East Coast Charm
Run along Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula for a true oceanfront experience
Long a popular hiker’s destination, Newfoundland and Labrador’s East Coast Trail, with its wild swings in elevation and topography – and the chance for summer whale-watching – is attracting increasing attention from trail runners. About half of the trail’s 540k length – along the east coast of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula – is developed and fully mapped (details include the sites of shipwrecks in the 19th and 20th centuries). It’s divided into a series of 2 4 paths varying in length and difficulty. Most trailheads are in small communities, a short drive from St. John’s, but the paths can take runners through areas far enough from civilization to get lost in – as two groups of hikers did last summer, before being rescued safely.
The East Coast Trail Association maintains the trail with funding coming from the government, as well as corporate and private donations, and membership fees. There are new paths always cropping up. The Biscan Cove path is the most recent, completed in 2011. The association hosts a website ( eastcoasttrail.ca) that rates each section’s difficulty and provides regularly updated information about current conditions. In Newfoundland, this is especially important as storms and hurricanes routinely hit the island. Last September, post-tropical storm Leslie battered the region, resulting in some paths being partially blocked.
The Outfitters Trail Running Group, loosely organized by a St. John’s outdoor sports-gear shop, kicks off a six-month trail running season in early May. Last year the group launched the season with a run along a 9k stretch from Blackhead to Freshwater Bay and back. Jonathan Simon, Outfitters employee and member of the trail running group, says sections with steep ascents and descents present challenges, but he relishes the unique rewards of running along the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. “There were a lot of surges in the water that day we did the trail run, and the sound of the ocean was thunderous,” he says. “You could almost feel it in your chest. We’re so close to the edge of the cliff that it was – not scary, but it was, ‘Wow.’ Very strong and powerful crashes.”
Tinkers Point is an easy 5k stretch about a half-hour drive from St. John’s that winds along beaches and through a forest of balsam fir, past whale- and seabird-watching spots with boardwalks over stretches through bog and fen. The more difficult 15k Stiles Cove trail runs between the villages of Pouch Cove and Flatrock, and includes challenging descents, including one from an elevation of almost 100m down to sea level, across a bridge over a brook and then a rapid ascent along a zig-zagging trail and stone steps.
The 11.5k Cape Spear Path begins at the easternmost point in North America and takes runners by a ruined Second World War coastal defence battery and a lighthouse built in 1836, skirting coves where fishermen used to take shelter for noon “boil-ups” – tea and a snack during a break from work at sea or in the country. The Spout is the longest and one of the most strenuous stretches – including the access path, it runs almost 23k. It features waterfalls, sea cliffs and sea stacks, and very rough terrain, as well as the freshwater geyser that gives the path its name, spewing water into the air highest in the spring and fall. About a kilometre away from the Spout is a rock formation topped by an eagle’s nest.
“The sound of the ocean was thunderous. You could almost feel it in your chest.”
–Jonathan Simon