If you have read The Shipping News (or seen the film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx’s novel), then you have some idea of life in Newfoundland. The past two summers I traveled there on Sierra Club service trips to help work on the East Coast Trail.
The Trail, the easternmost hiking trail in North America, is still a work in progress, with one stretch of well over 200 kilometers already open and other sections being worked on. When completed, it will begin at Topsail, proceed north along the west coast of the Avalon Peninsula, then south along the east coast to Cape Race, ending at Trepassey. (The Avalon, at the southeast corner of the island, is home to St. John’s, the provincial capital and the major population center. The completed section of the trail is mostly south of St. John’s.)
The trail work the fourteen of us (two leaders and twelve participants) engaged in involved cutting and removing overgrowth— mainly alder, balsam fir, and larch—from existing trails, though in some cases there was so much of it that we were essentially clearing new trail. Not only did we have to remove the slash, we had to hide it where it would not be easily visible from the trail. We would be transported to the trailhead from the b and b where we were staying and hike in with tools. This year we worked three of the four work days on the same trail, starting from where we had quit the day before. This meant that by the third day we were walking well over an hour each way, over fairly rough terrain.
We were assisting members of the East Coast Trail Association, for whom trail maintenance is a regular task, with crews going out every Sunday from spring to fall, weather permitting. They were all very hard workers, and kept us busy. They were also uniformly congenial.
On the days we didn’t work, there were other activities planned. We hiked on completed sections of the Trail, including one beginning at the lighthouse at Cape Spear, the eastern tip of North America. Our leaders pointed out some of the local flora, including the pitcher plant (the provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador), bakeapples (local berries commonly used for jam), and various orchids. There was also a whale watching excursion in a zodiac on Witless Bay, which also gave us close-up views of seabirds (such as puffins, murres, and kittiwakes) at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Even on working days, we could usually enjoy great scenery and occasional wildlife sightings.
We learned a lot about the history of Newfoundland, which did not join Canada until 1949. (One can still see the old pink, white, and green flag of independent Newfoundland flying in a lot of places.) For centuries, fishing was the mainstay of the economy, but eventually—and inevitably, given the heavy toll taken by the fishing fleets— the fishery collapsed. Now, tourism is an important element of the local economy, hence the desire to develop attractions such as the East Coast Trail. There is a long history of interaction between Newfoundlanders and Americans. In fact, I met a woman whose father was an American GI stationed there during the war. She introduced herself when she noticed the Missouri plates on my car and asked if I knew where Sikeston was, since that’s where he was from. (I assured her I did.)
Last year we enjoyed good weather, except for one day that was a total washout when the remnants of a tropical storm hit. This year it was cooler and cloudier, which made tourist activities less enjoyable but at least made for more pleasant working conditions. We were warned about the blackflies and mosquitoes, but they weren’t a major problem.
With outings such as this, you meet a mixed bag of people. Last year I was one of the younger people in the group at age 56; this year I was one of the older ones. In both cases, we literally came from coast to coast.
At the end of the week, members of the Association threw a party for us and presented us with t-shirts and certificates in appreciation of our help. They were impressed (and rather incredulous) that people would actually pay substantial sums of money to go there and work.
Gros Morne
Last year I flew to St. John’s (much the saner choice), but this year I decided that I wanted to see more of the island, so I drove, taking the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basques. When the trip leader found out that I’d be driving, she invited me to join a group at Gros Morne National Park on the western side of the island to do some hiking prior to the service trip. So I hooked up with them for several days. Gros Morne is spectacular. It is a World Heritage area listed for its “exceptional natural beauty” (to which I can attest) and “outstanding examples [of geological features] representing major stages in earth’s history.” The mountains there are actually the most northern extension of the Appalachians. Aside from seeing lots of moose (not native to Newfoundland, but imported near the end of the 19th century), the highlights of the visit were hikes to Baker Brook Falls (easy) and to the top of Gros Morne Mountain (not easy). In addition to the leader and a couple who would also be on this year’s service trip, I met other Sierra Club members who had been on the service trip previously. The fact that people want to return year after year says something about the trip leader (Marleen Fouché of Berkeley, California), but it also results from the special nature of the place and the friendliness of the people.