THE trip of 2014 was an excursion along the coast of the north end of Fortune Bay. The plan was to take the ferry from Bay L'Argent to Pools Cove and paddle the coastline back.
Dean, Hazen, Neville and I arrived at Bay L'Argent shrouded in fog to wait for the arrival of the ferry.
With the kayaks loaded on the foredeck and other passengers aboard, the ferry set off for its first port of call at Rencontre East.
Under way we went to pay our passage. Hazen and I took advantage of the seniors discount of $4.96 for the three hour trip. Dean and Neville shelled out the large sun of $9.36. But, the other guys were also charged $2.50 for their kayaks which I somehow managed to avoid. Crazy prices!
The four of us stayed on the foredeck hoping to catch a glimpse of the coastline we'd be paddling back along and ...
... do a best imitation of Leoanrdo's "I am the king of the world" scene from Titanic.
As the ferry steamed west the fog started to dissipate and the sun shone on Rencontre East as we arrived to disembark a few passengers and freight.
In the distance lay Pools Cove in what is in essence a cul-du-sac.
An hour and fifteen minutes after departing Rencontre East we arrived under clear sunny skies in Pools Cove where we ...
... promptly carried the kayaks a short distance to the slipway for loading and ...
... departure.
We were finally on our way after a couple of hours in the cars and four hours on the ferry. The ferry arrived in Pools Cove at 4:15 and an hour later we were afloat. The later put-in meant we'd have a very short paddle the first day to our campsite at Lake Cove.
Pools Cove lays very close to the Dover Fault which separates the Avalon and Gander geologic zones. Titanic forces were at work as the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana (Avalon) closed the proto-Atlantic Iapetus Ocean (Gander) to collide with Laurentia. Part of that story is told here in this conglomerate of boulders and various sized cobbles. I love this stuff!
As we made our way towards Lake Cove we passed some salmon cages. We'd see lots more as the area is a busy aquaculture center. I stopped at one cage to see 15 cms long salmon jumping in and out of the water.
A short paddle of 4.6 kms saw us at Lake Cove where we set up camp. We had a beautiful view looking back down the bay.
As we cooked supper we were plagued with black flies which brought out the bug jackets. They were a pest but didn't dampen our spirits.
As night fell we had our customary fire. There wasn't much beach to work with so we put the fire right at the top edge of the high tide mark hoping we'd have enough time to enjoy it.
It was a longish day of of multiple steps but we were in position to begin our adventure in Fortune Bay.
Here are the breadcrumbs. We didn't need many to mark the trail on the first day.
Great trip, look forward to reading more. Had been wondering how you made out...
ReplyDeleteIt was a great trip Tobias. Hate to keep you in suspense but all will be revealed *lol*
ReplyDeleteTony :-)