18km

After saying yesterday that I planned on having earlier starts on the trail, I did not! I didn’t set an alarm since I was going to bed at 9pm and I awoke at 5am feeling quite refreshed. I plugged my watch in to charge it, I don’t like leaving things plugged into the bank overnight. And then I picked up my phone to blog a little, I even opened my tent door! Then the next thing I know, I’m waking up to the sun on my face and its looking awfully bright. I was worried about what time it was and I saw that it was 7:30. I guess I needed the rest but I had a much harder time getting up at this point. I ended up pulling the plug on my air mattress, not much motivation to stay in bed when it’s the ground. 

I did sleep wonderfully in the tent though! I feel reinstated in my belief that I should have brought it, and not the hammock tent. In case you're just jumping in now, you can read more on my debate between the hammock and tent here. I was surprisingly warm and cozy all night, I used the sleeping bag more as a blanket and didn't need to fully zip it. 

This brings up a whole other issue for me though. I borrowed a friends sleeping bag for this trip that is probably 2lbs heavier than the one I had wanted to bring. I was going to bring my zero degree one but the last time I used it in the hammock in Halifax, it was mid-August and I got chilled. It wasn’t enough to keep me up all night but I thought I’d need something warmer for Newfoundland. Now that I have the tent and not the hammock, I think it would have been fine and saved me some weight and bag space. 

The rest of Piccos Ridge did not get any easier. The downhills are very steep and a lot of sections have rope to help out. Going up and down steep sections with a fully loaded pack can be a bit of a challenge, I'm thankful I've started using trekking poles.

Yesterday, I encountered very few people on the trails but today I did run into some other people pretty early. I could hear them long before I saw them. I could hear someone cursing and yelling but I couldn’t tell if it was directed at a person or the trail. I still couldn’t after I saw them. It was four ladies out to pick blueberries, and one of them hadn't been fully informed of what she signed up for. The first asked me how much further because she didn’t remember it being that far up. I told her it was quite literally the top of the ridge as I had been snacking on them too. 

The third lady asked me where I was heading with such a big pack and I said Cappahayden. The fourth woman nearly had a stroke, I don’t think she knew people do things like this. They were super impressed but surprised I was doing it alone. This seems to be everyone’s reaction, I do wonder if the guys get the same reaction. 

I think I’ve mentioned before that it’s not my first choice to go alone. But finding someone to take two weeks off work, spend a few hundred on the ferry or airplane and then spend two weeks trekking with everything on their backs...it’s hard to find! 

I feel like I have empathetic FOMO, fear of missing out. I feel like my friends and family will never get to experience this. Even if I find a great spot to camp, it’s not like one weekend I can just bring them to it to experience the beauty. I'm trying to take lots of pictures so you can see how magnificent it is here.

I was very happy to finish Piccos Ridge but knew that White Horse was not going to be any easier. I had another community walk to cross through Bauline, it was really just a handful of houses. A lot of communities in Newfoundland are still remote, I won't be seeing any Wal-Marts anytime soon.

White Horse wasn’t as hard as Piccos Ridge but it was definitely challenging. The ECTA maps show both these trails as strenuous so I was expecting my first few days to be hard. The first two kilometers of this trail were brutal and had me wondering if I’d get to the campsite in time. I definitely need to work on early starts! I was hiking at a 30 minute a kilometer pace when I’m normally closer to 20 minutes. 

The sun was crazy bright and there was little tree cover so I felt like I was overheating. Going hiking in September is supposed to be more comfortable weather! I'm glad I have a large water bladder as I'm drinking over 3 liters a day right now with this heat.

Eventually the sun went behind some clouds and a little breeze picked up and my pace quickened too. I ended up making it to the campsite with time to spare before the sun set. Tonight, I'm camping on the ECTA's official campsites! There aren't a lot of them but I hope to use a few as I go. Don't be fooled into thinking since it's official there's any luxury. I didn’t realize how high up the tent platforms would be and since it's right on the coast, I was a little worried about the wind. My tent is pretty tiny and I didn't actually bring anything to tie it off properly with.

I set my tent up on one of the two platforms and had dinner then went to find the toilet, or room with a view. Instead I found 3 more tent platforms, one of which was more sheltered and had a tarp left there. After an internal debate, I decided to move. I packed everything back up and moved my tent to the more sheltered tent platform. I used rocks to hold the tarp down as well to reassure myself. I felt bad that the tarp was left there, since it's against LNT but it definitely helped me so I left it too. 

Once that was all done I put on my tent clothes and snuggled up. I plugged my watch and phone in only to have them stop charging really quickly. I unplugged and plugged them back in a few times but it didn’t seem to work. Eventually I got frustrated and just went to bed. 

The solar charger is borrowed off a friend and I have used it before without issue. When fully charged it is supposed to have ten cell phone charges in it. I had left it plugged in over night at the airbnb to charge, and put it in the sun every time I took breaks yesterday and today. I had only charged my watch to full twice on it and not even one full charge of my cell. I'm a little worried what this will mean for the trip if I lose my power source this early.

I never did find that toilet at the campsite....

My tip for any other thru hikers is to bring something to collect blueberries in! Stopping to snack on them is very tempting and picking a bunch to take with me would have been a nice treat.