Snowshoeing - Freshwater Bay

We enjoyed yesterday's excursion so much we decided to hit the trails again today. So once again we packed our gear into the car and headed to the trail head. Unfortunately we missed it, we stopped at the wrong spot. There was a skidoo trail there which we started down but it didn't go very far. So, after much snowshoeing in circles and head scratching we managed to figure out where we went wrong. This left us with two options: we could head back to the car and drive to the proper spot, or, since we now knew where we were and where we wanted to be, we could just make our own trail across country till we met up with the path to Freshwater Bay. Naturally we went with the second option. There was nice fresh snow to tromp through, and the terrain was fairly open making for pretty easy going. There were a few patches of denser forest which we were able to work our way around. Then we came to the cliff. The sensible thing to do might have been to turn around, but we were having such a wonderful time and the cliff wasn't really that steep we decided to keep on going. So after a fun slide down the slope we were back trekking cross country. It wasn't long before the few patches of dense forest had become the norm and we were forced to do some serious bushwhacking.

You can see Tracey making her way through the forest in the picture above. The terrain here had actually opened up nicely and wasn't as steep as other sections, it made for nice snowshoeing. I wish I had some pictures of the more extreme portions of our adventure but well I kinda had other things on my mind at the time.

After our time spent getting to know the native flora, we finally made our way to the trail with the help of a local moose who had left a trail for us to follow. We unfortunately didn't get to meet the moose and offer out thanks, but that may be for the best as Mya and the moose may not have got along well together.

We finally arrived on the trail to Freshwater Bay, we could see the ocean ahead of us, and many other travelers had been down the trail leaving it well packed down, you didn't really need snowshoes for the rest of the trip to the bay. There were still obstacles ahead of us before reaching the bay. After successfully running the gauntlet of the forest, the trees made one last ditched effort to thwart us from our goal.

But we would not be thwarted, it managed to pass the tree blocking the path and complete our journey to

We took a little break down by the ocean, had our sandwiches and tried to light a little fire. After some valiant efforts we gave up on trying to light a fire, next time we will take matches with us. So after posing for our group shot (which we forgot to do yesterday) we headed back up the trail.

We followed the trail back to the road then took the short walk down the road to the car. We had had enough adventure for one day and I think Mya was getting tired. Thus ended our 3 hour, 6.25km adventure.

Snowshoeing - Petty Harbour Long Pond Dam

It has been a while since the last post, there have been a few adventures since then. There was a trip to Florida.

Then our trip to Moncton to see Bruce Springsteen 

 and the associated car troubles along the way (nothing that a little PL Premium couldn't fix - thanks Marty). Jigging for Cod.

Trace caught one, I decided that what with all the Cod fishing moratorium that maybe I shouldn't remove any Cod from the ocean so I caught a Skulpin instead. There were also numerous hikes along the East Coast Trail. 

But this was our first time out snowshoeing with our new snowshoes we got for Christmas so I think it is certainly blog-worth, that I have time to blog about it. And so on to the snowshoeing. 

We planned to get an early start and hit the trail, and we were up getting ready at the crack of 10 o'clock! After getting a quick breakfast we made a couple of sandwiches and loaded up our packs and hit the road. The hike wasn't far away but we took a short detour to Tim Horton's as our quick breakfast proved in sufficient. We also got a tea and a coffee but since the hike was only a couple of minutes from Tim Horton's that turned out to be a bit of a waste. I have to remember to get the almost full cups out of the car tomorrow. The hike set out from the side of the road out to Cape Spear and took us into the dam on Petty Harbour Long Pond.

It was a nice walk into the dam, skidoos had been down the trail making for pretty easy going. We ventured off the path a few times to try going through the deeper snow. The deeper snow is certainly harder work then on the packed down trail. 

The trail down to the pond was shorter then we expected and since we were still feeling fresh we continued our trek along the lake and over to the dam.

There was a nice snowy hill on the back of the berm which formed part of the dam. It made for a really nice sliding hill!

After sliding down our hill we continued along the creek below the dam. We found a nice spot to have some trail mix and scotch.

Did you notice the stick in middle of the stream? Mya certainly did.

Needless to say the stick is no longer there. We followed a trail along the creek through the trees snowshoeing through pristine untouched snow. The trail took us down stream to where the creek swelled into a small pond, the forest also closed up here forcing us to turn and head back to the car.

Our first snowshoeing trip was a big success, everyone had a great time. Can't wait for the next one!