Ham Hocks and Briefcases

Well we just made it through a busy weekend and the weather was glorious.  And now it is Monday afternoon and, once again, it is chilly and rainy.  Perfect time to kick back and tell some stories.

Friday morning we got up and did our regular work and then headed out to do the Skerwink trail.  At Dave's suggestion we did the trail backwards but that was really tough.  I am not sure I care for it that way.  There are lots of stairs on that trail but I think there might be more going the other way.  I dunno, doesn't matter.  We did it and, as always, the payoff was spectacular.  We were headed to our favorite spot which is this little spit that juts out of the coast with a mound on top and some short, soft grass that goes right up to the edge of the cliff, a few hundred feet from the water.  We settled down close to the edge and had a picnic lunch and just took in the scenery for about an hour or so.  Laid back, almost took a nap right there at the edge of the cliff but then decided it would be a scary place to wake up.  It is hard to resist.  Everything is just so cozy here.

The view of Trinity from somewhere mid-Skerwink Trail.

Beautiful mosses, beautiful coastline, beautiful water.  It gets no better, really.

This is our favorite spot.  To the right of the tree, and over the hill, is where those foxholes were.  To the left of the tree, it actually goes down and levels out a bit and that is where we had our picnic.  I may have to take a guitar out there at some point.  Unfortunately getting there is not easy.  But it is no match for a hike we did a few days later...

A very interesting looking sea stack off the coast at the Skerwink Trail.

If only this water were warm this place would be perfect.

From here we went back to the hostel and got cleaned up and went over to Trinity (proper) and climbed up most of Gun Hill which overlooks the town and was the main line of defense for the town in days gone by.  It is a really nice little hike with a (presumably) great payoff but the Skerwink beat me up a bit so I was only down for going about halfway up the hill, to the first lookout.  Fortunately this place is only ten minutes away from here so we can go back any time.  After we came down from the hill we walked around the town for a bit and stopped into this fantastic chocolate shop (a place that we need to revisit today, if possible....yum) called Aunt Sarah's Chocolates.  The best chocolate covered almonds I've ever had.  Yeah, we need to go back.

A magical little pond partway up Gun Hill, with a little bit of Trinity in the background.

Some more of Trinity, from a ways up Gun Hill.

An old church in Trinity and the Fort Point lighthouse in the background.

From there we headed back to the hostel and hung out with Dave and Kent and two of the guests, Arly and Chloe, and we made a fire out back and had a great evening that also included campfire baked apples and bananas and a good old-fashioned burnout and donut contest put on by some of the locals on the hilly gravel road, across the street.  One of the best shows ever, no doubt.  Anyway, so Chloe works at the hostel in St. John's so we were able to get more info on that place and what to expect when we get there and such.  It will be good to know someone there already once we arrive in a couple of weeks.  I will admit, though, that I am loving the place we currently are so much that I don't want to leave.  I would love to stay here all summer and then come back next year to do it all again.  This is that kind of place.  There is something very alluring about the Bonavista Peninsula and it is something that I never quite picked up on before, elsewhere on this wonderful island.  I can't quite put my finger on it but it's different.  And I'm not the only one.  Two of the girls who live down the street came here in past years to volunteer at the hostel and ended up staying in Trinity East.  Again, this is just that kind of place.  If the winters weren't so brutal I would totally follow suit.

Saturday we woke up and got working on tearing up the front lawn, in order to make a garden.  That is tough work.  There are many reasons why Newfoundland is called The Rock and none of them have anything to do with the soil being soft and easy to dig.  I would up with nasty blisters in the middle of both palms, one of which is so bad that it looks like stigmata.  Hurts like hell too.  Not enough to bring me down, but it will be nice when it heals.

After we got cleaned up we headed to the other side of the peninsula and drove up the coast of Bonavista Bay and, oh my, the icebergs were amazing.  To start, they are massive over there.  Far larger than anything we saw in Twillingate or in Trinity.  Also, because the weather was so warm, they were starting to melt and gave off a glassy tone like they were made of porcelain or something.  Two of them even crashed while we were out there, one of which Krissy managed to capture in a good sequence of photos:

The iceberg, as we found her.

Starting to roll, starting to crash.  If you look closely you can see a face in the ice and that face does not look happy.  He looks ready to conduct some serious business.

The start of the collapse.  Again it you look closely it kinda looks like the man from the above version of the berg is jumping out of the berg, taking the whole damn thing with him.

Boosh!

After a bit of a roll, this is what was left.

Oh yeah, there was a great deal of berg ice on the shore so I got my cooler and went back to collect some to bring back, because it is the best and purest water ice in the world.  In doing so I took a bit of a spill on some rocks and hurt my leg.  At first it felt like I did some damage to the area that is held together with plates and screws, and perhaps I slightly did, and it hurt like hell for a couple of days but it is getting better so hopefully I won't have to go to a doctor about it.  So put that together with the hand sores and all the black fly bites I incurred and it was a mad trifecta of maladies for poor ol' Hans that day.  No worries though.

Anyway, so from there we continued up the peninsula towards Cape Bonavista, home of a lighthouse and several more shiny works of ancient ice art.  Given my then-current state, I did not choose to walk around too much but Krissy did.  Surely we will return at some point.  

