Hopeall Bay

I can't remember the last weekend it wasn't windy and raining. This past weekend was no exception. Gale Warnings in effect all over eastern Newfoundland. This makes it tough to get out on the ocean for a paddle. In fact, I think the last time I had my kayak on salt water was back at the end of August. The wind has always pushed me inland to rivers.

With gales forecast somewhere in the vicinity of 35 knots from the SW on Sunday, Trent and I headed to Hopeall, in Trinity Bay, which is very sheltered from SW winds, for a couple hours of paddling in the morning. Altogether it was around 9-10kms. We paddled out as far as Hopeall Head, poked our heads out into the gale and turned around and headed back.

One thing of interest we saw was a recently deceased dolphin on the beach. Would have been nice to see it alive in the water.

With any luck I'll get on the water again this weekend.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago
Brian

Hopeall Bay, Trinity Bay

Setting forth

Trent framed in by the wharf

Something dead on the beach

Poor dolphin, would have been nice to see it alive and swimming next to our boats

Trent with Hopeall Island in the background

Hopeall Head

Getting ready to poke our heads out into the gale

Looks pretty nasty out there, SW gales 35 knots

Lunch break

On the Hodge River

I had been looking at this river on google earth, that starts near Ocean Pond and flows to Whitbourne, coming out near the pump house not too far from my house, for a long time. This past weekend, I was finally able to check it out. The forecast was terrible for Saturday, rain and/or snow, with winds NW 50 gusting to 70 gusting to 90 km/h. So again, not much of a day to paddle on the ocean, so we decided to try out this river route. Its been constantly raining for weeks, so we figured the small river would have enough water for us to paddle in.

It started off kinda rough, and we contemplated turning around, as the river was too shallow and rocky. But after the first km, it opened up a bit to more of a boggy/marshy river. It took us about 4 hrs altogether, and only had to get out of our boats once or twice because it was too shallow.

We saw 2 grouse, and 4 Canada geese. And a lot of wind and rain. Most of my pics came out very blurry, but here are a few.

Trent setting up the pontoons to carry his dog

Rooster enjoying the ride

The start of the Hodge River

Road block along the way

There were a lot of beaver lodges and dams along the way

Remembrance Day

Yesterday was Remembrance Day here in Canada. Its very important to never forget the sacrifices made by our soldiers during both world wars, as well other conflicts. I hope everyone took a minute out of their holiday to think about this and be grateful for all they have done.

This past May, my wife and I visited Buchenwald Concentration Camp, near Weimar, Germany. Its hard to put into words what we saw there, and even harder to imagine what the people there went through.

Lest we forget.

A Newfoundland Tradition

November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, is a long standing tradition in Newfoundland that seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. When I was a kid, my friends and I would spend weeks preparing for Bonfire Night, collecting tires, trees, and if we were lucky, and old dory or speedboat.....anything that would burn, for Bonfire Night. Nowadays it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but me and my neighbours are trying to keep the tradition alive. Although we don't burn tires anymore :-)

Dark Evenings

Day light savings time has come and gone, so now when I get home from work in the evening at 5pm, darkness has set in. So this past friday, to celebrate my last evening of daylight I went for a short paddle around the pond behind my house. Now I'm left to paddling on the weekends, and given the Newfoundland weather, those will probably be few and far between until spring, especially given my limited skill set.

Two Rivers, One Day

On Saturday myself, Trent and his black Lab, Rooster paddled two small rivers on the Avalon. In the morning we paddled part of the Salmonier River and in the afternoon we paddled part of the Hodge River, near Whitbourne. Its been constantly raining for the past 3 weeks, so these small rivers, which are normally too shallow to go down in a canoe, had plenty of water for a fun ride.

On the Salmonier River, we departed from behind The Wilds golf course, and paddled as far as the first bridge in St Catherines, about 7-8kms. This took us about 2 hrs, with a short break to stretch our legs and play fetch with Rooster.

Class "-1" rapids :-)

Rooster play fetch

Condemned bridge in St Catherines

On the Hodge River, we left from the bridge in Markland and paddled to the second bridge that crosses the river, about 5.5 kms, which took us about 2.5 hrs, including a lunch stop and a 1/2 km portage back to the car from the bridge.

Its amazing what dogs can haul out of a river

Me and Rooster

Rooster fetches a big stick

Juniper looks beautiful in the fall

Getting ready to portage

En Route to the Jeep

White Water Rafting, Exploits River

Back in August, my wife and I did a whitewater rafting trip on the Exploits River in central Newfoundland. Joining us were two other couples Steve and Tara, and Chad and Kathy.

We spent the weekend at Riverfront Chalets owned by Paul and Joy Rose (www.riverfrontchalets.com), who also run the rafting tours (www.raftingnewfoundland.com) The chalets are beautiful, and also have an outdoor hot tub. What an amazing time we had! Below are some of the pictures, and there are also some videos on my youtube channel, if anyone is interested in taking a look.

Our group

Swimming in the Badger Chute. You can jump in the rapid, and let the eddy give you a free right right back to where you jumped in. It was a lot of fun

Me jumping in

Angie goes for a ride

Big Splash!!!!

Almost tipping over

Whoops, looks like we lost Steve

Angie and Chad loving it

Angie and Tara riding the bull

"which way should we go?"

A great healthy lunch!

Team Blue-Young

When we tipped our raft over, I think I got Chad's shoulder in the face!

Badger Chute

Paul and Mike size up the chute

One of our guides, Mike did a great fire-spinning performance that night

Riverfront Chalets