We have come to the end of our three-day tour across Newfoundland, hosted by our nephew and niece and their family. It's time for them to get back to school and jobs. It's also time to celebrate Denisa's birthday today. She got the biggest morning birthday greeting ever with "Happy Birthday 60!!" written in the sand on the shore of Deer Lake.
We've been staying at a very nice airbnb right on the lake. But we have arrived here after dark both evenings, and then left early the next morning. So before they left today they walked through our backyard to the beach to actually see Deer Lake--and scrawl the birthday message. We didn't see any wildlife yesterday, but we did get a picture of a moose statue this morning at our gas stop. Does that count as a wildlife sighting? Then the six of them left in one of their cars to make the eight-hour drive back home to the southeast corner of this province.
But they gave Denisa the most generous birthday present of all. They allowed us to keep their second car, so we could explore more of the province as we drove slowly back to St. John's over the next several days. What a special gift! So instead of rushing home today, we took a leisurely drive towards one of Newfoundland's quaint peninsula villages. When we mapped out this trip two years ago, we had planned to drive the route that we're getting to drive today. Our first stop was in the village of Kings Port, about 1.5 hours away.
Denisa had read about a unique hike that started in the woods near Kings Port. This is the Alexander Murray Trail, and it is famous for its number of man-made stairs.
We started out wearing two jackets and gloves at the trail head because it was a cool autumn morning.
But after several hundred stairs, we're unzipping those jackets and the gloves are no longer needed. We know how many stairs we've climbed, because Denisa is counting them. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. We're glad to see that benches are spaced after several of the longer flights of steps.
At one point, we had the option to climb down a half-kilometer of steps to see a waterfall. The problem with going down those stairs, would be having to come back up. We opted to stay on our trail and not make that extra detour.
Besides counting stairs, we are also entertained by the changing fall foliage,
and the mushrooms growing in this damp environment.
Our only wildlife sighting was found on this flight of stairs.
We were the first hikers of the morning, and this red squirrel was a little surprised to see us.
We are high enough now to get views of the Atlantic Ocean in the distance.
While much of the trail is on the dirt, we climbed over 1,000 steps at this point, and we are pretty impressed with the amount of lumber used in this trail. We saw evidence that it's hard to maintain all that wood. This section was scrapped to the side of the trail.
It has taken us 1.5 hours, 3.6 kilometers, and 1,100 stairs to get to the top of a very windy Haypook Mountain. Not a bad climb for a 60-year-old today!
This is a loop trail, so we headed down on a different route. They had rain last night, and we found plenty of very muddy spots. We were sure wishing for more stairs over this mud.
We got our wish, as we could look out across the horizon and see more stairs inching down the mountain-side.
This side of the loop includes Gull Brook Falls, which doesn't require a detour to see.
This side of the loop seemed to have more changing foliage, and we had to make some stops to capture the fall colors.
We have been up and down over 2,000 stairs by now, and we don't need our jackets any more. It's sunny and 19 degrees (Celsius). That's 66 degrees Fahrenheit, a very nice temperature for hiking among the ferns that are turning a golden color.
Denisa was still counting stairs as we finished up our loop. Today we went up and down 2,448 stairs on this 8-kilometer hike. That would be 5 miles for those of you not traveling in the metric system with us, but we managed to lengthen it to 5.5 miles. We were hungry by the time we got back to the car. We were very glad that Brian and Alexia had made a deluxe chicken, avocado and feta salad for everyone this morning. It made for a delicious birthday lunch!
Denisa still hadn't had any birthday dessert, so we were searching for something sweet. Canada is famous for the ever-present Tim Horton's bakeries, so we stopped at a very busy one along our highway route. We have spent a lot of time at Tim Horton's in our Canadian travels, as they are also famous for a good internet hotspot. We have never seen such an empty display case ever.
It was late afternoon by the time we made it to our birthday destination. We had reservations at the Captain's Legacy Historic Bed and Breakfast in Twillingate.
The owners spent a night here in the Regency Room seven years ago, and bought it shortly after. John and Addie were great hosts!
We wanted to do a little more exploring before we lost all daylight, so we drove to the Twillingate Lighthouse and got a picture as the sun was setting. A couple stopped us and asked, "Were you on the boat at Gros Morne yesterday?" Why yes, we were. I guess our group of 8 was a little hard to forget on that big boat.
We walked down to watch the sunset, where another couple was already there. They saw us and asked, "Were you on the boat ride yesterday?" What's the chances of that happening twice? We decided that we must be hitting all the same tourist highlights as the other two groups we saw at the Twillingate lighthouse tonight.
We also visited with a couple in a little motor home with Missouri license plates. Like us, they headed quickly to Canada when the border opened. But instead of flying, they drove their RV. They were spending the night in their motor home in the very picturesque lighthouse parking lot. Newfoundland allows RVers to park overnight for free on public property. We have noticed great places to boondock, and they reported that they were having an exceptional trip. As we chatted, we found that he had spent a summer taking courses at the university where we retired. Even though we are very far from home, this world can sometimes seem small. As it got darker, we noticed that the flood lights came on to light up the lighthouse and the keeper's house. The house is now a museum, and features exhibits on the Titanic that sunk in the cold North Atlantic waters not far from here.
This night was a full super moon. After watching the sun set, we watched the moon rise over those cold waters in this beautiful place. Then we had to leave for our 8:00 reservation at the restaurant recommended by our inn keepers.
In celebration of a 60th birthday, and because we were eating in a fishing village, we shared the Fisherman's Seafood Platter at Georgie's overlooking the ocean. It included cod, salmon, shrimp, scallops and mussels served over pureed root vegetables and scrunchies. That entree sounds like a list of the best traditional Newfoundland foods. Denisa finally got a birthday dessert when they brought out the restaurant's signature treat--date pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream--with a candle on top. They had live music in the pub, but we didn't finish our meal until 9:30 and we were too tired to dance. Denisa must be getting old to turn down an opportunity to dance! It's been a memorable birthday in a memorable place. Denisa will always remember this special 60th birthday in Newfoundland.
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