~16km

I definitely think the universe has a sense of humour. I was just complaining about how much extra weight I was carrying with cold-weather gear, and so today it is cold, wet and miserable. I am thankful I have the extra warm gear now.

I managed to wake up around 5 today and was ready to get going. However, it was super foggy and dark out. I didn’t want to use my head lamp since my charger wasn’t working so I laid in bed for another hour. I tried to get the charger going again but had no luck. I know there will be some spots along the way I can charge my power bank or phone but it means losing a lot of trail time.

I messaged the guy I hiked with the other night to see if he could meet me at some point with a charged power bank and he was all for it. I told him I’d be in touch in Pouch Cove. 

Hiking out of white horse was just as strenuous and took way longer than I’d like. It was super chilly up along the ridges and I stopped to put on my raincoat, I figured it would work well to block the wind.  As soon as I put the coat on it started to rain and didn’t let up for at least an hour.  

I have a really hard time hiking in the fog and in the rain because of my glasses. My eyes aren’t bad enough to use contacts, I mostly need them for distance. So they help to find trail markers or to distinguish bears from stumps. But when it’s really foggy they get too much moisture on them and I can’t wear them. I can sometimes wear them with my raincoat as it has a visor but I hate having my hood up because I find it affects my visibility in other ways and my hearing.

The next trail, Biscan Cove was rated mod-difficult so I thought I’d pick up time. However, I was soaked and chilled by this point. I even stopped to put on my puffy under the raincoat. It took way longer to do the 7km than I had wanted. I also think I’m getting blisters from wearing wet shoes. I had planned on getting waterproof socks but didn’t make it. 

Since it's raining, my phone is mostly staying tucked away and I'm not taking as many photos. I am really enjoying the trail maps and their historical facts. One interesting look out spot on this trail has a cool story;

It was here, [Horrid Gulch], in 1875, that Alfred Moore was repeatedly lowered in a blinding snowstorm, 80m by rope, to haul up ten passengers and crew from the schooner Water Witch, which was stranded on sea swept rocks.

I got to Pouch Cove a little before 3, it's another small community but has a convivence store. They said they could charge my phone but didn’t sell any charge packs. I quickly texted the guy I met the other night and said I still needed one if he was able to get it to me. While waiting I tried plugging my watch into the solar charger again and got about 50% out of it. I’m not sure what’s happening with it but I hope it starts working. 

This is such a small community, this is pretty much the only shop. I contemplated staying the night if there was a motel somewhere but there isn’t. Since I am travelling alone, it really reassures me to have use of my phone. I know in a lot of hiking groups there's a lot of debate about going offline when you're out hiking. Personally, I'm of the belief that cell phones are great for hiking and backpacking. Between maps, a camera, and being able to communicate with people, I think it's worth it.

I spent some time talking to a local at the store and at first he seemed really iffy of anywhere good for me to camp but then when I told him where I was thinking about staying he said that was fine. He said down by the river or the cliff right before I go down was probably my best bet. I did figure it would take an hour and a half to get there and I really wanted to set up before dark.

The local offered to drive me down to a road that cuts into the trail later on that would save me over 2 1/2 km walking. I'm new enough into this hike that I felt like I was cheating if I did that, and I was still waiting for the guy with power bank.

I waited almost two hours for him to come with the charge pack and then decided I really needed to get going in order to find a place to camp in time.  However, I told him where I planned on camping and that there was a shortcut and so I could meet him tonight or in the morning or something, whatever works for him. He is doing me a favour so I'm trying to make it easier for him but I also really want this charge pack. He got to the shortcut road a little bit before I did and then he got confused about where I was. For some reason he thought I was walking on the road even though I kept saying I was on the trail. So he drove around looking for me on the road and when I got to the road from the trail, he wasn’t there. I didn’t have to wait long for him to come back. He said he never seen this part of the trail wouldn’t mind walking down with me, he also offered for me to sit in the car with the heat on for a few minutes. But I knew if I did that I would never be able to go set up camp.

Success! I have a power bank, and it's fully charged! It should charge my phone to full twice so it's not a permanent solution but it will help me a lot.

While walking down the shortcut trail, it was really a quad trail, I saw a nice little clearing and we checked it out. It was probably someone’s backyard but I didn’t care. It was super sheltered, had trees on three sides and a brush pile on the fourth. You couldn’t see any of the houses on the street by it which meant they also probably couldn’t see me. It was still cold and wet so I doubt anyone would go ATVing and see me. And even if they did unless they owned the house or knew the people who did, would they really care? Newfies are the nicest people you'll meet so I'm not overly worried.

Jamie kept me company while I set up my tent. He was talking about how he’s been wanting to try overnighting but had no clue where to start so he wanted to check out my gear as I unpacked. I showed him my stove, my water filter, tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag… Everything. He said he had a backpack and asked if he got a tent in the rest of the gear if he could join me on the trail for a night. Of course I said yes, I absolutely love introducing people to back country camping. I feel like I can really help ensure they have a positive first experience and keep wanting to go. I told him some cheap versions of things he could buy to try first and then said you know if you wanted to drop the money on good stuff to go to the outfitters in St. John’s. Or even just go there and chat with them and learn more because everybody has a different style and preferences and he really needs to figure out what work for him specifically. 

Once everything was set up I told him I really want to get into my dry clothes in into bed so he headed off. I quickly changed into my sleeping clothes, and even left my puffy on. I cooked about two feet outside of my tent so that I could still reach it but could sit in the warmth while it cooked. FYI don't do this if you're in bear country or will use that tent in such. I wasn’t too worried about predators since I was in someone’s backyard and there's not a lot on the peninsula. After I ate, I quickly brushed my teeth, peed, and crawled into my sleeping bag. Pretty much everything that went in the tent with me was wet which didn’t really help keep the space warm. I wore socks to bed, which I hadn't needed in the past nights. And I left my puffy on in the sleeping bag. With all that I felt quite comfortable, and I fell asleep pretty quickly. 

Then I woke up about 23:30 freezing. I could hear that it was raining a little bit so I was kind of worried that my tent wasn’t waterproof and I got wet, because there really wasn’t a reason for me to be this cold with the sleeping bag I had and other gear. So I sat up to try and investigate and realized that not only had I rolled off my sleeping pad but I pushed it away. I was laying where I was supposed to be but the sleeping pad was on top of my gear beside me. I quickly rearranged and as soon as I laid back down on it I was warm again and went back to sleep.

I also saw nobody else hiking today, which means two full paths with no one. Granted it was raining a lot and most people wouldn't want to go out hiking on a day like this.

Also, the kilometers are approximate because I couldn’t record without a charger.