2012: Post 23f - Merasheen Island – Day 6

See Post 23e for Day 5...

It was beautiful and calm when we crawled out of the tents into the morning…

Looking toward Best's Harbour

Ern made a special trip over to us in his smaller boat to give us the day’s weather forecast; it would remain calm all day.  Our intention had been to possibly spend a second night at The Neck, or to paddle to Great Brule and spend the night there.   But the forecast was calling for wind for the next two days… too much wind for a comfortable crossing back to Arnold’s Cove, and possibly not being able to cross at all.  So we made the decision that we would cut our trip a day short and paddle back to Arnold’s Cove today.

So this was to be the last day of our trip.  We set to work breaking camp and packing up the kayaks.  We decided we would pull our kayaks across The Neck and paddle out of Best’s Harbour, making our way up  between the Ragged Islands and Merasheen Island.

Almost ready to go

Ern was in his boat so we paddled over to say good-bye.  Neville decided to give Ern his stool for his granddaughter when she came to visit…. apparently she did not consider herself and ‘old crow’ and would not sit in Ern’s chair when she visited…

Neville and Ern

The guys saying their good-by's to Ern

We paddled out of Best’s Harbour and turned northward, paddling inside Riley Island and then past Dog Harbour Island and George Best Island.  Then we came upon the mussel farm…

At first I was intrigued by all the floats of varying colours, to which lines are attached that the mussels cling to.  There were hundreds of them stretched over a couple kilometers.  But as I paddled through fields of these floats I began to feel that these were taking away from the natural beauty of the seascape...  

Some would call this 'progress'

Finally the ‘progress’ of the mussel farm was behind us and the beauty of the land and sea returned to view.  Great Brule was not too far ahead and when we got there we got out of our kayaks for our last lunch stop.  Six days earlier we had stopped on the beach on the other side to check it out for a suitable camp location for when we got back to this point.  But it would only serve as our lunch spot now.

Neville at Great Brule

Back in our kayaks, we paddled the additional three kilometres to the top of Merasheen Island.  I took a picture of each of the guys as they passed the spot where we were earlier in the week…

Tony

Hazen

Clyde

Neville

From there it was mostly paddling business.  We crossed back over to Long Island Point and got on a little beach there for a last rest stop.  Then we pointed our bows to Arnold’s Cove and began the ten kilometre paddle to where we had started. 

The water was calm and it was sunny.  I would have preferred a little wave action to occupy the mind, but instead I thought about the last few days and the things we had seen and done…

Hazen

We landed where we had started our journey… slightly over 150 kilometres from start to finish…

Clyde, Hazen, and Neville

Tony

We unloaded the kayaks and loaded up the vehicles.  Then we drove the short distance to Megan’s Restaurant for a meal of fish and chips.

It was a great adventure and a great experience.  And a great bunch of paddlers to share it with…

Tony

Clyde

Neville

Hazen

I wonder what the next great adventure will be….

2012: Post 23e - Merasheen Island – Day 5

See Post 23d for Day 4...

It was a nice morning in Merry Harbour when we awoke.  The usual morning routine followed... breakfast, check the weather forecast, break camp, load the gear back into the kayaks, and get back on the water…

The guys ready for the days adventure

Today we would do a paddle to Tack’s Beach, which would be our shortest paddle of the trip; only about 12 kilometres.  We paddled across to Lower Gray Gull Islands and followed the west side upward.  Tony and I did a crossing to the end of King’s Island while Clyde, Neville, and Hazen paddled closer to South Tilt Island.  We paddle between King`s Island and Green`s Island and into Smith’s Cove.  Then we hand-railed the shore to make the paddle as long as possible, and went into the farthest reach of Doting Hole where we got out for a little stretch.  Our break over, we continued hugging the shore into Grandies Cove where we came across another caribou on a little beach.  We pulled up on the same beach and had our lunch.  I think it was Hazen who left an offering of half a bagel, hanging on a tree branch, for the caribou if it came back.  He named it Bagel Beach as we were leaving.

Further along the shore we came upon a caribou on one of the little islands.  It took to the water when it seen us and swam the short distance to King’s Island.

Clyde checking out the caribou's swimming style

Once on shore the caribou ran off into the woods

We paddled into broad Cove where there were a few cabins…

Then we paddled past Tack’s Lookout and on to what we thought was Tack’s Beach, where we would camp for the night.  There was a spot under the hill that was level and had the grass mowed short that was perfect for our tents!!  An older gentleman was working on his boat on the beach in Bests Harbour (on the other side of what we were calling Tack’s Beach).   He told us that where we were was actually called ‘The Neck’ and that Tack’s Beach was a little cove just before The Neck.  This gentleman, named Ern Penny, had said to me that his wife had gone back home to Arnold’s Cove a month ago but he just couldn’t seem to leave!!  He went back to his boat as we set up our camp…

Our tents set up on the north end of 'The Neck'

Looking down The neck towards Tack's Beach.
You can just make out one of the two graveyards...

…but he did come back a little later after we had our tents up…

Hazen and Ern Penny

Ern and his boat

Note: there is trip report from 2006 by TA Loeffler and Karren Warren on our clubs web-site (Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador) in which you will find a picture of a slightly younger Ern.  Scroll down to June 10 in the report, but the whole report is a good read….

Neville, Tony, and Hazen later walked around to Best’s Harbour and had another chat to Ernie.  They soon came back and we had supper under Tony’s tarp that we tied up in the trees in case it rained…

Neville washing up his supper dishes
(that's his clothesline beside him)

Then Clyde, Tony, and I took a walk over to Tack’s Beach for a look.  I took a picture from the other end of The Neck, looking toward our camp site…

To the right of our tents is a trail that leads over to
Coopers Cove.  Not too far along it there is a well from
which the guys filtered some very clear looking water....

