packed it in.

We also stopped at York Harbour but there was not much to look at.

The trail in the park starts in a forest and winds around to the top of the mountain platform that overlooks the Bay of Islands, Lark & York Harbour, and the Blow Me Down range of mountains (450 million year old volcanic rock).

 

Looking back down to the beach where the trail had started.

   

For the return trail we took the Governor’s Staircase (2.8 kms) which was a steep set of stairs clinging to the side of the cliff that falls into the water.

 

The bottom was so close to the water’s edge that at high tide, you would get wet standing on the bottom step.

The afternoon trail, at Cedar Cove was treacherously muddy and wet so we called it quits after 1.8 kms. It was not worth twisting an ankle, falling into the mud or having an accident due to the conditions of the trail. There are more trails and more days, so why waste your time if you are not having fun.

Leaving the hike at Cedar Cove, we wandered over to the dock where fishing boats had pulled in with their harvest of fish.

 

One fisherman was sorting his catch (Flounder and Cod) into huge bins for weighing and another boat of two men were gutting, filleting, cod tongues, cheeks and washing their catch for local use, probably residents and restaurants (they had too much for personal consumption).

Cutting out the cod tongues.

 

July 28 – To Cornerbrook

Another easy drive with somewhat boring scenery across the middle of Newfoundland to our next campground just outside of Cornerbrook.

After lunch, we walked around downtown a bit but every once in a while the smell of the paper mill would dominate.

Next we headed up to Crow Hill to the Captain Cook Historic Site where there were a bunch of summer students putting on a play about Captain Cook’s exploits in the area.

  

July 27 – Baie Verte Peninsula

The forecast is not promising with rain later in the day but we only have a limited number of days left to complete the trip so we are going to hike regardless. The first one on the agenda is Rattling Brook Falls in the town by the same name.  It is a 1 km steep, vertical stairway to get to platforms to view the spectacular 800 ft waterfall.

The view from partway in, before we started climbing.

 

We are constantly amazed at the quality of the trails in Newfoundland. Even the smallest towns have trails with high quality boardwalks and stairs. 

 

   

A guy we met on the trail said there were some good hikes in Brighton. Since we had not fixed plans today off we went, even through it was a about an hours drive.

We first passed through Robert’s Arm with its dragon and marina.

We hiked Cobblers Trail (2 kms) which was the best maintained of all the paths we have visited. First there was a message board at the start showing you where the path went and the sights at each lookout (painted scenes on boards at each junction). Then as you traverse the paths, there a is boardwalk where it is wet (how civilized!), stairs instead of rocky, slippery tree roots and steep pitches, and the signage was painted with scenes of the lookouts. There was no doubt where the path went and one could not get lost on this loop (Wow, it is not one way only) that was easier at the end when you were tired. Oh yes, the town maintains this without begging for money through admission fee or donation box.

 

   

 

 

Looking back at the hill we had gone over.

Heading back we stooped in Triton and hiked part of the Maple Ridge Trail. We couldn’t believe this one. It was 7 kilometers of boardwalk like this. That’s a LOT of money.

The trail wasn’t even that picturesque. We got about 3 km in and saw the mussel farm in the bay and turned around.