Blogs

On the last leg of their adventure, the hikers from TrailPeak.com saw the wreck of a ship from the early 1900s, whalebones, and a slew of icebergs.

At 7:30 am on Sunday August 13, 2011, I peered out the window at the Hotel North in St. Anthony and the fog was so thick I couldn’t see across the parking lot. “I guess our 9:00 am boat trip is going to be scrubbed,” I told my wife Heather. But a few minutes later she pulled back the curtains and said she could see across the harbour.

Who would have guessed that an event in Greenland a little over a year ago would bring tourists flooding to the St. Anthony area this summer? On August 5, 2010, a large piece of the Petermann Glacier broke off and became an “ice island” measuring 280 square km in size.  A year later it has worked its way south and is now off of St. Anthony at the tip of the Northern Peninsula. 

This week, the hikers from TrailPeak.com saw 10,000-year-old icebergs, and visited historic Battle Harbour, a restored fishing village that thrived over the last three centuries.

From waterfalls to ancient coastlines, the hikers from TrailPeak.com have seen it all over the past three days, while trekking through southern Labrador.

Check out the latest blog from Kurt at TrailPeak.com to read about the scenery, history and culture they’ve discovered along the south coast of Labrador.

Fleur de Lys is located at the very northern tip of the Baie Verte Peninsula in Central Newfoundland and we were impressed with the hiking that it had to offer as well as the unique Dorset Paleoeskimo Soapstone quarry that has been discovered there.

We were finishing our pea soup and dumplings when we could hear some accordion and guitar music coming from the “kitchen” of The Outport Museum and Tea Room in La Scie. The cook and waitress, Valerie Whalen said they were going to play some music in the “kitchen” of the museum and would we like to join them. “Sounds perfect to us” we chimed in, so we joined a handful of other visitors for an impromptu kitchen party.

"Remember, give'r till ya shiver," says the man responsible for my safety just before I jump off a boat into freezing water. I've come to the most easterly point in North America in the hope of having an up close and personal experience with whales.

“Yesterday we had 6 women from the Corner Brook area come out for a fishing tour—they were in their 60-70’s and they had a great time. Not only did they catch a lot of cod but we saw an eagle for each person.” Darren told me over the phone on Tuesday night (August 2)

This past Saturday, Ronan, Cormac my Dad and I went to Sandy Cove on the Eastport Peninsula to see if the capelin were rolling. We were in luck!

Corner Brook, Newfoundland is well located for all kinds of outdoor activities. Recently we took part in 2 that are certainly noteworthy....

Fall is at its peak in Western Newfoundland right now (from the end of September to mid-October) and there are several great reasons to make the trek in this direction from anywhere in the Atlantic region.

We innocently asked our waitress at the Tuckamore Lodge in Main Brook, Newfoundland, where we might get some good photos of moose after dinner. "Well you won't need to go too far. I would simply head back on the road you just came in on and drive a few kilometres back toward Roddickton."

Recently, my Dad and I took a two hour drive south from St. Johns to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. Named because it was a navigational hazard mistaken for Cape Race, it is one of the world's most significant fossil sites. Here you can find the oldest complex life forms anywhere on Earth. The main fossil layer preserves the ecology of a 565-million-year-old deep sea community.

Western Newfoundland is a winter wonderland and offers fine cross-country skiing at several Nordic ski clubs and alpine skiing at Marble Mountain.

But what makes this area different from almost anywhere in Eastern Canada is its back country skiing.

Nicky's Nose Cove. It's over in Green Bay which is in Notre Dame Bay which is on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. You can't miss it. No relation to Jerry's Nose over around Port au Port, though.