Tack’s Beach is a beautiful place.  You could see the owners of the cabins there took a lot of pride in the place.  Things were well kept up with manicured walking trails and lawns…

This stage reminded me a lot of the one my grandfather had years ago…

On the way back I snapped a picture of a rabbit.  There were plenty of them around, Ern had told us earlier, and we had seen several.  Wouldn't be terribly difficult to catch one if you were so inclined….

His name is Steward.... one day it may be shortened to just Stew

It would be worth the trip just to paddle over from Davis Cove and spend a couple nights in the vicinity of Tack’s Beach, The Neck, and Best’s Harbour.  From Davis Cove to The Neck, by way of Gooseberry Island, would be about 12 kilometres....

Later, we all pitched in to gather wood for the night’s fire.  Towards the end of the night Neville ‘surprised’ us with a pack of Jiffy-Pop popcorn that we knew he had brought; we just did not know when he would produce it…

Neville has become our camping popcorn supplier...



Tony lurking behind us looking for some good campfire shots....



With the night getting late we spread the coals of the fire down the beach and turned into our tents, wondering what the next day would bring…

2012: Post 23d - Merasheen Island – Day 4

See Post 23c for Day 3...

I only woke three times during the night; a much better sleep, but I was feeling a bit rough this morning.  The wind had died down over night.  We had breakfast and then checked the weather situation…

Breakfast in Merry Harbour

Tony checking the weather forecast on his VHF radio

We had hashed around a couple plans for the day, but finally settled on staying right where we were for the next night.  We would leave the camp set up and have a day paddle to check out some of the Ragged Islands west of Merry Harbour.

With lighter kayaks we crossed the couple of kilometres over to Jarvis Islands.  About half way over I suddenly felt like I had not paddled or lost sleep over the last three days.  Today would be a good day…

The guys arriving at Jarvis Islands

Then we paddled across the south end of Moor Island and over to the larger Jean de Gaunt Island…

Hazen

We followed the shoreline with intention to continue around the larger island.  The other guys checked the time and we would have arrived at our predetermined lunch spot too soon.  So we turned back south and paddled toward Lower Dock Island and then around Crane Island.

On the west side of Crane Island we happened upon a crack in the rock...   

Clyde had to check it out... 

Rocks and Clyde just seem to go together...

It looked like he could fit his kayak inside…. And so he backed in so I could get a picture…

Neville came behind us to have a look as well…

Two thumbs up on Day 4...

From there we continued up and then over to Jean de Gaunt Harbour for lunch.  After lunch we all removed our drysuits as it was just too warm in them…

…and we continued our paddle up the west side of Jean de Gaunt Island, and then toward Galton island.  We passed by Harbour Islands, Ryans Island, and Hangmans Island.  Then over to South Tilt Island where we followed the south shoreline over to, and down between, Lower Gray islands and then back to Merry Harbour.

The other guys went to refill their water containers but I went directly to the campsite.  I was hot and wasted no time in getting my swimming trunks on and had a dip in the cove where we had our fire the night before.  The water was shallow and therefore warm.  As the other guys came back they also went for a dip.

Before supper we had a downpour of rain.  Everyone sat in their tents waiting for it to subside.  I peeked through my door way and seen Neville walking up from the cove with a tarp over his head.  He had been down in the cove and got rained on so he grabbed his tarp off his kayak on the way to his tent to try to keep from getting wet.

The rain stopped and the guys tied Neville’s tarp up so we could have supper under it.

Hazen and Neville

Hazen, Tony, and Clyde

It rained off and on for a while but we were determined to have a campfire.  We tied up another tarp down by the fire site in case it rained again.  It didn’t rain and so we had another decent fire and a few drinks before turning in…

Clyde

2012: Post 23c - Merasheen Island – Day 3

See Post 23b for Day 2...

I slept better, not well, but better.  We would have a shorter paddling day today.  The wind was up, but it would be behind us as we made our way north to Merry Harbour where we had planned we would camp for the night.   No one was sure that Merry Harbour would be suitable but the aerial photos that Tony got his hands on looked hopeful.    

Morning routines ensued, and then concluded, and we started the days paddle... 

Breaking fast on a dreary Monday morning 

Neville and Tony

Clyde

Some of the guys were low on fresh water and so we reached Virgin Cove we pulled up on the beach.  Tony and I had ample water supply so we sat on the beach and talked while Clyde, Neville, and Hazen hiked the short distance to the base of the falls…

Hazen heading to the falls 

After a while we could hear the guys; seemed they were having some fun and not just getting water.  In retrospect I think we should have walked in with them.  I’ll just have to wait to see their pictures...

We continued along the shore, stopping in Dough Ball Cove for lunch.   When all hands were ready we paddled the last few kilometres to our proposed campsite.  It wasn’t a long paddle for the day but I guess the previous two days paddles, totalling 68 kms, and now the day’s additional 19 km had taken the wind out of my sail.  I was quite thankful to see the grassy spot in Merry Harbour when it came into view… you could tell it was a good spot to camp.

By now everyone seemed to be in the daily routine of setting up camp…

…and Neville got his clothesline up again, intent on having some dry clothes….

…and then we got supper on the go…

Clyde

We walked further along the shore into a little cove, away from the tents, to collect firewood for the evening rituals.  It started to rain while we sat around the fire and I decided not to walk back to get my camera - so no pictures.  It was quite the fire experience though, thanks to the extra efforts of Tony and Neville!!!  The other guys will certainly have some pics: see the blogs of Tony, Neville, and Clyde…

Once again we were back into the tents for another night’s sleep. This night would mark the first time I had spent three consecutive nights kayak camping...