Longstride

We took our first (and only planned) zero today in St. John’s, resting up after the arduous start to the East Coast Trail.

• CareFree and I slept in much later than usual for a zero, not even getting out of bed until almost 10 am.
• After packing up everything from our room, we moved to the common area and worked out a more detailed plan to our next resupply in Bay Bulls. It should take us about 3.5 days to get there. We’d hoped to find a place to stay there as well, but there doesn’t seem to be any lodging anywhere near the trail.
• We left our bags at the guest house and went to breakfast at Bagel Cafe, where we got some fantastic waffles.
• By the time we were finished with our very late breakfast, we were able to check in to our new lodging, the Duckworth Inn. We returned to the guest house, grabbed our bags, and headed over. On the way, we were sprinkled with a few drops of rain, and it was rather cooler than it had been in the morning.
• After getting situated, we returned to the hostel we stayed at the night before we started the ECT to drop off my old rain jacket and CareFree’s leaky sleeping pad.
• While there, we chatted with a couple of young women from Ontario, who were doing their first “long” hike, the ECT from Topsail Beach back to St. John’s — what we had just finished. They’re also planning on staying with Elke in Pouch Cove. (An older lady that walked past during the conversation, whom we talked with when we stayed here last week, also said she stayed with Elke when she first arrived in Newfoundland. Small world!)
• From the hostel, we walked to a Sobey’s grocery store and got our resupply, as well as food for dinner and breakfast tomorrow.
• In the late afternoon and early evening, rain started, picking up somewhat significantly enough that it started leaking through the skylight in our hotel room! (Fortunately, we’re still dry, and leak or no, we’re still much happier to be in a hotel tonight than out in the rain.)

Colorful Homes Line a Street in St. John’s

The weather for the next week is looking to be wetter than had been forecast a few days ago. Hopefully it won’t be too much rain, but it’s not like we can just wait the rain out.

Tomorrow we’ll take an uber back to the trailhead near the Fort Amherst Lighthouse and continue the ECT on the Deadmans Bay Path.