On the ground in Ireland's Eye

After our lunch at Black Duck Cove we took a leisurely paddle up the west side of Ireland's Eye, the island, until we reached Ireland's Eye Point at the north end.  There we paddled ...

... into a stiffening breeze down the east side until we ...

... reached the entrance to Irelands Eye, the community.

I was so excited to be here I raced ashore and was well up on the hill when the rest of the gang arrived.

These are some of the remains that dot the abandoned community.  This particular building housed the post office and was still standing in 1989 as this picture from Memorial University's Maritime History Archives shows.

The post office operated from 1941 to 1965.

I walked on up the hill to ...

...  what was left standing of St. George's Anglican Church.  There is an "Ireland's Eye" near Dublin, Ireland.  The fact the church was Anglican suggests the first settlers in early 1800 were of English extraction and not Irish as the community name implies.

By 1836 the community had 32 occupants, increasing to 123 in 1874 and peaking at 157 in 1911.  St. George's was an imposing and massive structure to build for what was essentially a small community.  This historical picture again from the archives shows its original grandeur.

This is all that remains of St. George's School.  Families of Toops [Toopes], Coopers and Hodders sent their children there to be educated.  See the archival picture of the school taken in 1973 here.

The archives have many other pictures of the old community that are worth a detour!

We stayed about 30 minutes before getting back into our kayaks to ... 

 ... set up our tents at Thoroughfare.  This is the view I had looking out my front "door".

After setting up our tents we had ...

... "happy hour".  Cocktails at half price!

A memorable day drew to an end with a beautiful sunset but not before we ...

... collected firewood for our traditional camp fire. 

For me, Ireland's Eye is, in one sense, one of the quintessential example of resettlement of outport communities in Newfoundland (along with Merasheen).  It has been on my list of destinations for some time.  Now I've been there.  I plan to go back and spend a full day there.

The track.

On to Thoroughfare

The day dawned bright and sunny at First Pond on the second day of our trip to Ireland's Eye.  We cooked breakfast and broke camp with the day's destination the abandoned community of Thoroughfare.  Dean and I were in our kayaks first and while we waited for the other four we paddled around First Pond to see if there were other options to camp.

There were none.  I don't think the beaver of this lodge would be happy to accommodate us either.

First Pond is connected to the sea by a river that drains into a fjord of about a kilometer.  While we had to walk the kayaks up the shallow part of the river on the way up, the way down could be navigated with only minor rubs on the rocks.

The entrance to the fjord with Hickman Island near the mouth.

Five dots on the sea pass by Hickman Island on our short two kilometer crossing to Haydon Point on Random Island.

With landfall made on Random Island we paddled a further short distance past Flat Island and stopped at Thoroughfare, the abandoned community.  It was abandoned in 1961 but there was still evidence that a community was established here.

Concrete foundations testify to a prolonged occupation.  It was established in the early 1800's and by 1845 a total of 18 souls lived there.

The population peaked in 1921 when 74 people called Thoroughfare home, possibly lured here by work at the E.J. Green Herring Factory.  Some of the family surnames listed in the census of 1935 include Toope, Brown, Cooper, Langer, Loder, Mills and Ivany.  I'm left to wonder which of these families lived in this now dilapidated house.  Maybe it was Moses and Theodosia Brown, the last people out in 1961?

Close by the house I found a small patch of Blue Geraniums.  They are not native so someone liked nice things and took pride in their surroundings.  I always find it moving to think of the people who lived in Newfoundland's abandoned communities.  I wonder what hopes and dreams they had and how hard it must have been to leave them behind, like these geraniums.

We intended to camp at Thoroughfare but didn't set up camp right away.  We decided to cross over to the island of Ireland's Eye to circumnavigate it and in doing so, also visit the community of Ireland's Eye.  We crossed over first to another abandoned community called Ivanhoe that now consists of cabins visited on weekends or holidays.

Paddling clockwise around Ireland's Eye we entered Black Duck Cove that looked like an ideal place to stop for lunch.

And, you can see it was.

Here are the breadcrumbs for our morning paddle from First Pond to Thoroughfare and Black Duck Cove.

The road to Ireland's Eye

On Thursday, August 8, six of us began a four day Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador club paddle to Ireland's Eye in Trinity Bay.  Ireland's Eye is an island.  Nevertheless, the road there, figuratively, began in the community of Burgoynes Cove.

