Hi folks! So these last few days of summer are all about me squeezing in my favorites, like I said… all of the hiking that I should have been doing in July and earlier in August. I couldn’t do a favorites list without Cape Broyle Path, which features my favorite place on the entire ECT: Lance Cove Beach. Just a treasure. I didn’t explore it for long this time around, but that just leaves more reason to go back again!

First, let me say this: the treadway is incredible. The last time I hiked this trail, the first 10km of it were badly overgrown, to the point where I lost the trail a couple of times. Thanks to the ECTA volunteers who have put incredible work into clearing that mess, I don’t recall a single point on the trail where there’s a clear width of less than 5 ft. What a job they did, and the work must have been very hard: hats off.

As I left St. John’s I still hadn’t arranged transportation from one trailhead to the other, but I was optimistic. I tried the two “cab companies” on the Southern Shore. Laughable quotes. At least the guy at Southern Shore Taxi was nice, explained himself, and let me know I’d likely find a ride if I was wearing a backpack anyhow. A+ Taxi and Tour, though, definitely get downgraded to an A-, at least, after quoting me $75 for the ten minute cab ride. Look, I know Cape Broyle is a ways away from Witless Bay where both cab companies are based, but you can get a regular cab fare in CBS, for example, which is pretty close to the same size if you’re talking Topsail to Seal Cove.  $75 is enough for ten trips to Cape Broyle for goodness sake. You can’t call yourself a taxi if you’re charging people an arm and a leg just to come down the road… if I’m not paying what the meter says, you’re at best a tour company or car service, at worst, you’re preying on tourists.

Anyhow, rant over, I gassed up and bought supplies at the Ultramar in Cape Broyle, and immediately found a ride when I asked around (thanks Danika!). Since my ride was leaving to head towards Calvert, I decided to hike the trail south to north, the opposite of last time. I think it was a great decision… it meant the long day was day 1, and it meant climbing Cape Broyle Head at the start of, rather than the end of, my hike. So, so much better.

Early in the hike was this burned out section:

Pretty shocking thing to stumble upon. Still smelled like smoke. In places the trail acted like a firebreak.

“Life finds a way,” as per Dr. Malcolm.

Burned out right to the top of the hill. Could have been much worse by the look of things.

IIRC, the supposed cause of the fire was a lightning strike. Scary stuff. However, think of these pictures when you’re lighting open fires along the trail… there’s a reason they’re not allowed, and this is it.

Anyhow, Cape Broyle Head was as fun as ever, but despite that I made good time to Long Will. That said, my plan was to set up, head down to the beach, and hang out there as it got dark to do some astrophotography. All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature, as they say, though, and the clouds prevented that from happening. I had my fire and my time sitting in the sand so it was all good.

This morning was misty so I packed up the electronics, hence no pictures from day 2. The few times the sun peeked out weren’t enough to justify unpacking it. The only thing I saw that I really regret not catching on film was an immature bald eagle, perched on the rocks about 50 feet from the trail. It was pouring when I saw him so it wasn’t meant to be.

A few pics below, I was hoping to get more on day 2 but them’s the breaks!

Another grey day on the trail.

Mushrooms have started to show up along the trail… no idea what this is (russula something or other maybe?) but it was a beauty.

Passing over Blow Me Down, the crackerberries lined the trail.

Shag Rock Cove, where the sun almost came out.

A mature bald eagle perched on Shag Rocks.

The viewpoint trail at Long Will has that “magical trail through the woods” feeling, though it peters out just past this point.

I didn’t visit in daylight and didn’t want to backtrack so this is my only shot of Lance Cove Beach. Best place on the trail.

My mediocre hang made for an incredible night’s sleep! Never again, tents!

Hi folks! It’s been a long time and the blog had fallen into a bit of disrepair, but I’ve migrated servers and patched up most of the holes, and I’ve been working on my knee to get it hiking strong again. The test of both the retooled blog and the strengthened knee falls on the Cape Broyle Path, and a test it is!

Cape Broyle Path: an interesting one to say the least. This mostly woods trail presents more than its fair share of steretypical woods trail obstacles. I started in Cape Broyle, where hikers have to park at the Ultramar on the main road and hoof it in South Side Road to the end and on to the beach below. The instructions on the ECTA website were easy to follow and accurate, but this is definitely a section that could use some signage. No trailhead makes me feel like I’m missing something.

