ECT Series: Cape Spear Path

March 5, 2025February 27, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Cape Spear Path is such a classic on the East Coast Trail that I’m surprised I haven’t already written about it. The trail runs from Cape Spear to Maddox Cove and is approximately 11.5km long. I first hiked the trail in full in 2013, but doing an out-and-back trip from Cape Spear to North Head is one of my favourite day trips when I’m home for a visit. It’s ~9km to North Head and back, but it’s really easy and flat hiking, so I recommend it to visitors a lot.

When I was home in Summer of 2024, I decided to do a re-do of the thru hike with my parents and Brandon. The first time I did it, I hiked from Maddox Cove to Cape Spear, but this time we did it in reverse. I don’t think you can really go wrong, but the Cape Spear side of the trail is definitely easier, so knocking out the Maddox Cove section first has its benefits. The trail from Maddox Cove is mostly in the trees and winds up and down the coast, so it’s a little more tiring. Eventually you pop out of the woods and the rest of the trail is exposed along the coast and incredibly scenic.

Overall, there’s barely any elevation gain in either direction, just a small climb up over the bluff at Herring Cove as the trail continues to North Head. North Head is pretty much the halfway point (distance wise, but maybe not time-wise), so it’s a great place to stop for lunch. My favourite thing is to walk out to the viewpoint and watch for whales. You don’t need to be constrained for whale watching though, it’s rare that I hike this trail and don’t see whales in the summer! On this occasion, we were shocked to see flying tuna jumping out of the water! I’ve never seen tuna in Newfoundland, but on this trip (in early September), I saw tuna jumping on two different occasions (and received a report from my uncle in Twillingate that he saw one too), so it was a very eventful trip!

My other favourite part of Cape Spear Path is the blueberries. Like I said, the trail is completely exposed from North Head to Cape Spear. There’s only low shrubs along the trail, most of which are blueberries! They get a bit picked over close to the lighthouse, but there’s lots of good berry picking close to North Head, so we stopped a few times for snacks along the way. The only downside is that it can get pretty windy along the cliffside.

So I definitely recommend this trail to locals and tourists alike. It’s a pretty good trail for beginners and if you just hike to North Head and back, it’s a really easy and scenic day. Plus, most tourists plan to visit Cape Spear (the most easterly point in North America) at some point during their visit, so it’s a fun way to tie in some hiking and make a day of it.

While I do think hiking from Maddox Cove to Cape Spear is a bit easier, the benefit of hiking the other direction is that you can finish your hike with a stop into Petty Harbour to get ice cream at Tinkers! Petty Harbour is a cute little outport community and is home to the most outrageously large ice cream concoctions. You can easily drop a bit of cash here, but it’s worth it for the photo op and the delicious snack! Enjoy your ice cream on the patio after a rewarding hike!

Rockcut Trail: Codjacks Cove

February 27, 2025February 27, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

In addition to my series on the East Coast Trail, I’ve also been writing about the Rockcut Trail, both located in Newfoundland. For those new to my blog, I grew up in Newfoundland and spent the first 23 years of my life there. I’ve explored most of the 300km long East Coast Trail by section hiking (I just have 3 left) from St. John’s, where my parents live. My Nan lives in Twillingate, which is a beautiful island on the central north part of the (big) island. It’s accessible by causeway and is popular among tourists for whale watching and iceberg hunting. They recently re-branded all the trails on Twillingate Island as the Rockcut Trail and have been improving them, so I’ve been trying to hike them all. See my other posts on Little Harbour and Top of Twillingate.

In Summer 2024, I visited with my sister, Emily, and my friend Brandon, who came all the way from BC to explore Newfoundland! Our biggest priority was to go fishing (which we were able to do twice) and visit with Nan, but we managed to find a bit of time to hike Codjacks Cove. This trail is located on the northeast side of the South Island and leaves out of Durrell. Drive down Horwood Lane to find a small parking lot. The road continues on from there, so if you take the left branch (the right branch goes to the dump), you can drive a bit further, but it was a nice day, so we just walked it.

