One of our favourite places to hike has always been the area around Lark Harbour and Little Port in the Bay of Islands since the coastal scenery is some of the best in the province.
If you add the new trail to Blow-Me-Down Mountain, then we feel this is some of the finest hiking in Eastern Canada, since I don’t think there are many places this side of Vancouver where you can hike with an island studded bay stretched out below you from a vantage point that is over 600 metres high. When we first moved here the trails in this area were crude at the best of times, and that is if you could find the starting point.
Many times we described the start of a trail in this area to friends only to have them report they couldn’t find it. But all that has changed recently with the formation of the Outer Bay of Islands Enhancement Committee (OBIEC). This group has widened and sign-posted many existing trails and created others so that now this area near Corner Brook has trails that are certainly some of the most picturesque in the province.
The enhancement committee was formed in early 2009 with a group of about 15 people from Lark and York Harbour.
“We thought the best way to promote this area was through better hiking trails since this area has such a scenic coast line,” John Parsons recently told us. “We applied for grants and received enough money to hire workers for the past three summers. These workers have now cleared and sign-posted seven trails in this area and a real bonus has been that although we created the trails to enhance tourism, we now find that many local people also now use the trails.
New geocaches to find
Also George Perry and friends have added many new geocaches to the trails, so anyone interested in this activity have many new caches to discover.
In past Destinations columns we have discussed the new South Head Light House Trail and the Little Port Head Trail and in future columns we will cover some of the other fine trails in this area.
Over the winter the enhancement committee will be applying for more grants and next year it plans to extend the boardwalk trail along Bottle Cove and enlarge the beach parking area.
“We might even put in a small boat launch if we get the funding,” Parsons said. “We never could have imagined how busy we would be with this project but we have a great group of volunteers.”
If anyone has any questions or wants to get involved please contact either Alan Sheppard at 681-2906 or John or Sharon Parsons at 681-2214. The enhancement committee has done some great work and its trails are easy to follow and well marked. Since most of the trails are relatively short they appeal to a wide variety of hikers. But they do have their challenges since many of them climb steeply in places so take appropriate footwear and bring extra water, snacks and a windbreaker on the longer hikes like the more exposed Coppermine Cape Trail.
We have produced videos of many of these hikes and the popular Coppermine Cape Trail can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxHbt1EAGNk.
For a further listing of hikes in western Newfoundland see: http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/~knicol/NLhiking.htm.
Contributors Keith and Heather Nicol live in Corner Brook and are avid explorers of Newfoundland. Keith can be reached at knicol@swgc.mun.ca
