A Quiet Day at L’Anse-au-Clair

After all the driving yesterday, and anticipating more driving in the days to come, we decided to spend the day close to home.

We drove less than a mile to this nicely done parking lot for the Jersey Shore section of the Pioneer Footpath. Again I am impressed, now on the Labrador side of this province, by how well these trails are done and how welcome they make you feel. I took this picture as we were returning from our walk. It’s a beautiful Sunday, the first weekend of summer (albeit only in the upper 50’s here today) and we are the only vehicle in the lot. We did meet three locals on the trail, but we pretty much had it to ourselves.

The Labrador Pioneer Footpath leads from the border with Quebec, through several small towns to Pinware Provincial Park. That’s 30 miles by road, not sure just how long the trail is. We were on the first segment of it yesterday to look for the iceberg. Today we walked a bit of it closer to the water’s edge.

The trail follows the footpaths used between communities before the road was built. The footpaths often followed the telegraph lines, and the section we walked had remnants of the old posts, propped up with stone cairns because the only “soil” here is peat and that won‘t support a pole.

This is called the Jersey Shore because it was used as a summer stopping place by whalers from the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands off the north coast of France. One young seaman, James Dumaresq, settled here in 1810, the first permanent settlement in the area. The place became known as L’anse au Cotard. There were only ever three buildings here and the highest census was 17 people, all of his family. This is the foundation of the main house. The settlement was abandoned after a fire but his descendants still live in L’anse-au-Clair.

They may have chosen this spot as there is a little brook that flows down here.

It’s also sheltered from the wind by the steep bank behind it.

Now it provides a destination for this lovely trail, which in typical Newfoundland and Labrador fashion is nicely done. This stop had a bench, information, a picnic table, a viewing scope and a trash receptacle.

Nearby was this little stone room on the edge of the water that was used as a blind for hunting seagulls. Yes, seagulls. Evidently they tried for the young, gray ones, which were more tender.

It was a lovely walk.

The landscape was striking.

That’s me, giving scale to the stone outcrop.

I got the wearing of the bug jacket down, but it was windy so no bugs and for most of the walk my hood was off.

We were hoping to see whales or seals, but only saw ducks and “our” iceberg. We’re pretty sure one end broke off, there were a lot of small ice chunks in the water near it.

Still, it was a nice walk and I added another new plant. Those pink flowers are on a foot high bush. It looked like miniature azaleas. It’s bog laurel, Kalmia polifolia, and is in the same family as azaleas. This place is a botanist’s dream!