ECT Series: Flamber Head Path

February 14, 2024July 11, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

I hiked Flamber Head Path for the first time in July 2023. Flamber Head seems to be a relatively popular section of the East Coast Trail, so I’m surprised it took me so long to finally hike this section. I was hoping to do the 14km section as an overnight trip, but the weather and dates didn’t really line up, so I opted to day hike it with Mom and my friend, Sean.

Flamber Head Path runs from Brigus South to La Manche. The trail maps are a little deceiving, because it lists the trail as 12km in length, but doesn’t account for an additional 2km of hiking from the parking lot to La Manche suspension bridge. If you want to extend the hike to Bauline South, you could knock out 2 sections of the trail at once and avoid the access road. I’ve already done the section from La Manche to Bauline a few times, so we just hiked back to our car.

We started the hike at Brigus South and it took us 6.5 hours in total to complete the 14km hike. We did all the side trail viewpoints, stopped at Flamber Head for lunch to do some whale watching, and went for a swim near the bridge. The net elevation gain on the hike is only like 70 metres, but there is a lot of up and down, so the total elevation gain is actually over 400 metres, which definitely adds up!

The trail out of Brigus South is nice and scenic along the coast, so it doesn’t take too long to reach the campsite, which is located at the 3.5km mark. It would make a good overnight trip after work on a Friday night in the summer, because you don’t have to walk too far on the first day. Unfortunately, the campsite has really fallen into disrepair. There’s a lot of sketchy trees that look like they’re about the come down, and almost every tent pad has boards missing.

I found this to be the case at the Cape Broyle campsite as well, which is really sad, because I don’t think the ETCA has been keeping up with maintenance for the campsites. To be fair, it’s a very long trail that needs constant maintenance every year in clearing blowdown and repairing boardwalk, so I know they are likely strapped for cash and time since Newfoundland summers are very short. I know the ECT sees a lot more traffic from day hikers than campers, but I think the ECT could really turn into a cool thru-hiking destination if the campsites were better kept and more plentiful. At the moment, it’s a more rugged experience, which is fine, but a little sad to see the limited number of campsites in such rough shape.

The campsite itself is in the trees and not very scenic, so I think people have taken to camping on Flamber Head instead, which is another 1km past the campsite. There is a stream with drinking water just past the campsite, which poor Sean fell in trying to cross, so it’s easily accessible from either the campsite or the Head. The main issue with camping on Flamber Head would be the wind, as there’s no shelter out there. So I’d only attempt it if I had a robust tent and the forecast was good.

The view from Flamber Head is gorgeous though! We hung around for a while, eating our lunch (including mom’s homemade cream-cheese brownies) and watching for whales. I’d say it’s probably the best viewpoint on the trail, but there are nice views at Gentleman’s Head (km 7) and Gull Rocks (km 9) as well. Gull Rocks requires a bit of extra hiking uphill, but it’s a stellar (albeit windy) view of the coast. Me and Mom hiked up it, but Sean was having a rough day, so he waited us out at the bottom.

Hiking on the East Coast Trail can be incredibly draining, because there is a lot of up and down and the trail can sometimes be pretty technical. Overall, the constant uphill hiking in BC has aided me a lot in my endurance for hiking on the ECT, but exercise caution, because it is a very different type of trail and the variation can wear you out. When me and Emily day hiked the Spout, we pretty much hobbled out the trail at the end.

The La Manche suspension Bridge is located at the end of the official ECT section and is a fun highlight of the trail. The suspension bridge and surrounding stairs underwent a full upgrade in 2023, so they’re in great condition now! But the highlight of this section for me is swimming in the little river pool before it discharges to the ocean. I’ve swam here on several occasions and even though it was a chilly day, the water was super warm! Mom joined me and we had a nice little refreshing soak in the pool before doing the final 2km back to the car.

We nearly killed Sean on this hike, but I had a great time exploring a popular part of the trail that I’d never done before. I’d definitely recommend giving yourself a full day to explore, because there are lots of different highlights along the trail. Bring your binoculars for the viewpoints and your swimsuit for the river!

