23 km of the East Coast Trail

So, on Saturday some friends of ours invited us to go on a hike with them. It is part of the East Coast Trail, which runs for hundreds of kilometers along the coast of Newfoundland, and definitely has some of coolest scenery we have seen so far. However, we definitely had to pay for it since it was probably the most difficult hike I have ever been on! 23 km (14 miles) is not nothing, and we never had any flat surface. It was always uphill, downhill, downhill, uphill, down, up, up, up, down...

And, it was probably the hottest day of the whole year in Newfoundland. It was in the 90s according to our thermometer!! I felt like I was back in the Southeast. Holy cow! I thought we lived too far North for that stuff, but I guess not. Either way, it added a level of difficulty to the hike, but only for about half of it. The other half was a really nice temperature.

By the end of it, we were pretty exhausted, but we all felt we had accomplished something and had been rewarded very well for it. These pictures definitely don't do it justice, but we have to try to show you how BEAUTIFUL Newfoundland's Coast is.

This was about halfway, and we were feeling discouraged, but this view definitely lifted our spirits.

This view made us feel like we had found a pirate cove or something. The water had some really awesome colors that day.

This was towards the end of the day. You can hardly see it, but there is a lighthouse on the top of the hill on the left. We were at a place called Bald Head.

You probably can't see this too well, but we wanted to show you our new whale friends! There were probably dozens out on the coast line as we walked along. There were two kinds - Minke and Humpback, and I'm pretty sure these were humpback whales. My first experience seeing whales, and it was so cool to look out over the water and see their spouts blowing water into the air. Awesome!


So, this was almost the very end of the hike (km # 20), and you can see in the distance where our hike started that day. Beautiful day!

I wanted to save the best picture for last. This rock was about 300 ft high, and had these huge pine trees on top. The stack on the left had bald eagles in it, but you can't really see it in this picture. This was definitely the most stunning thing to see on the hike.

We can't wait to show you guys if you come visit us! It is just amazing, and I wish we could capture it in pictures. Even though our cameraman (Jordan) did a great job, it just doesn't quite cut it.

P.S. The weather has been really warm here (80s), which isn't so bad, except for the fact that there are no air conditioners in anyone's house! So, we all have to keep our windows open and hope for a breeze. It gets ridiculously warm during the day. I'm just very grateful for an air conditioned office. I feel bad for Jordan when he spends the day working at home. Ugh...