Hikers should note the red and black plastic blazes that mark the early path, as they’ll be your best friend for the next 10km. Some kind soul, I’m assuming one of the ECTA volunteers, has marked this severely overgrown trail, and that’s a good thing, because there are places where a less than confident hiker might think they had somehow gotten off track and started following a moose path. The obvious, recent moose traffic on the trail doesn’t help with that suspicion. I saw one and I’m sure more than one saw me.

Anyhow, as I said, the first 10km of the trail are pretty overgrown for large stretches. I attempted to capture it on camera as you’ll see below, but it’s hard to get a good picture of the worst of it, where the trees were at eye level across the trail and you couldn’t see the uneven ground at your feet. My guess is this remote trail hasn’t been maintained in years, but the markings make me think a grooming is in the plan, especially given that the last 9km of the trail are well groomed. My advice to hikers is to keep a sharp eye on those red and black blazes: in the densest sections, they’re close enough together that you can always see the next blaze from the current one.

I stayed the night in spectacularly beautiful Long Will Campsite, where three of the five (the map says six) tent platforms are perched on a steep-sided point on the trail to a viewpoint overlooking Lance Cove Beach. I stayed at one of the more sheltered sites. Arriving around supper time, I quickly set up, stowed my gear, grabbed my camera, and headed out to explore Lance Cove Beach. It was worth the slow slog through dense brush: a kilometer-long stretch of sandy beach like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Completely isolated, the sun beating down, the waves crashing, it’s a slice of heaven.

The next morning I set out over top of Lance Cove Beach once again, and a couple of climbs and drops later, was happy to see that the trail was wide and well-groomed. God love the ECTA volunteers, because I don’t know if I could have done the hills that followed if they were as densely packed as those around Gallows Cove. The climb up to Blow Me Down and Cape Broyle Head is a slog, up over a steep hill through trail that’s at times little better than a river. The drop is quick on the other side of Cape Broyle Head approaching Calvert, so be ready to put work in walking this trail in either direction!

Best of all… no knee pain whatsoever! Knock on wood! 🙂

Check out the pictures from my May 24th adventure below!

Along South Side Road behind the Ultramar, an estuary and a bunch of gulls.

This is the cul-de-sac referred to on the map. the trail to the beach is on the right.

Hikers should walk along the beach for three or four minutes.

This is your goal: the rope is the unofficial trailhead. Scrabble up through the trees next to it.

This forest walk uphill sets the tone for the trail.

About 2km in, I see my first official signage.

Redman’s River.

I got turned around once in the brush and ended up here… at least my dead end had a view!

Observe: the red blazes are your friends in these thick sections. Even more so when the thick sections are head height.

The North side of Gallows Cove.

Gallows Cove from above.

Large sections of the trail were like this or worse for the first 10 km. Note my pole at the bottom of the pic for reference.

One of the few unobstructed views of the shoreline along this leg of the journey.

Gentleman’s Cove, hidden from view.

From the viewpoint beyond the Long Will campsite, the first view of Lance Cove.

In the other direction, Freshwater River (the water source for the camp) falls into a cove.

My setup!

A sea stack in Lance Cove.

Well above Lance Cove Beach.

The descent to Lance Cove Beach.

The steps at the bottom have seen better days.

An absolutely spectacular destination for day one.

Lobster pots(?) near the sun-drenched cliff.

Erosion is a nonstop force on the ECT.

The “sand” is actually tiny beach rocks.

What a view.

Little forms of life (some kind of sand flea?) dig little tunnels.

The view from the bottom of a gorge.

A vein of some mineral (quartz?) runs through the rock near the beach.

I could go no further! The north end of the beach went unexplored.

The contrast of the sun on the hill and my shaded patch of sand.

One last look down the beach before climbing back out.

The climb back up is less fun than it looks.

Lance Cove the next morning.

A river crossing.

At the 9 or 10 km point, Obvious signs of maintenance! Thanks ECTA!

The viewpoint offers a view of Shag Rock Cove and what I can only assume is Shag Rock.

Shag Rock Cove.

Shag Rock Cove from the other side.

Some old-school planks!

A picnic table in an open field seemed like a good spot for a break.

Church Cove.

The trails that are cut into these steep hills blow my mind.

Blow Me Down from a viewpoint approaching it.

Blow Me Down. No view available.

The one patch of ice left on the trail and it had to be on these stairs? Nice.

The very satisfying view of Calvert from the top of Cape Broyle Head.

A look back at Cape Broyle Head about 10 minutes later.

Approaching Calvert, Castle Point is beautiful and an interesting geological site, but you won’t want to climb it!

The Fisherman’s Memorial on the Stone Island side trail.

The Fisherman’s Memorial.

The end of the road!