Snowshoeing In Terra Nova

Our first excursion took us to the fire tower at the top of Ochre Hill.

The road to the fire tower is closed for the winter, so we hiked the 3 km along the road up to the tower. It was a mild day, but cloudy with flurries on and off throughout the hike. There was a cool wind blowing as well, especially up at the top of the hill.

We parked at the side of the highway and began our trek up the road.

We quickly realized that with the mild weather and all the climbing that we were over dressed. In fact, if you pay attention you might notice a change in clothing from the start to the end of the hike. We were about two thirds of the way in, by the start of the Ochre Hill Pond hiking trail when we took a break for a small snack.

After a brief stop, we set off steadily climbing up to the summit.

We finally reached the summit and were able to look out over the park. Tracey headed up the tower for a better view.

 

The flurries and grey cloudy skies obscured the views in the distance as can be seen in the pictures from the top.

 In the picture above you can see the road we were snowshoeing on to the summit.

 We couldn't stay long at the top as the wind was cold and strong, so we headed back down the road.

On the way out we went at a much faster pace, probably due to the fact that it was mostly down hill. In fact we had to stop and let Mya catch up as she was lagging behind at the end.

 You can see Mya off in the distance. By the time she caught up to us she was looking pretty tired.

You can also see that Mya is walking in the snow shoe tracks so that she doesn't have to walk through the deep snow like in this picture.

 In fairness to Mya though, while we were snow shoeing along the road, she was leaping in and out of the forest.

After our three hour excursion in the snow, we made it back to the car and returned to our cabin for some stuffed mushrooms, barbequed steaks and cheesecake for dessert.

The next day we just went for a short hike from the road to the Terra Nova visitors center before driving back to St. John's.

 At 3 km, this path was only half the length as the one to Ochre Hill, and rather then climbing up to a peak it led us down to the ocean where we stopped to take a few pictures.

 And while we were down by the ocean, we decided to have a little swim. Okay, only one of us actually had a swim, and they were coerced into swimming by someone throwing their frisbee into the ocean.

After retrieving the frisbee Mya had to struggle back up the bank.

Only to have her frisbee thrown out into the water once more.

It was soon time to head back to the car for our drive back to St. John's (with a brief stop in Clarenville for some Mary Brown's Chicken).