In the same vicinity of the Cape is a provincial park called The Dungeon which is this really cool little inlet that is connected to the main body of water via these two little natural arches.  It is a very picturesque spot from above but I would love to take a kayak through those arches.  Not sure if it would work though.  Very pretty to look at.

From there we made our way to an amazing little restaurant called the Bonavista Social Club (one of the best names ever).  It is the kind of place that does not get any sort of foot traffic.  It is quite a ways from the main road and you have to take a very long, narrow, winding road to the shore, where the restaurant proudly sits.  We got to see Hubert and Valerie who were staying at the hostel when we got here last week but now are staying in Bonavista and working at the restaurant.  That was really cool and we had a delicious dinner as well.  They have one of the only wood-fired ovens on the island and they make a mean pizza.  And a rhubarb lemonade that I could drink a bucket of.  We will definitely be going back at least once before we leave Trinity East, for sure.

Cape Bonavista Lighthouse.  It is an interesting one, with the tower in the middle and a boxy wooden house built around it.  The house is currently under construction and has scaffolding on one side hence why you are only getting the top, which is really the most important part of a lighthouse anyway.

This shiny sharp berg was sitting right off the Cape.

Giovanni Caboto - or John Cabot as we know him - was one of the most important discoverers of the New World, especially in this area, where he landed.  

Rocks and sea stacks over near the Dungeon.

Behold, the dungeon!

This berg was in the view from our dinner table at the Bonavista Social Club.  I really wished I had the skills to ice skate because the center of this berg would be so much fun to skate and pull off tricks in.

Our last stop for the evening was the Trinity Loop, which is an old, abandoned amusement park, about a mile or so from the turnoff to Trinity.  It has only been closed for about eight years but things here fall apart pretty quickly, especially after the hurricane washed a lot of it out.  This is the perfect place to stage a horror movie.  Unfortunately it's all covered in graffiti and whatnot but, combined with the rubble and broken glass, it adds to the post-apocalyptic nature of the place.

The wheel turns no more at Trinity Loop.

Phantom trains on phantom tracks traversing phantom ground.

The hobo sings no more.

A truly abandoned luncheonette.

Hans ordered fries and gravy and got broken glass instead.

Krissy is the Queen of the Caboose.

We got back and hung out with some folks for a little while, had a couple of beers and such, but it was soon time for bed as I was totally beat up, from head to toe.  Woke up yesterday morning, somewhat late, and got to working, after calling my Dad for Father's Day.  Was so good to talk to him.  I might not miss home one bit but I sure do miss my family and any chance I can get to talk to them is very precious to me.  Anyway, back to work.  Since my hands were all messed up, I managed to get out of digging in the dirt and instead peeled wallpaper in the small house next door, which is being renovated by the hostel for eventual use as staff quarters.  It has a long way to go but it is a fun little project.

After so many busy busy days I decreed yesterday to be a hang-around-the-hostel day, and we did just that.  Krissy and I both made our way to the top of the hill behind the house, which goes quite a ways up.  She strung up a hammock and read and I picked another spot and had a couple of beers and a guitar and bashed out a set.  I admit that I am rustier than I hoped I'd be but I still had fun and, with a view of the bay, the lighthouse, and an iceberg, I can't complain.  The flies tore me up so this was cut somewhat short....not sure why they find me so delicious.  Krissy only gets bit when I am not around, but I have at least 50 bites all over me at all times.  That is the munkus bofunkus, I tell ya.

So I came in the house and wrote my article for the Old Town Crier (reviewing the new moe. and the new Umphrey's McGee, if you want to know) and Krissy stayed up the hill.  Walking into the woods, she soon found a nice little clearing with a spectacular view and also came upon a moose!

One of the views from the way top of the hill out back.

Moose spies Krissy.

Moose keeps on walkin'

 Later in the evening we joined several hostel and hostel-related folks for a wild hike that led us to a place known as "asscrack rock" which offered a truly stunning view of Trinity.  From there we went deep into some thick coniferous forest to come out at an amazing little bluff with thick grass and lichen-covered rock, right there at the edge of the world.  We had to do some serious trudging through the brush to get there, sometimes hanging onto the branches for dear life.  I was not expecting this at all so I went out in shorts and a t-shirt and came back with some torn-up legs and zero regrets.  While it still does not beat my favorite Skerwink spot, this was still an amazing little vista.

One of the views from Asscrack Rock.

View of the Skerwink beach from the super awesome spot.

After that we walked back to the hostel and made dinner and mingled with some of the guests as well as Mike and Justin, two of the locals who are regulars here and who, along with everyone else here, are among my favorite people in the world right now.  Stayed up a little later than perhaps I should have but it's not like I have anywhere to be so whatever.  Woke up this morning to rain and chilly temps so we kept our tasks to inside cleaning and such and have spent the day relaxing and, well, writing this blog.  We might run out to the store at some point, or we might just sit here and keep on relaxing.  We have one guest coming tonight and (we think) the new volunteer, so it shall not be as crazy here but the flux keeps on shifting.

Like Tim Horton's, it's always fresh.

Personally I do not condone vandalism but I quite enjoyed this, sprayed on the outside of one of the main buildings at Trinity Loop.  The vandals apparently know where it's at, even if they did take the handles.