Author Archives: Jill and Bud

The weather wasn’t too auspicious for our arrival in Quebec on Wednesday. Matey and I discovered the beach just off the campground but this is about all we could see of it.

This morning the beach was a lot more picturesque.

Yesterday we weren’t totally socked in with fog, but it was still cloudy so we decided to take in a few historic sites within this huge park. First we visited Fort Penninsule which was built during WWII to protect allied ships sheltering in Gaspe’ Bay from German U-boats.

Beneath the gloom you can see Gaspe’ to the right and Douglastown towards the left. The guns commanded the entire bay from where they were dug in.

Next we visited a couple of places that have been preserved from when this land became a park. This is the homestead of the Blanchette family.

Besides the house there was the barn and several outbuildings. Unfortunately nothing was open this late in the season.

We had higher hopes for Hyman and Sons General Store, but it was only open from noon until four. We were there in the morning as it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we only got to peek in the windows. It did rain in the afternoon and I spent the time in the little laundromat doing our wash.

Today was supposed to be cloudy but dry so we planned a hike. Most of the day ended up being sunny. This is Cap-Bon-Ami where we hiked.

We were headed up to the tower on that cliff. Don’t see it?

There it is, I zoomed in. It was only 1.4 miles to it, but 935 feet up!

There were several places to stop and enjoy the view. Our truck is parked in that lot.

After the first big uphill, that ran along the old ox cart trail the folks who lived here used, there was a set of the Canadian National Parks red Adirondack chairs. You might think this was the summit, but it was far from it.

We got higher…

and higher,

until we arrived at the base of the tower. Matey rested there while Bud and I took turns taking in the view from the top.

You could look right down on where we came from.

To the southeast was Cap-Gaspe’, where the Appalachian mountains plunge beneath the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. (They come up again as the Long Range Mountains in western Newfoundland.)

I took this panoramic shot facing west and you can see the whole peninsula, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the right to Gaspe’ Bay on the left.

The way back down was easier on the lungs and harder on the joints. This is some of the steepest part of the old ox-cart trail. The rope helped.

We were rewarded when we got down by rocks full of seals.

They were calling so I tried to catch it on video. You can’t really hear them, though, so I’m including this clip that has more movement but only one little bit of a call right at the end. There was also a small whale, but he didn’t stay on the surface long enough for me to get a picture.

In the afternoon we drove to the town of Gaspe’ to a seafood store. We decided to cross the peninsula there to come back along the northern side. We came out at Rivière-au-Renard where they have a decent little harbor. We happened to drive out on the wharf just as this Canadian Coast Guard boat was coming in.

There were some big fishing boats there…

as well as an operating seafood plant.

There were probably as many boats on the hard as there were in the water; a reminder that we’re moving closer to winter. Tomorrow we move on, hopefully staying ahead of any really cold weather.

This is not what we usually see when we pull into a campground.

But this is a ski slope in the winter.

When I checked in the woman said I might want to change my site as we were in the overflow area. “It’s just a big open area,” she said, “although you’ll be the only ones there.” “Perfect,” I replied, “our TV satellite antenna will work.” So here we are in the overflow area and it suits us fine. We actually have more privacy than the folks in the sites in the woods, as they have neighbors.

Matey and I were able to walk in the woods while Bud took the truck to the nearby town for an oil change.

The sun even peeked out from time to time.

We ended up on a very large trail at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain.

I prefer smaller paths, but it was pretty.

We came out near the entrance to the park and got a look at Sugarloaf Mountain, which is not the mountain with the ski trails. This is a nice place for our last stop in New Brunswick.

We are now at Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick. The young woman at the gate wrote it out phonetically for me; Coo she boo guac (the guac as in guacamole). That’s my chair set up on my patio for today where I’m writing this.

The park is along the coast of New Brunswick across from Prince Edward Island where the Kouchibouguac River runs into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The name means river of the long tides. You can see the mouth of the river from the path that runs along the campground.

This morning Bud, Matey and I went for a couple of short walks. First we walked out on a bog. The trail started through a very damp forest.

Then it opened out to the bog where they had this viewing tower. This is a dome bog. It started some 4500 years ago in a depression. But now the sphagnum moss is about 20 feet deep in the center, where it is oldest, and that center is raised higher than the surrounding area. The water and moss are gradually moving outward, slowly increasing the size of the bog.