Once you hit the coast, there’s a wooden staircase that heads down to Codjacks Cove and you can hang out on the beach. There is a single tent pad at the back of the beach that is newly installed if you feel like camping out! The trail is an out-and-back, so we skipped the beach on the way in and continued along the trail. The trail goes through the woods and along the rocky coastline of Gunning Head, with beautiful ocean views wherever you look! The trail supposedly continues all the way on the Little Harbour, as they’ve been working to connect all the trails into one longer thru-hike, but we just hiked for ~3km before turning around and heading back, since we only had one car.

We had a beautiful day for it, though it was windy of course! We stopped into the beach on the way back and I went for a little skinny dip by myself because Emily and Brandon were too chicken to participate! Well, Brandon was too chicken, Emily just didn’t want to. Like every trail on the island, it’s very beautiful. They’re all pretty similar, so you really can’t choose wrong. You can read more about the other sections of the Rockcut Trail on their website. I only have one section of trail left to explore in Purcell’s Harbour, but it’s been many years since I’ve done some of the other sections, so I plan to re-do them before writing about them. Twillingate is really special to my entire family and I feel lucky to call a little slice of this island home.

Mount Seymour Snow Camping

February 5, 2025January 27, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

This post will be a bit different from my usual snow camping trip, but there’s so many ways to enjoy the outdoors and I like highlighting all of them! It is on my bucket list to one day snow camp on Pump Peak, but if you’re nervous about the exposure (and avalanche terrain) and want to get out with a group, there’s an excellent alternative just below the base of the ski resort!

This trip was done with my Trex unit, which is a special branch of Girl Guides of Canada that is focused on outdoor adventure for teenagers. It’s not part of the core guiding program, which is for all ages (Kindergarten to grade 12), and is more well rounded and focuses on art, STEM, physical and mental well-being, and activism, in addition to camping skills. Trex is for teens (including girls, trans-girls and non-binary individuals) who want to go to the next level with their outdoor skills.

This winter we reserved the Mount Seymour Group Site to practice snow camping! The site is located next to the P1 Parking Lot and is closed to the public unless you have a booking. It’s a very economical option for non-profit groups, but a little more expensive for others (but still very reasonable). The site has a warming hut with 6 picnic tables and a large field to camp in. Unfortunately, our camp was at the end of a week of particularly warm weather, so there was very little snow on the ground. We weren’t able to practice making snow shelters, but it was still a good opportunity for Trex to camp outside in below zero conditions in a safe environment.

We were able to hang out and eat all our meals in the shelter, which has a wood stove. So it was easy to keep warm before bed. As a precautionary measure, one of the guiders (in this case me) slept in the hut all night to keep the fire going in case of emergency, but all members did great overnight and everyone slept in their tents for the full night!

Given the proximity to Seymour, we were able to take advantage of the nearby recreation activities. We walked up the road to the ski resort base and spent some time playing in the snow along the trails. We didn’t do a full hike, but nearby options include snowshoeing Dog Mountain or Brockton Point, or exploring within the Mount Seymour trails. We got some wet snow in the morning, followed by sunny breaks in the afternoon and an absolutely gorgeous morning on our second day.

There’s not too much else to share about the site. Like I said, you do need a booking to stay there. A day pass is required in the winter to visit Mount Seymour, but you can just use your permit for the group site to get up the mountain. It’s only a minute walk from the parking lot at P1 to the site and there is an outhouse. There’s also a tap, but it’s turned off in the winter, so make sure you bring all the water you need with you. We used snow melt for washing dishes, but didn’t want to drink it since there hadn’t been any fresh snow in at least a week.

The only downside is that people will continually walk through your site despite 3 signs instructing them not to and informing of a fine. Please don’t do this, especially when youth groups are using the site. I was there with minors, and while I know you just want to take a photo with the pretty snow on the trees, I have a responsibility for their care and can’t have randoms walking around the site where they sleep, taking photos. The site was closed for 2 years during COVID, so people seem to think it’s just fair game now.

Overall, we had a great time. We’ve also stayed at the Lone Duck group site in Manning Park. I would say the Lone Duck site is nicer (it’s more private, gets more snow, and it’s right on the lake), but the real benefit of Mount Seymour is how close it is to the city. A great option if you’re looking for a safe way to try snow camping!