Come Walk With Us on the Trans Canada Trail (TCT)

Have you ever gotten to the end of a day, and wondered how on earth you got to where you are? How you could ever be so unexpectedly lucky? For us today certainly begs the question - how many amazing things can happen in one day? We had a bit of a late start out of Howley this morning, because we waited until the Trapper's Lounge opened for breakfast before setting out. As we were enjoying coffee, scrambled eggs, toast, and hash browns we were chatting with the owner of the restaurant. Heading west out of Howley meant that we said goodbye to central Newfoundland, and hello to the western portion of The Rock. She described the island as having two parts - that the culture, art, and fancy restaurants were in the east, but that the west was Newfoundland's playground. I guess we will find out! As we headed out of the small community of Howley, we passed a memorial garden commemorating the release of the first moose on the island in 1904. Apparently moose were int...

This morning was hot, sunny, and full of surprises. Since we camped in bear country, we took the precaution of hanging our food last night. It wasn't really high enough up to flummox a determined bear, but it was secure and away from the tent. When I went to retrieve it this morning I saw fresh moose tracks, from both an adult and a calf, and fresh bear tracks on the trail outside our tent! I walked back to the tent with the food bags, and as I was getting ready to boil water for our morning coffee and oatmeal I looked up to see a big black bear about 30 m down the trail! He looked at me for a few minutes, apparently full of curiosity, and then wondered off into the bushes. Quite a sight! After setting out in the hot morning sun, we were in for several treats. A few kilometers down the Trans Canada Trail we came to a beautiful lake, whose perfect reflections were broken only by a family of Canada Geese consisting of three adults and twelve goslings. From t...