We continued our way south along the Newfoundland coast, with much easier trails taking us to the towns of Flatrock and Torbay.
This morning, Elke was able to find a foam sleeping pad some hikers had left at her place some time ago, that she was willing to let CareFree borrow. That would have worked fine to get us back to St. John’s. However, last night we found another B&B we decided to stay at in Torbay, two towns over, which should help us make up the distance we didn’t cover the first two days. That’ll also make it possible for us to hike all the way into St. John’s tomorrow to get back on our original schedule.
We did hit one little snafu. Elke’s B&B only accepts cash, and being not Canadian, we didn’t have cash, or a way of doing a bank transfer. But, Elke was gracious, and allowed us to come back after we finish our hike to pay. Fortunately, that’ll be easy, since we’ll have my car at that point, and it’ll also give us the opportunity to finish this section of trail that we had to skip.
Last night, we took our still very damp tent down before bed because there was a possibility of rain this morning. We put it back up before breakfast, and by the time we were ready to leave, around 9:30, the tent was completely dry.
Leaving the B&B, CareFree and I continued our walk through Pouch Cove. This took a fair bit longer than it should have, thanks to a small park with many displays on the history of the town, and the fishing industry that used to be paramount here.
Once we got away from the town, though, we joined the Stiles Cove Path and continued around the increasingly rough and dynamic coast. Since we made our turn south yesterday to follow the far eastern coast of Newfoundland, the coast has become considerably more rocky. Our maps show a significant number of historical shipwrecks in the nearby waters.
The Stiles Cove Path began initially on an exposed trail, then later passed through forest. While the forested sections often lacked views, they did serve as a very effective wind block: it was somewhat windy this morning, and especially if we stopped for very long in the wind, we quickly got cold.
Around noon, on one of our breaks, we briefly got a little rain, and the wind continued to pick up.
At a later break above Stiles Cove, a large flock of seagulls seemed to have made a home in the cove. Something excited them, and instead of bobbing up and down on the water (as one does on the slightly calmer waters of a semi-protected cove), they all took to the sky, swarming and squawking.
The Stiles Cove Path ended at the town of Flatrock, and a relatively short walk through town took us around to the other side of Flat Rock Cove, and we began our ascent of a rocky promontory on the east side of the cove, joining the Father Troys Path. It became blisteringly windy, and the temperature dropped noticeably: not only did I have my rain jacket on for warmth, but I donned my gloves as well!
Despite the cold and the wind, there were a fair number of day hikers on the wedge-shaped promontory, taking advantage of a small network of trails to go further out towards the water, or to a rocky overlook at the local high point. Were it not for the slightly inclement weather, we might have done the same, however, we wanted out of the wind, and the easiest way to do that was to keep hiking forward, towards Torbay, at the end of the path.
One we reached the “end” of the promontory (as far as our trail was concerned) and doubled back on the other side, we began to follow Tor Bay, and after a while, the wind began to subside.
Father Troys Path was, despite the wind, the easiest we’ve done so far, and we made good time making our way to Torbay. A detour around some construction on private property the trail crosses extended the path by about a kilometer of road walk, but it was otherwise a relatively calm stretch of trail. We stopped for a brief break at the start of the detour, and saw two other couples out for a walk while we were there.
Our walk through Torbay was brief; ten minutes walking through town brought us to the See the Sea B&B around 7:30 pm, where its proprietor, Sandra, was waiting for us.
Fortunately, we were able to cook dinner. While she didn’t have a stove we could use, Sandra did have a large hot water dispenser, so we were able to use near-boiling water to cook our ramen. This was much better than the all-snack dinner I had last night.
We were exhausted, and our feet hurt. We’d already planned for a zero in St. John’s, but owing to our being behind schedule, we’ll get in to town late tomorrow, which basically meant that our zero would be full of chores and empty of relaxation. So we opted to add a third night in St. John’s, though at a different place since we couldn’t extend our booking, so that we could actually get some rest. (Moving lodging will cut into that, but, it’s the best we can do on short notice.) At least after tomorrow, we’ll have the hardest stretch of the trail done!