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After a period of almost 2 years (life in a pandemic), our family finally made it back to my home community of Robinson’s, Newfoundland. One of the must-do things on our list is visit Searston Beach, located in the beautiful Codroy Valley.
Beautiful Searston Beach at high tide on a cool summer evening.
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This is my it’s post in a while, because we now have two babies!! Elijah was born in April, 2018, and Erik was born in April, 2019. They have made our world complete :) Hiking adventures have taken a hit, but we try to get outside as much as possible. One of our adventures last summer involved staying in an oTentik in Terra Nova National Park (located about 200 km west of St. John’s). These structures fall into the category of “glamping,” which its our needs great since we have a 14 month old and a 2 month old. For any new parents out there, OTentiks are a great way to spend some quality time outside with the new addition(s) for slightly over $100 per night.  Glamping at Terra Nova! The OTentik is made out of a type of canvas with no insulation; it will heat up and cool down very fast. Herring Neck (aka Salt Harbour, my family refers to it as Herring Neck) is yet another picturesque community located on the NorthEast coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has all of the common characteristics of communities scattered along the coast; a rugged coastline, spectacular ocean sunsets, friendly people, a rich fishing history, and an incredible iceberg season from May until July.
The spectacular view at the Top of Herring Neck. This photo was taken during the summer of 2017; it has a place in my memory of my favourite landscape photo of the year.
In early August we enjoyed 8 days on the beautiful East Coast Trail (ECT), a 312 km coastal hiking trail on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. It was a great combination of intense physical workout and beautiful nature scenes. If you plan on thru hiking or section hiking the ECT, check out the website ECT Thru Hike, this website has a ton of information such as transportation to/from trail, individual path distances, road walk distances (I hated walking those), etc. Also, the website has a really great Google Drive spreadsheet with a huge amount of data (i.e. water sources, campsites), I simply made it available offline to my phone and had access to it anytime. Below I tried to select 1 photo/video from each day. It may not be the "best" photo for that particular day, but I would consider it the most important. Enjoy!! Southern Trailhead: 46.861000, -52.944894  Classic ECT photo.
The Cape Blow Me Down Trail, formerly known as the Copper Mine Trail, and also as the Blow-Me-Down Mountain Trail is at the top of my list of favorite trails in Newfoundland with its combination of ocean and mountains. It is located on the West Coast of Newfoundland, about 45 minutes Southwest of Corner Brook and offers a nice mountain climbing experience (you climb up for 2 hrs, and then you climb down), no technical mountain climbing skills are required, and has great views of the beautiful Bay of Islands. Check out the pics below for more information.
Trailhead: 49.061819, -58.305261 
The Cape Blow Me Down Trail is a very "BCish" trail, mountains + ocean.
Twillingate, also known as the land of icebergs, has a great collection of short to medium length trails. One of my favourite ones to hike is the Spiller's Cove Trail which is located on the eastern part of the island.
Beautiful Spillers Cove Trail in Twillingate
The Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland has some great coastal scenery; the major area it is lacking in is summit views. This all changed last night when we visited some friends at Butter Pot provincial park.
The summit view
Located about 50 km east of St. John's, this provincial park is well used by RV'ers but not so much by tenters. We were invited by friends to hike the trail and I had low expectations; was I ever wrong. It provided a good workout, the trail itself was in great shape, there were sections of bedrock to walk over, and it provided a great summit view of Conception Bay, and the central and Eastern parts of the Avalon. Check out the photos below, I am also including the trailhead coordinates because it is a bit difficult to find.
Trailhead: 47.39438, -53.06306
The weather was great, the weekend was long, and our legs were itching for an overnight backpacking trip. The path of choice was Flamber Head Path on the East Coast Trail; which was only a 1 hr drive from St. John's (see map below). We decided to keep things tame and do ~10 km (20 km return), which allowed us to see a superb sunrise at Flamber Head. Check out the pics below.
Sunrise at Flamber Head on the East Coast Trail.
Summer has arrived and the Gout in my foot has finally subsided; time to get out and enjoy the East Coast Trail. Last weekend we were in the usual predicament of only having one vehicle, so we decided to do a "loop" walk. The path of choice for us was from Witless Bay to Mobile (also known as Beaches path) and returning on the pavement back to our vehicle. In total, it was a great 11.4 km of walking, and the views along the many rocky beaches were fantastic. Check out the pics, elevation profile, and interactive map below.
Near the start of the hike, with a beautiful iceberg in the distance and the rugged Ragged beach.
One month ago I returned to running after at 2-month hiatus, now another hiatus has started and the cause is gout. This has been one of the most painful things I have encountered in my life; gout gout go away!  |
AuthorSheldon Huelin is a proud Newfoundlander and enjoys all things outside. Archives
July 2021
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