Off to Deer Harbour

Getting in

After a good night sleep, helped by the Irish coffee the night before, we had breakfast, loaded the boats, carried them back down the bank and were ready to go to Deer Harbour.

Destination in sight

Deer Harbour lay 5 kilometers south down the coast of Trinity Bay but first we had to paddle up from the bottom of St. Jones Harbour. The narrow exit of the harbour lay in the distance.

Pastels

The trees were abalze with the pastel colours of fall.

Community

Cabins now occupy part of the resettled community of St. Jones Without. Back in the day when there was a community here, there would have been more houses crowded together hugging the steep hillside a kilometer from the entrance to the harbour. While the harbour is 5 kilometers deep, the fishermen would have wanted to live as close to the entrance as possible because they would have had to row dories out to the fishing grounds.

Deer Harbour, here we come

Leaving St. Jones Without we passed between some rocks at the southern headland before making our way down the coast towards Deer Harbour some 5 kilometers away.

Birch Cove

Approaching Deer Harbour we paddled into Birch Cove and inside of a sizeable, un-named island.

Local knowledge

As we entered Deer Harbour we heard an outboard motorboat who we hailed to get local information about possible camping spots. If push came to shove we were offered the opportunity to camp at this guy's cabin.

Entering Deer Harbour

Deer Harbour extends 9 kilometers inland and is considerably wider than St. Jones Without. We scouted along the north shore of the harbour and stopped at a small cove in Strong Tickle for lunch. We weren't very optimistic about finding a campsite so we more or less swung through paddling around Gooseberry Island and inside of Grub Island before deciding to return to a campsite at St. Jones Without.

We're out of here

Deer Harbour overall was disappointing for me. There were some scenic locations and the sun did come out for a while but the lack of campsites didn't make it very endearing. We grudgingly accepted that any decent campsites would have already been claimed by cabin owners.

Campsite

Just inside of the entrance to St. Jones Without we set up camp on this flat piece of ground.

We could have stayed here the first night but were too deep into the harbour to return before failing light. If I return to this coast I would camp here, bypass Deer Harbour and camp on Bull
Island.

Driftwood

We collected some driftwood for a campfire after dark.

Fire on the beach

I was kept in check with the size of the fire but it was a fine one nonetheless.

Roughing it

Hazen promised us another Irish coffee on the second night and again it hit the spot. This time one of his mugs broke and Pete took his in a regular coffee mug. Either way, it tasted good and proves that just because you're roughing it, you can still enjoy some of the comforts of home.

At 8:30 it started to rain. We called it an early night and retreated to the comfort of our tents. An early night meant we'd get a good rest before heading back to Gooseberry Cove and back to our daily routines the next day. So far so good, almost 50 kms paddled.