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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Top 10 paddles of 2015 - #2


Our "big" trip for the year was in Placentia Bay from September 6th to 11th.  Dean, Hazen, Neville, Terry and I drove out to the old Piper's Hole park site on Saturday to put us close to Davis Cove where our trip would start.  After a fun evening at the park we drove to Davis on Sunday morning, did a car shuttle and headed own the coast to Clattice Harbour.


Monday morning was more like fly by the seat of your pants morning.  I wasn't sure what would develop because high winds were expected.  While I thought we were on our way to St. Kyrans the wind came up and the group decided to stay at St. Leonards.  A green field is all that left to indicate a community stood here until the 1960's.


Here's a picture of a picture Hazen sent of what the beach at St. Leonards looked like in the old days.


After setting up the tents we went to look for the old stone church along an old "road" between St. Leonards and St. Kyrans.  Not much was left standing but what was, was an impressive sight.


Tuesday morning was blustery.  We hung around St. Leonards, walked to St. Kyrans had lunch and after decided the winds had dropped enough to head back to St. Kyrans by water.


Wednesday was a super day.  We did a tour of Presque Harbour before exiting to paddle to Toslow.


Thursday morning we awoke to typical Pacentia Bay weather.  It was foggy, windy and sizable seas.  Funny there was no discussion as to whether we should stay.  We didn't grasp the size of the sea state until we were out in it.

We managed fine to arrive at Little and Great Paradise.  Leaving Great Paradise we entered Paradise Sound which was protected and paddled down the long sound to Channels Harbour for the night.


Friday we finished the trip paddling the rest of the way up the Sound to Monkstown.

It was an excellent trip the highlights of which were the abandoned communities where we stayed, the old stone church and the newer church at St. Kyrans the paddle into Toslow etc etc.

There was just too much to cover in one post, the purpose of which was just to put it on the list.  I posted a summary of the trip here with individual links to each segment of the trip for anyone interested to check it out further.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Tony, This is a great recap of what seems to have been a great year! Can't wait to see what your #1 is :) I thought it was going to be the Placentia trip.... meeting this group has been a hightlight of 2015 for me! Thanks Tony! 2016 is yet to open its secrets and memorable times! Wishing you all the fun adventures for 2016! :)

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  2. The trip in Placentia Bay was excellent but my #1 was for another reason.

    It was a pleasure meeting you also and fun to have you join the group.

    Happy New Year to you and see you on the water soon.

    Tony :-)

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