Next we took a stroll along a path by the river. This part was through a stand of tall pines.

At one point a pine, a larch and a spruce were over the trail, so I had to get their picture. I like the greater variety of trees we’re seeing now.

There were even a number of apple trees, probably there was once an orchard here.

We walked down to where there were a couple of viewing platforms with picnic tables.

A nice place to sit…

with a good view of the river.

With its level terrain, grass and trees, this park does not offer a lot of excitement, but it does offer a great feeling of peace.

We’re back in Nova Scotia and heading west. We’re at Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Cheticamp Campground. It’s a pretty campground.

Nova Scotia has more soil and so big trees. I like that.

Today we took a drive east along the Cabot Trail to a trail out onto White Point. On the trip out it was foggy and rainy and there were no views at the vistas. We did however have a young bear lope across the road in front of the truck. Of course I wasn’t fast enough to get his picture. It was still foggy at the point but clear enough to appreciate the cliffs.

And clear enough to watch the grey seals swimming at the base of the cliffs. They appeared to be hunting. When they surfaced they were always facing the shore and through the binoculars they seemed to be looking right back at us. We watched one group of about 10 seals. These are big animals. Adults can be over 6 feet long and weigh over 700 pounds.

Farther out on the point there was another group of seals. That is one seal sitting on a rock. It was a big one.

Besides the seals and other birds, this bald eagle was hunting fish off these cliffs, too.

On the trip back to camp it started to clear off. Now we could see the highlands.

The sea and shore were lovely.

As we were coming down along the shore I saw black humps in the water. I told Bud to pull off at the next opportunity. Several other people were there watching, too. A look through the binoculars confirmed that we were seeing whales. One of the other watchers said they were probably pilot whales. There were about eight of them. You’ll have to take my word for it, as this was the best the iPhone would do.

It would have been a beautiful trip, regardless, but seeing the animals made it a very good day!

Our last day began with a very auspicious sunrise. We are back at Grand Codroy RV Park which was our first stop in Newfoundland.

We had decided to take the morning to travel past the ferry port on the southern coast to see a lighthouse the owner of this rv park told us about. This is called the granite coast, for obvious reasons.

This was again different than the other coasts where we have been, but still beautiful.

The lighthouse was in the little village of Rose Blanche.

The name has nothing to do with flowers. It’s a corruption of the French words roche blanche, which means white rock. The rocks on that far hillside are quartz and shine bright white in the sun (absent when I took the picture).

It was another dazzling view accessed by another well made walking path.

The lighthouse, which was built in 1873, had been abandoned. The wooden roof rotted and the walls collapsed. All that was left was the tower.

After years of effort the lighthouse was restored in 1999. 80% of the stones are original, the rest were cut from the same nearby quarry as was used in its construction. This is the only granite lighthouse in Atlantic Canada.

The keeper’s quarters have been furnished with items donated by the community.

The fresnel lens is on display.

This is looking up at the granite stairway in the tower. I walked up and it gave a hollow sound with each step. It didn’t sound very sturdy, but the stairs are what kept the tower intact.

On our way to the lighthouse we noticed this falls in the distance. I wanted to stop and get a photo.

Of course there was a well constructed path and a sign telling us these were the Barachois Falls.

This path was built the entire 3,000 meters to the falls.

That’s because it led over a bog.

A bog on a hillside! I was in heaven. The pitcher plants and sphagnum moss made their own fall colors.

As is usual there was a picnic table built at a spot with a lovely view.

And then there was the falls.

I have thought about what makes Newfoundland so inviting. It is not just that the people you meet are so nice. Every community has pull-offs with trails and benches and informational signs. It’s as if the people are saying, “Come on, you’ve gotta see this.” And never have I walked a trail or taken in a view where I thought, “Eh, I could have done without seeing that”.

And so, now that we’ve seen our last sunset in Newfoundland (at least for this trip) I will pass along their unspoken invitation, “Come on, you’ve gotta see this!”

