21.5km

I think getting up and hitting the trail early yesterday took a toll and I should have gone to bed earlier last night. When the alarm went off at 5, it just wasn’t happening. Even when it went off at 5:30, I really struggled to get going. A perk though was an abundance of fresh blueberries around camp for my oatmeal.

I took some time to review the maps as today is also going to be logistically challenging. There’s a few recommended campsites 6-8km into the next trail, and then not much until after Cape Spear. Even if I got up at 5 and hit the trail early, that would be a crazy long day with over 30km. I have one recommendation for a spot at the end of Deadman’s Bay so I figure I’ll decide when I got there and saw it. 

As I finished off the last bit of the trail I camped on and cut through Quidi Vidi and up to the trail that leads to Signal Hill I kept an eye out for campsites to see if I could’ve gotten more distance in last night. Ultimately, it probably would’ve only been an extra kilometer or two and I’m not sure of the legality of camping on that part of trail. I don’t know if it’s part of the East Coast Trail or if they’re just making use of it to get to the next section.

The next part of my trek took me through Signal Hill, I visited here back in 2015 with my then roommate Lianne. This is a National Historic Site, it was the site of the harbour defenses from the 17th century up through WWII. It was also where Guglielmo Marconi received the world's first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901. It didn't get it's name from this event, rather the long going historical use of signaling at the summit using flags.

I did see quite a few people out on signal Hill, both walking and doing maintenance. I didn’t linger here very long since I had already been here and it was really overcast. Walking along the coast when the days aren't sunny can really put an extra chill in me.

As soon as I got to St. John’s it started to rain. I made it to the outfitters shop pretty much right as it opened and asked if they would charge my phone and power bank for me. I figured depending on how long I stayed here would make or break which campsite I went for tonight. One of the guys looked it up and said it was only supposed to rain one millimeter an hour so I shouldn’t have a hard day ahead of me.

After a little while he told me that my phone didn’t seem to be charging right and I went and looked at it and it was going really slow. He plugged it into one of the cords they had there and it was charging three times faster. I didn't stay much longer after that as I decided to buy a phone cord on the way as maybe part of the charging issue has been my cord.

I did pass a gas station on my walk through town so I quickly grabbed a charger cord, and some snacks and then kept going. Walking across to Fort Amherst took way longer than I thought for a road walk, but I was munching on some chips so it was a nice change.

I got to the trail head and saw that Cappahayden was listed on the destinations. Usually the signs just have the next couple of scenic places, and communities, although some of them have shown the next trail and it’s scenic things if they connect in the same parking lot. But this spot had two signs and showed the big highlights all the way to the end.

Seeing Cappahayden at 215 km to go hit me hard, stopped me dead in my tracks to be honest. Don't let the photo up there fool you, this was not an exciting moment for me.

I had really hoped to be around halfway and this kind of made it seem like I was only a third of the way. I knew that it was the harder parts and it was only supposed to get easier from here but it made me feel like I really need to get going. I pretty much saw that and decided that I should try and gun it past Cape Spear and get to the next campsite just to get extra distance in. And then I started walking and it started to pour, and pour, and pour, and it just was not letting up.

This trail had a lot of offshoots and it was often hard to tell where I was supposed to be going especially since I didn’t have my glasses on, had my raincoat on with the hood up and it was just pouring rain. I actually took a wrong path at one point I probably added half a kilometer with having to backtrack. It didn’t really let up for a couple of hours, it was raining so heavily that I had to take everything out of my pockets and put them away in my bag because they were getting wet and I'm scared things are going to get ruined.

Typically my raincoat has kept me dry enough on trails. The other day when it rained my upper body was fine, I was chilled but dry. I could tell that wasn’t the case today and by the time I was nearing the end of the trail I knew I wasn’t going be able to go much further. I was cold and soaked, I didn’t want to put my puffy on to warm me up because I knew it was just get soaked as well and then I would have nothing for when I stop to stay warm.

Because everything was packed away to stay dry, I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures on this trail, with the rain in the fog there wasn’t a whole lot to see. But I did cross a really cool rock causeway at Freshwater Bay. I might, if I have time before I have to go home after this go back to it and cross it. There is I think a shortcut road to it. It was just really cool and different from a lot of other hikes. Here's an excerpt from the maps on it;

In 1999, ECTA workers laid hundreds of stepping stones across the 400 m Freshwater Bay barachois to facilitate hiking.

I can't imagine how hard that was for them to set up and am grateful for all the work the volunteers have put into maintaining this trail. You should definitely google it and see what it looks like because it's something I thought was really unique and hadn't encountered before.

I got to the end of the trail probably close to five I knew that since it already was kind of dark from the rain, and how cold and wet and miserable I was there was no way I can go another 10 km. Because of Cape Spear I really had to go far to get to another good place to camp. Pretty much the whole point is exposed and there’s no shelter. I went to Cape Spear last time I was here so I know that finding a spot for my tent would be rough. I saw a few spots in the wooded areas along the end of this trail that I could camp but right near the end there was a really great spot.

There’s a little bit of a field that lead into some trees. I wouldn’t be totally surrounded by them, and I wasn’t again 100% sure if it was trail property or private property. But there is a nice little flat spot behind a giant tree and there’s more trees between me and the ocean which is important for blocking that chilly coastal wind. I quickly set up my tent and let everyone know I was safe for the night. I had a quick dinner and then got changed into my dry clothes. It starting to rain again so I figured there’s no point in doing much else. I probably should’ve gotten water but once I put my dry clothes on I didn’t really want to go out in the rain. I didn’t have service in my tent but I did at the end of the trail which is only a few minute walk away. Since it was still raining steadily, I let everyone knew I was safe and that was that.

I tried to spread my clothes out the best I could so they would dry overnight, but didn't have much hope for that. Then went to bed probably at 8, it started raining quite a bit heavier so I boiled some water and put in my Nalgene and put it in my sleeping bag with me to help stay warm.

Today was quite cold compared to previous days. I think being wet all the way through really had an impact on my temperature. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if it keeps raining this much, it definitely takes the fun out of things.