ECT Series: Sugarloaf Path

December 8, 2021November 18, 2021 / Maria / 1 Comment

I’m going to kick off my East Coast Trail series with a post about the Sugarloaf Path, which runs from Logy Bay to Quidi Vidi. It’s the most accessible trail from St. John’s and has many beautiful views along the coast, though it is rated as difficult on the ECT website.

From my experience, the website slightly overestimates trail lengths and this 8.9km trail tracked as 8.5km on my GPS when I did it. Personally I don’t think it’s a very difficult trail, certainly it’s well maintained and easy to navigate, but there are two climbs throughout the trail, which is what I think contributes to the “difficult” rating. You can do the trail in either direction, the difficulty is approximately the same either way, with both directions starting with a big climb. I’ve done the trail twice, both times starting at the Ocean Science Center in Logy Bay and ending in Quidi Vidi. I like this direction because you end with a beautiful view looking down into the gut. But, the view into Logy Bay is also gorgeous, so you can’t go wrong with either direction!

Like I said, from the Ocean Science Center, the hike starts with a climb up to the top of the bluff. I don’t find it too bad and often hike up and back just for the view. It’s a great area for blueberry picking in the Fall, but popular and often picked clean. There’s a great view down into Logy Bay from Devil’s Point and looking out towards Cape Spear at Sugarloaf Head, which is the highest point on the hike. After that, it’s a pretty gradual descent through the trees around Robin Hood Bay.

Robin Hood Bay is the only real downside of this hike. For those from St. John’s, you’ll know that this is the location of the town dump. In past years, this has created a lot of debris and plastic garbage that’s blown across the trail, but thanks to a ban on plastic bags and capping at the landfill, I couldn’t believe how much the trail was improved on my last hike here in July 2021. I visited with Sean and my Mom and we were quite impressed with how much nicer the trail is through this section now!

You reach Small Point at around the halfway point in the trail, breaking out of the trees into a gorgeous meadow! It has beautiful views and makes for a great place to stop for lunch, which is what we did on our visit. The East Coast Trail is a trail that definitely benefits from nice weather. The first time I did the trail was in 2013 with Seth and it was a super foggy day, meaning that we could barely even see the ocean, despite being right next to it. On this visit, we started in the fog, but it quickly cleared out and we had a lovely view of the Atlantic from Small Point, it was honestly like a completely different trail for me!

There’s an old bunker located along the cliffside in this stretch, which Sean informed us was an old lookout for U-boats and that there are many of them scattered along the trail (he works for Parks Canada). We did a little bit of poking around, but it’s dug out of the cliffside and the ladder is busted, so I wouldn’t recommend going inside. We got lucky though and saw a bunch of whales fishing off the coast while we were hiking along the exposed sections.

After Small Point, the trail meanders in and out of the woods. We could still hear the whales spouting while we were in the trees and then every now and then we would pop out of the trees to catch up with them. There’s a nice little river crossing at Bobbies Cove, shortly after which you reach an old road, which is the low elevation point on the hike. You start the second climb of the trail after that; it is a bit steep, but like most of the ECT, there are stairs on this section, so you can just take your time and it doesn’t take too long to get back up to the top of the bluff.

Shortly after Boulder’s Cove, you reach the top of the climb and have the most gorgeous view looking down towards Quidi Vidi. Then it’s only a short walk back down towards the gut. Pay close attention to the trail markers in this section though – it’s frequented by mountain bikers, so there are a lot of other paths crisscrossing the ECT. It is easier to follow the path up from the other direction, which is one of the benefits of doing the path in reverse. It looks like any of the paths should get you down, but there is one tricky section where there’s a bit of a ravine and only one path across, so if you get off the official ECT, you might miss it and then have to climb back up. Me and Seth got super lost when we did it, but we knew to pay attention when I did it with Sean and Mom and we didn’t have any problems.

The fun thing about the ECT is because NL is so rocky and barren, you often have to look down for trail markers, which are affixed directly to the rock. Watch for arrows engraved and painted in the rock, or the wooden trail stakes, which are painted striped black and white. The universal symbol along the trail for the ECT is a white triangle.

Eventually you reach the end of the trail along Cadet Road, right before the village. You can leave a second car parked along the road, otherwise you’ll have to go back to Logy Bay or get picked up. The trail ends right next to the Plantation and Brewery, so check out the local artisans, have a pint, or see if the local ice cream truck is open for a sweet treat if you’re there in the summer!

East Coast Trail Hiking Series

December 1, 2021December 24, 2021 / Maria / 2 Comments

I’ve decided to branch out a bit with a new series about hiking the East Coast Trail. I’ve done a ton of hiking (and blog posts) about my adventures in BC and my travels abroad, but I haven’t taken the time to write about one of my all time favourite trails. I grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland and have spent lots of time hiking this unique trail over the past 10 years or so. I figured it was time to share it with the rest of you!