The Exploits River is the longest river on the island of Newfoundland. Its headwaters are in the southwest highlands (lower left on the map) and it flows over 150 miles to the Bay of Exploits (upper right on the map). But it had never been an important river for Atlantic salmon. We are at the blue dot, between Bishop’s Falls and Grand Falls on the Exploits River, and the salmon never made it past Grand Falls to spawn, so they only used about 10% of the river system. The number of salmon returning to spawn each year was about 1200. (Unlike Pacific salmon which spawn and die, about 30% of Atlantic salmon return to spawn again, some for several years).

Atlantic salmon are in trouble due to habitat loss and pollution. A group of concerned Newfoundlanders thought they could help. They formed the Environmental Resource Management Association, ERMA. Their goal was to not only restore salmon to the downstream portion of the Exploits River, but to open more of the river as salmon habitat.

Today we visited their Salmonid Interpretation Center, which is only a couple of miles from our campground. Just getting there was an adventure. We crossed two more one lane, wood bed bridges, this one by far the larger.

They faced quite a task, even before the hydroelectric dam salmon had not been able to get upstream of the Grand Falls.

A lot of study, a lot of fundraising and a lot of work enabled them to build a fishway (commonly called a fish ladder) to allow returning salmon to get above the falls and dam. Aerated water is added here to create turbulence that draws the salmon to this route.

Most of the fishway is in a tunnel under grates. Where Bud and Matey are standing the tunnel makes a right angle turn. When first used the fishway only went as far as the turn. From there the salmon were loaded into tanks and transported by truck to the river above the dam and falls. That’s dedication! In addition, the hydro company installed a fish diversion structure to guide the fish headed downstream to the route around their turbines. 98% of the smelt (2 or 3 year old salmon making their first trip to the sea) are successfully diverted.

Today the fishway is complete and includes viewing walls in the basement of the Interpretive Center. These are wild salmon, not in tanks but in the fishway.

ERMA started with 300 salmon taken from the river below the falls. There was a 90% hatch rate of their protected eggs. The fry were then released in suitable habitat far upstream. At last count 45,000 salmon came back to the Exploits to spawn.

The community, businesses and government agencies all worked together to make this happen. Apparently ERMA runs this campground, so it’s nice to think that some of our payment will go to continue to help the salmon.

We’re halfway back across Newfoundland in Grand Falls-Windsor at Sanger Memorial RV Park. It’s a pretty place.

We’re in a pull-through site with no trees, but plenty of space.

Matey and I went out for our exploratory walk and I spotted this path.

It led down to this trail along the Exploits River (again the names!).

This was another well made, well maintained walking path, with stairs,

bridges,

overlooks,

and picnic tables.

I realized that out of the seven rv campgrounds we’ve stayed at, 6 of them have had trails right from the campground. All as pretty as this one.

And every community we have been to has had trails to the beautiful places around them.

I think Newfoundlanders must love to walk and love nature as much as I do!

Prince Edward Island was perfect for bikers, but Newfoundland is for walkers.

We’re staying at Waterford River Valley Campground in Mount Pearl, which is a suburb of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Yes, St. John’s is big enough to have a suburb, just. This is a pretty nice place for a commercial, urban campground.

Right next to our site is a trail that crosses a footbridge over the Waterford River. Though I must say, the “River” is smaller than Big Brook in Terra Nova. Not sure I get the names here.

The trail from the campground links up to this section of the Newfoundland T’Railway, which is part of the Trans Canada Trail.

Today we drove out to Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America. This sign was there, point zero for the Trans Canada Trail.

And here am I, at the easternmost point. That’s it folks, it’s all water from here.

We noticed the rocks here were rounded, not fractured like at Cape Bonavista.

There are two lighthouses on Cape Spear. This is the modern one, in use today, that was built in 1955.

This is the original one, built in 1835 and the oldest lighthouse still standing in Newfoundland.

The lightkeeper’s quarters were in the square wooden structure that was built around the stone tower. It has been restored to the way it looked in 1839.

Having a tower in the middle of your house made for some unusual hallways.

The quarters were two floors…

though between the tower and the roof, the second floor rooms were a bit cramped.

Notice the sperm oil in the supplies. It was commonly used in the lights of lighthouses.

You could get a peek up to the top of the tower but that was closed off.

The residents had a nice view! (Bud and Matey are waiting for me at the green bench.)

