Portugal Cove to St Philips

Yesterday Trent and I paddled from Portugal Cove to St Philips and back. It was my first ever December paddle, as well as my first paddle in that area. I usually don't drive into "town" to paddle, and stick to my area, Trinity Bay. Great coastline, I think I'll have to return to that area during the summer.

It was very, very foggy and rainy, but it was mild, with no wind, so it made for a decent day to paddle. We departed near the Bell Island ferry terminal and headed south for St Philips. There was a bit of swell coming from the northwest, but once we got into the protection of Bell Island, conditions were pretty benign. The paddle was roughly 10kms return and took us a little less than 2 hours. A good day on the water for December.

Happy first day of Winter. Hopefully I can get out to do a few more of these winter paddles, if conditions allow. I'm a VERY cautious paddler, so I don't take this stuff lightly. Things can get very bad in a hurry in these waters during the summer, let alone the winter. So I always proceed with caution.

Merry Christmas
Brian

Heading south


Very short clip of a sea cave

Sea cave

Sea Cave - beware of falling ice!

St Philips in the background

St Philips

Heading North

Can't see Bell Island for the fog

Back in Portugal Cove

Finding the Outdoor Paradise Close to Home

Given the recent introduction of winter, as I'm sure the other Newfoundland paddlers/bloggers are doing, I find myself looking back at pictures of the paddling trips I did this past summer. I stumbled across a few that I did not blog about.

Living outside the city, I feel lucky to have the solitude of nature right at my doorstep. Back in June, the first weekend after we returned from our honeymoon, Angie and I, along with Trent and Andrea had a spur of the moment overnight paddling trip. Making this decision a few hours before dark meant that we had few options. How about on the far end of the second pond in Whitbourne? There is a small beach, on the far end of this pond, with a small clearing in the woods behind just big enough for 2 tents. Perfect.

With the put-in less than a kilometre from my house we launched, made the short 2.75km paddle to the camping spot and got set up just before dark. It was a great night under the stars, with drinks, laughs and of course, marshmellows and weiners. It was paradise to me.

No matter where you live, always try to find the outdoor paradise close to home. Sometimes its right under your nose.

How many months until spring??

Brian

Starting on Junction Pond

Second Pond

Rooster uses one of our tarp poles for a chew toy

Hopeall Bay

I can't remember the last weekend it wasn't windy and raining. This past weekend was no exception. Gale Warnings in effect all over eastern Newfoundland. This makes it tough to get out on the ocean for a paddle. In fact, I think the last time I had my kayak on salt water was back at the end of August. The wind has always pushed me inland to rivers.

With gales forecast somewhere in the vicinity of 35 knots from the SW on Sunday, Trent and I headed to Hopeall, in Trinity Bay, which is very sheltered from SW winds, for a couple hours of paddling in the morning. Altogether it was around 9-10kms. We paddled out as far as Hopeall Head, poked our heads out into the gale and turned around and headed back.

One thing of interest we saw was a recently deceased dolphin on the beach. Would have been nice to see it alive in the water.

With any luck I'll get on the water again this weekend.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago
Brian

Hopeall Bay, Trinity Bay

Setting forth

Trent framed in by the wharf

Something dead on the beach

Poor dolphin, would have been nice to see it alive and swimming next to our boats

Trent with Hopeall Island in the background

Hopeall Head

Getting ready to poke our heads out into the gale

Looks pretty nasty out there, SW gales 35 knots

Lunch break

On the Hodge River

I had been looking at this river on google earth, that starts near Ocean Pond and flows to Whitbourne, coming out near the pump house not too far from my house, for a long time. This past weekend, I was finally able to check it out. The forecast was terrible for Saturday, rain and/or snow, with winds NW 50 gusting to 70 gusting to 90 km/h. So again, not much of a day to paddle on the ocean, so we decided to try out this river route. Its been constantly raining for weeks, so we figured the small river would have enough water for us to paddle in.

It started off kinda rough, and we contemplated turning around, as the river was too shallow and rocky. But after the first km, it opened up a bit to more of a boggy/marshy river. It took us about 4 hrs altogether, and only had to get out of our boats once or twice because it was too shallow.

We saw 2 grouse, and 4 Canada geese. And a lot of wind and rain. Most of my pics came out very blurry, but here are a few.

Trent setting up the pontoons to carry his dog

Rooster enjoying the ride

The start of the Hodge River

Road block along the way

There were a lot of beaver lodges and dams along the way

Remembrance Day

Yesterday was Remembrance Day here in Canada. Its very important to never forget the sacrifices made by our soldiers during both world wars, as well other conflicts. I hope everyone took a minute out of their holiday to think about this and be grateful for all they have done.

This past May, my wife and I visited Buchenwald Concentration Camp, near Weimar, Germany. Its hard to put into words what we saw there, and even harder to imagine what the people there went through.

Lest we forget.

A Newfoundland Tradition

November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, is a long standing tradition in Newfoundland that seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. When I was a kid, my friends and I would spend weeks preparing for Bonfire Night, collecting tires, trees, and if we were lucky, and old dory or speedboat.....anything that would burn, for Bonfire Night. Nowadays it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but me and my neighbours are trying to keep the tradition alive. Although we don't burn tires anymore :-)

Dark Evenings

Day light savings time has come and gone, so now when I get home from work in the evening at 5pm, darkness has set in. So this past friday, to celebrate my last evening of daylight I went for a short paddle around the pond behind my house. Now I'm left to paddling on the weekends, and given the Newfoundland weather, those will probably be few and far between until spring, especially given my limited skill set.