The East Coast Trail is approximately 300km of trail that runs down the entire coast of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. It’s hard to determine the exact length of the trail because it stops in many communities as you travel down the coast and can be completed either as a thru-hike, or much more popularly, as section hikes. According to the East Coast Trail Association, which maintains and manages the trails, the trail is comprised of 25 paths that connect more than 30 coastal communities. It you opt to do the trail as a thru-hike it would be more than 300km with all the road walking between communities. The longest section of trail is 23km, so most Newfoundlanders opt to do the trail as a series of section hikes, either with 2 vehicles or as a round trip. You are permitted to camp anywhere along the trail, but there are 5 official campsites along the larger sections of trail if you want to do some sections as an overnight.

The trail is entirely coastal, though of course it does go through large sections of wooded areas where the coast is not directly accessible. While it’s not mountainous, it is still a very strenuous trail as it will take you up and down through many beaches, coves, and headlands over the length of the trail. Some trails are more well maintained than others, making for some pretty technical hikes along some of the longer and less travelled paths. But the trail passes through some of the most beautiful coastline and rural communities and I love hiking there on a sunny day, with the wind blowing at my back, eating copious amounts of fresh berries and watching the whales fish along the cliffs.

I’ve slowly been working on tackling this trail over the past 10 years and currently I am about 60% complete. However, the ECT association is always working on continuing to expand the trail and have added 4 trails down the northwest side of the peninsula over the past few years, so the trail is always growing! There’s some variation in paths and I have 28 to complete on my list. My plan is to list all the trails here and then work on individual blog posts for the sections I’ve completed and link them back here as I go.

Trail	From	To	Distance	Time	Rating
Long Shore Path	Topsail	Portugal Cove	17.2km	6-8 hours	Strenuous
Piccos Ridge Path	Portugal Cove	Bauline	14.5km	7-9 hours	Strenuous
White Horse Path	Bauline	Cape St. Francis	18.2km	8-10 hours	Strenuous
Biscan Cove Path	Cape St. Francis	Pouch Cove	7km	2-4 hours	Moderate
Stiles Cove Path	Pouch Cove	Flatrock	15.1km	5-7 hours	Difficult
Father Troy’s Trail	Flatrock	Torbay	8.9km	2-4 hours	Moderate
Silver Mine Head Path	Torbay	Middle Cove	1.9km	1-2 hours	Easy
Cobblers Path	Outer Cove	Logy Bay	5km	2-3 hours	Moderate
Sugarloaf Path	Logy Bay	Quidi Vidi	8.8km	3-5 hours	Difficult
Signal Hill Trail**	Quidi Vidi	The Battery	3km	1-2 hours	Moderate
Deadmans Bay Path	Fort Amherst	Blackhead	10.5km	4-7 hours	Difficult
Blackhead Path	Blackhead	Cape Spear	4.4km	1-2 hours	Moderate
Cape Spear Path	Cape Spear	Maddox Cove	11km	4-6 hours	Moderate
Motion Path*	Petty Harbour	Shoal Bay Road	20.1km	5-8 hours	Difficult
Spout Path*	Shoal Bay Road	Bay Bulls	22.5km	7-9 hours	Strenuous
Mickeleens Path	Bay Bulls	Witless Bay	7.2km	2-4 hours	Moderate
Beaches Path	Witless Bay	Mobile	7.1km	2-3 hours	Easy
Tinkers Point Path	Mobile	Tors Cove	5km	2-3 hours	Easy
La Manche Village Path	Tors Cove	La Manche	7.8km	2-3 hours	Easy
Flamber Head Path*	La Manche	Brigus South	12.9km	5-8 hours	Difficult
Brigus Head Path	Brigus South	Admiral’s Cove	6.4km	2-3 hours	Moderate
Cape Broyle Head Path*	Cape Broyle	Calvert	18.3km	7-10 hours	Strenuous
Caplin Bay Path	Calvert	Ferryland	5.6km	2-3 hours	Easy
Sounding Hills Path	Ferryland	Aquaforte	5.4km	2-3 hours	Moderate
Mudder Wet Path	Aquaforte	Aquaforte	2.9km	1-2 hours	Easy
Spurwink Island Path*	Aquaforte	Port Kirwan	17.1km	7-9 hours	Difficult
Bear Cove Point Path	Port Kirwan	Renews	11.9km	4-6 hours	Moderate
Island Meadow Path	Renews	Cappahayden	10km	3-5 hours	Moderate
Total			285km

*Campsite located on trail **not official ECT section

Hiking Slesse Memorial Trail

November 10, 2021October 20, 2021 / Maria / 1 Comment

Slesse Memorial Trail has been on my bucket list for a while, but the access road is a little bit dicey so we’ve been waiting for the right opportunity. In late September, me, Seth, and Brandon decided to make a go at it.