From Cape Spear we looked across St. John’s Bay to Signal Hill. The tiny tower you see in the photo is Cabot Tower. The entrance to the harbour is just to the left of that hill.

We drove there next. The hill has a history of being used for defense and also, because it is so tall and so close to the city and harbour, for sending signals. The tower was built in 1897.

Signal Hill was also the place where the first transatlantic wireless signal was received by Marconi in 1901.

Today it offers trails for hiking, (can you see the Canadian National Park red Adirondack chairs?)

and great views of St. John’s and its harbour.

The harbour entrance looked really narrow. That boat is heading in.

I tried to capture it with this panoramic shot.

Our route back took us through the city past these colorful row houses…

and city hall. The front plaza has a stone plaque for km 0 for Trans Canada Highway 1; yep, we are all the way east!

We’ve been doing a lot of driving lately so today we stayed in the park.

We found a trail about 10 miles away that was short and moderately difficult. After a few hundred yards through the trees we came out on a rocky slope.

It was pretty steep, but not too difficult. We had come from those trees…

and we were heading to that bald knob.

Yes, those are stairs on it.

Thanks to these easy to see and informative trail markers I know this hill is granite. Another marker said the rocks were scored by glaciers. What was more remarkable to us was that in many places the rocks were polished smooth enough by the glaciers to shine in the sun. But my camera eliminated the reflection so I couldn’t capture that.

It didn’t take too long for us to reach the top.

We took a few minutes to rest…

and soak in the sun and views.

Then we went back down, which was actually more difficult.

On the way back we took a side road a mile and a half to Blue Hill. The overlook was just down a short path from the parking lot. This is the highest point in Terra Nova National Park at 653 feet.

It was a great day to see the park from there.

653 feet might not seem too high, but you are very close to the sea. Our last stop had a foot bridge over a bit of the bay and this jellyfish was just about to float under the bridge on the outgoing tide.

Beauty is everywhere here.

We needed to rotate the tires on the trailer. The man from the trailer next to us saw us working and came over. Thursday, when we started the second side, Dennis was right there helping. He noticed the wheel bearings were loose. This is everything left as Bud drove to town for more grease, because of course there was at least one thing we needed that we didn’t have. In any case, Bud got the grease, we checked all four wheels and found the leak in the tire that had been very slowly loosing air.

Friday morning while Bud took our tire in for repair I walked over to talk to Dennis as he was picking up to leave. His wife, Florence, stuck her head out. Since they are from Newfoundland I asked where they would recommend we go now that we had a sunny day. While chatting I asked them if they were born in Newfoundland. Oh yes, said Dennis, “my last name is Porter and I grew up in Porterville”. He asked me if we ever got to see an iceberg. We didn’t, we came too late in the summer. So Florence got a baggie and they gave me some of their stash of iceberg ice! And they let me take this picture.

They said it was worth it to go back to Bonavista in the sunshine, so we did. The rocks were even more beautiful.

The deep and narrow slots in this region are spectacular.

And this time we could see the light house.

We discovered a puffin colony right by the lighthouse. Their island was a bit further from shore than the one in Elliston, but it was easier to see them in the sunshine. I got to watch them with the binoculars, you could see them going in and out of the burrows they dig for nesting.

Florence and Dennis also recommended the Skerwink Trail, on the way back from Bonavista. They had hiked it and seen whales. This is another trail maintained by the people of Newfoundland.

It started as gravel and there were a lot of people there. However, on the north side it passed two capelin beaches. Capelin are a small, silvery fish that come here to spawn. Whales love them, so we decided to hike as far as the capelin beaches.

It went quite a ways along flat land, although with lovely scenery.

We passed a house with a garden with this ingenious woven fence.

The gravel ended at this sign. We took the coastal route.

Yes, there were high cliffs. And beautiful views.

But the trail was well maintained.

This is the first capelin beach.

There were a lot of peeks at the high cliffs,

and downright dramatic views.

We went as far as the next lookout where we saw the second capelin beach as well as Skerwink Head. But capelin season is over and there were no whales.

So we are planning to come back next year, arriving in mid-June. We want to be here in iceberg and whale season and we love the hospitality of the Newfoundlanders!