2016: Post 15 – Another walk in the woods

I enjoyed my walk in the woods last weekend and decided to do a repeat today... 

Sometimes there was snow on the trail...

Sometimes there was mud...

Sometimes there was water to trudge through...

And sometimes there was dry, grassy spots too.

You have to admit that someone went to great lengths to make sure the trail was very walk-able...

During last weekends walk I came across tracks left by Stewart.  Today there was no sign of 'ol Stew, but the big guy was on the move this morning...

After a while I found a place in the trees where the sun was breaking through that would serve as my lunch spot.  

I believe one night I will hang my hammock in this very spot

Isn't there just something fascinating

about watching water boil??

Just makes sense to have raisin tea biscuits with a cup of  tea

A fine view to have with lunch

After lunch I pressed on down the trail a little further before turning back.  I had my GPS with me and when I got back to the car I discovered I had walked twelve and a half kilometres!!  Not really a great walk but that's the longest walk in the woods I have done in a very long time.  I think I may be starting to find Dean of the Woods again...

2016: Post 14 – Three Damn Crossings

Yesterday Clyde picked me up an hour before our predetermined meeting time.  We took our time, loaded up my kayak and gear, stopped for coffee, and arrived at the meeting place with twenty-five minutes to spare.

The theme of yesterday's paddle was "island hopping" but for me it was more like "damn crossings."  I don't like crossings very much and generally I try to get them over with sooner than later... I enjoy paddling along the shore where things are more interesting to me.

Anyway, here's some pics from the day...

Pointing the bows toward Kelly's Island

Waiting for the crew to finish the crossing

Clyde

Tony

Gary

We paddled  part way around Kelly's Island and then beached our kayaks for a little break.  Of course we had climb up on top to take in the view....

Gary nearing the summit

The crew, all assembled and accounted for

Cathy on the descent

Once back in our kayaks we finished the circumnavigation of Kelly's Island...

Tony and Cathy

Clyde, Hazen, Cathy, Gary, and Tony,

It was too early and too nice of a day to head back to the take out, and it wasn't quite lunch time yet.  So we turned our bows to Little Bell Island and make our second crossing crossing of the day.

We pulled up on the beach...

... and found a spot to have lunch

We didn't paddle around Little Bell after lunch, but instead just paddled back across the bay for the third crossing, landing a couple kilometres away from the take out at Long Pond...

Back at the cars

Three crossings and two islands... it was a great day in the kayak, despite the crossings, which are necessary if you're going to island hop...

2016: Post 13 – Almost went for a paddle today

The forecast for this weekend is very good for kayaking and plans have been made to paddle on Sunday.   Last night I thought I might go for a paddle this morning as well, but when I woke up I decided to go for a walk in the woods instead.  

There is a spot that I plan to do an overnight hammock camping trip this summer and I wanted to go scope out the area for hanging possibilities.  Also, earlier this year I had purchased some poles for my Warbonnet Superfly hammock tarp and decided to bring the tarp and poles along to see how the poles would work out.  So I filled up my daypack with some gear, put on my hiking boots, grabbed my walking poles, and jumped in the car.

We had forty-nine centimetres of snow that fell Tuesday night and Wednesday.  Lot's of it has melted over the last couple days but there was still a good bit of it on the trail... 

There were fresh foot prints on the trail when I started but within no time the owner of them had turned back.  I knew once I reached the summit of the hill there would be much less snow to contend with and I pushed on.

There wasn't any wind to speak of and the water on this pond was very still...

Further along the trail I found another set of tracks that I recognized right away.  The tracks belonged to Stewart, but it has been quite some time since I have seen them...

There was one spot where I did lose the trail with all the snow that was around.  You'd think it would be impossible to lose a trial with sign's like this posted....

I trudged about a little bit and picked up the trail again.  After walking for nearly an hour, with a couple rest stops included, I was where I wanted to be...

The temperature was 0 Celsius when I left the car, but it was sunny and the snow in the tree branches was melting so much it was as if it was raining when I was in the trees...

I had taken my rain jacket with me in anticipation of needing it and had to pull it on to prevent myself from getting wet and chilled in the `rain` before I started setting up my tarp.

After I had my tarp set up I broke out the poles and added them.  The poles are used to lift out the sides of the tarp instead of using side tie-outs.

Lot's of extra room inside...

I was pleased with the pole set-up, but wished I would have brought my hammock along too... I could have set it up under the tarp and had myself a little snooze.  Oh well, no matter.  It was time to boil some water and have my breakfast of tea and banana bread.

I mucked about for a while after I finished breakfast, scoping out several locations to hang hammocks in the area.  I identified a couple more locations that would require little to no brush clearing.  

I dismantled my morning camp set-up and packed up.  My tarp was wet from the snow melting off the trees and, not wanting to get my pack contents wet, I put it into it's stuff sack and hung it on the outside of my pack.

I began my walk back after having a final look around to make sure all that was left were my footprints. I walked for a little way and then turned back to look at where I had just been...

It took a little less time to walk back to the car then it did to walk in since I now knew where all of the trail was. 

I was very pleased with my little walk in the woods this morning.  Now I just have to decide when the Great Newfoundland Hammock Hang of 2016 will take place...

2016: Post 12 – A little further afield

It's springtime.  Sunday was called upon to hit 10 degree Celsius!!!  That's a nice spring day for us this time of year. 

During the winter months we tend to paddle close to home as our paddles tend to be shorter and we don't spend a lot of time lounging on a beach during break time.  When the weather warms up like on Sunday past we sometimes like to go a little further so as to make a longer day out of the paddle.

On Sunday past we drove to Colliers, unloaded the kayaks and gear, drove cars up to Cupids, and set off on a one-way paddle of nearly twenty six kilometers.

I did take a lot of pics.. it was a nice day and most of the coastline is scenic.  I tried to keep my pics down to a minimum but I liked so many of them...  

Looking up the bay in Colliers

After lunch in Turk's Gut we took our time, following the shoreline up to Brigus Bay where we got out on a little beach for a short break...

After our break we proceeded to paddle on the inside of Molleys Island and then into Harbour Pond for a look...

We carried on up the shore, passing Greenland, and around the headland into Cupids Cove... 

The question is not "Will I paddle through?"...
The question is " Will my kayak fit?" 

From the headland we had to paddle into a bit of headwind for a couple kilometers to where the cars were parked.  Tony and I were ahead of the others and when we arrived at the take-out we both had the same thought... it had been a while since we had to paddle any distance into a headwind, and we both enjoyed the little bit of slogging required.

The rest of the gang coming to the end of the days paddle

After we picked up the cars that were left in Colliers we we drove back to town and went for a coffee, discussing mostly things kayak related... and how it is more dangerous on the drive back from paddling than the paddling itself!!!