Slesse Memorial is a 12km out-and-back trail located off Chilliwack Lake Road. After having driven the access road, we wouldn’t say that you have to have 4WD to get to the trailhead, but high clearance would definitely be an asset. You won’t get there in a car, but potentially in an AWD SUV. Personally, I wouldn’t take my Hyundai Tucson out there because I’m not comfortable driving in terrain with water bars, but Brandon thought you could probably make it there in one if you wanted to try.

Either way, we had no trouble getting there in Brandon’s 4runner. The nice thing is it’s not a long access road. Cheam Peak is located in the same area and it took us about an hour to drive 9km on that road – the access to Slesse probably only took us around 15-20 minutes. There’s a small parking lot at the end and there are two branches from there. One branch continues on in the same direction as the road coming in, and the second branch is on the left and continues up a rocky narrow road. The second branch that goes up continues on to Mount Rexford and my GPS indicated that we needed to continue up that road about 600m and then take a right branch onto the old Slesse Memorial Trailhead. I say “old”, because Brandon’s GPS showed a second trail leaving on the straight branch out of the parking lot, which we later learned is the “new” trailhead.

I recommend taking the newer trailhead (the right of the two forks). Either will get you there and they do meet pretty early on the trail, but the newer trailhead is slightly shorter, easier, and more well maintained. We missed the old trailhead on our first pass and had to double back to find it tucked in the woods.

The first half of the trail meanders through the forest and isn’t very difficult. There are some tree roots to step over, but it’s not overly technical. Shortly before the memorial plaque, you pop in and out of the woods and get a few glimpses of Mount Rexford across the valley. We went in late September and the trees were just starting to change colour. We were a bit too early for full colours, so I’d recommend early October instead.

The memorial plaque is located around the halfpoint of the hike and has a beautiful view looking up towards Slesse Mountain. The trail is called Slesse Memorial Trail because a commercial jet crashed on the side of the mountain in Dec. 1956, killing 60+ passengers and crew. The plane was flying from Calgary to Vancouver when it disappeared and it wasn’t actually found until 5 months later when a climbing crew accidentally spotted it on the side of the mountain. Due to the challenging locating, the bodies were never recovered. You can’t see the crash along the trail (at least we didn’t), but some of the debris has been collected at the top of the trail. I’m not sure at what point this was done, but these days there are signs indicating not to do this.

We came for the view versus the memorial, but it was very interesting and we spent a lot of time thinking about it, making it a bit more of a somber hike. After the plaque, the trail gets a lot steeper. I thought we might need to do some way finding on the trail, but it’s easy to follow, just steep. There were a lot of old blueberries along the trail, so I could see it attracting bears, but on this occasion the berries only attracted Sadie. She discovered them growing there and wouldn’t stop picking and eating all the berries! It was very cute.

In all it took us just over 3 hours to get to the top. It’s an interesting trail because it doesn’t go to the top of the mountain, but rather the base of it. A lot of the mountains in this area are forested, but Slesse is sheer rock with no vegetation growing on it. It’s very steep, so I’m sure it attracts climbers, but for hikers, the trail ends at the base of the mountain. There’s a beautiful 360 degree view and you can climb up a bit further if you’re feeling adventurous. There’s a long flatter section of rock, with a glacier coming down one side and the sheer rock face at the back. I say “flatter” because the rock is still a lot steeper than it looks. Me and Brandon explored up a bit further, which has a gorgeous view looking back towards Rexford.

Be careful where you explore though, it was a surprisingly hot day for late September and the glacier was on the move while we were there. At one point there was a very loud rumbling and we watched as a big snow patch at the bottom of the glacier slid down part of the mountain. So we stayed away from that section and explored directly under Slesse, where there was still a bit of snow, but much less and not as steep.

The steep uphill section does make for a slow descent on the way back. We left around 2pm because we didn’t want to get stuck hiking in the dark. We inched our way down the top section, but were able to pick up the pace a bit once we got to the flatter bits. It’s a pretty narrow trail, so it can be a bit tricky passing people. We only saw 2 other people on the way up, but passed a handful of people on our way down.

Overall it was a nice hike. It was a lot more forested than I was anticipating, there’s a few peak-a-boo viewpoints, but not too many views until you reach the top. If you have the time to explore at the top though, there’s quite a bit of open terrain. We finished the hike around 5pm and still had lots of daylight left, but I’m glad we turned around when we did because the sun goes down over the mountains on this trail pretty early, so it was still quite dark hiking back through the trees at the bottom. I did really like the hike and would love to return and do more hikes in this area!