Two and a half hours after leaving home we arrived at the put-in.  We loaded up the boats after which Dean, Julie, Hazen and Ron shuttled the vehicles some 75 kms up to the community of Trinity.  For a further two and a half hours Barb and I waited in the welcomed shade of a tree for their return when we could ...

... finally get on the water to begin our trip.  We paddle up the north side of Smith Sound under sunshine and pillowy white clouds.

Smith Sound gradually opened up and we could see Ireland's Eye in the distance.  We would save that for the next day.  A late put-in meant we would spend the first night at First Pond ...

... which is a fresh water pond up a one kilometer fjord and river.  We arrived at 6:00 pm.

There isn't much room on the side of the pond.  Here Hazen gingerly bends over with an ice pack on his thrown out lower back.  That was the cause of considerable concern for the rest of us so we did what we could to spare his back and save the trip.

Flat ground for tents was at a premium.  Four of the guys were here last year and cleared some room but we needed to set up six tents.

I set about with my saw to clear enough room for my tent in between the alders, in the suburbs just on the outskirts of the main site.  It was just after 7:00 before our community was established which meant a late supper.

Not long after cleaning up from supper the sun had set and we had this glorious view across the pond.  As darkness became complete we had an amazing view of the heavens.  We caught several early meteors of the Perseid meteor shower, a few satellites and the Milky Way galaxy wheeling overhead.

There wasn't much "beach" to have a fire but we squeezed in along the shore and managed to have a humble fire by our standards.  We didn't want to set the whole countryside on fire, and our tents!

We made a late start but we were underway.  Here are the breadcrumbs.

A fresh viewpoint

Dean, Gary and I had reached the terminus of Manual's River after paddling from St Philips.  It flowed over a cobble bar and boulders into the sea.  Behind the bar was a fresh water lagoon.  I thought it might be interesting to check out so we ...

... carried the kayaks over the bar.

We paddled up into the lagoon, called Bubble Pond, to explore.  I knew what to expect as I've hiked the shore on foot numerous times.  And it was the first place I paddled my first kayak.  It is protected and the water is shallow.

Before long we reached a dead end on the right side ...

... so we checked out the left side.

This side proved to provide access higher up the river.

Eventually our passage was blocked again.

The river is split by an island covered by various water loving grasses and reeds and this unidentified mauve flower.  The fresh water environment is in stark contrast to the wave pounded shores of the seascapes we usually paddle.

Our passage blocked, we turned to paddle back to the sea ...

... which we could just see where the river spilled out.

We reversed the carry back into the salt water.  We all agreed it was a worthwhile diversion and a nice change of pace.  It goes to show there is always something interesting off of the beaten path.

Weather for ducks ... and paddlers

Weather made us change our paddling plans for Sunday.  The forecast was for sun in the morning with rain showers in the afternoon and SW winds of 30 kms gusting to 50.  While it was supposed to be sunny, outside the rain was falling.  Rather than couch surf we decided to go for a paddle close by.

It started out just pecking rain.

Not serious rain at first ...

... until it came down in buckets.  The drops bounced on the sea.

It continued to pour and ...

... there seemed to be no let up in sight.

But the rain did let up.  It continued to rain but at least it wasn't a downpour anymore.  Enough rain had fallen over a shot period to create torrents of water that cascaded off the cliffs turning the sea muddy where they landed.

Dean, Gary and I stopped at Topsail Beach for a break under this open gazebo.

It started to brighten up so we decided to carry on as far as where Manual's River drained into the sea.

Manual's River flows into Bubble Pond before it cuts through a cobble bar and into the sea.  It was a short carry over the bar where we could put the kayaks into the fresh water of the pond for a little detour and exploration.

When its not practice

Eleven paddlers turned up for Thursday evening practice at St. Philips.  Things were pretty tame in the cove so we went for a paddle up to Topsail Beach.  One of the guys was a novice paddler and when the sea state got to where I thought he might be getting uncomfortable, I kept a little closer.

No sooner had I made that decision and over he went.  We had a swimmer in an unscripted moment.  Practice became real and it was good to complete the rescue without any hiccups.

At Topsail Beach we turned and headed back in a quartering sea.  Again we had a swimmer.  This time Dean did the rescue as I lagged behind to act a sweep.

We made our way back to St. Philips without further mishap as the sun set in a clear sky over Bell Island.  It was reassuring to realize the rescues went off just like it was practice..  I guess that's why we practice.