ECT Series: Caplin Bay Path

February 7, 2024July 11, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

Caplin Bay Path is another short section of the East Coast Trail that can be done as a round trip if you don’t have two vehicles. I did it as a round trip, returning to my car via the road, but it’s a short enough trail that it’s nicer to just do a there and back rather than walking along the road. It was approximately 5.5km for me, but if you do it as a one-way hike, it’s only 3.5km from trailhead to trailhead.

The trail officially runs from Calvert to Ferryland, but it doesn’t quite connect with either town. If you want to go all the way to Ferryland, there is another inland trail that you can connect to off of Sunnyhill Road to continue to Ferryland if you have 2 cars. You could even add the trail to the lighthouse if you want to make it a full day trip.

I started the trail from Calvert and hiked down to Deep Cove to eat my lunch, which is located very close to the trailhead. Most of the trail is in the woods, but the beach at Deep Cove is gorgeous and would be a decent place for swimming if you’re brave enough. There are some more nice viewpoints on the opposite end of the trail at Caplin Bay, but no where else with direct beach access.

There’s not too much to say about the trail. It has very minimal elevation gain and it only took me about 1.5 hours round trip to do the whole thing there and back. Even though much of the trail is in the woods, there is a really nice view of Lance Cove at the midpoint of the trail, and there are some really pretty meadows on the Ferryland side of the trail. But you do pop off the trail at one point and have to cross through the back of the school, so it doesn’t feel like a very remote trail.

The nice part about walking back the road was that I decided to stop at the Squid Jigger Restaurant for a seafood dinner on my way back to my car! There’s not too much to see on the trail overall, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re a visitor to Newfoundland.

It’s a good short day hike for locals, especially if you only have one car, but it is a long drive to get down there, which is why I did Caplin Bay Path and Mudder Wet Path both on the same day. I’m glad to have crossed it off my list of ECT sections!

ECT Series: Mudder Wet Path

January 31, 2024July 11, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

Mudder Wet Path is a funny little part of the East Coast Trail in Aquaforte. If you’ve never heard of it, I think it’s because it was officially added to the Spurwink Path, which I don’t really like because Spurwink is already a long section of trail, so I think a lot of people skip the Mudder Wet section of it when they do it (which was the case for me when I did Spurwink). My ECT map collection is quite old, from when Mudder Wet Path was considered it’s own section of the trail, so I did a double header in June 2023 and did Mudder Wet and Caplin Bay Path on the same day, since they’re both pretty short.

The Mudder Wet section runs from Aquaforte to the trailhead of the Spurwink Path off the highway. It’s under 2km if you do it one way, but it can be extended up to 5.5km if you do it as a round trip with some of the side trails (which is how I did it). I parked in Aquaforte and hiked out to the beach at Little River where the Aquaforte River meets the ocean. The official trail does a big roundabout back to the highway to hike around the ravine where Little River comes down, before returning the beach on the other side of little River. Then you can continue up along the river to the highway where you connect with Spurwink.

I hiked down to the beach on the way in and found a side trail that hikes up along Little River to a waterfall. It’s a nice little hike – I was hoping it would connect back to the official trail, but because of the steep walls of the ravine, I had to hike back to the beach and do the full roundabout. I continued the long way and did the whole trail back to Spurwink, but on the way back I decided to try and save myself some time. I hiked back down to the beach at Little River and crossed the river instead of hiking back up around it. The river was flowing low enough and the tide was way out, so I was able to cross without taking my shoes off. So it can be done, but I’m not sure how frequently. I think if it was high tide it might not be crossable at all.

So it’s a small little trail, but I ended killing more than an hour and a half there with all the exploring. I decided to include my GPS track below for reference since the descriptions can be pretty confusing. I wouldn’t put this trail very high up my list of trails to do on the ECT, but it was one I needed to do to complete the trail and I had a nice time hiking it solo. There are really nice views of Aquaforte Harbour.