Paddling the Humber River

Hi Blog!

Our time here in Newfoundland is winding down. We’ve had some amazing experiences, but one thing we haven’t been able to do is kayak. We thought that an island covered with lakes and ponds and surrounded by hundreds of bays and coves would offer us endless opportunities to paddle. However, as we traveled around the island, strong winds were a constant companion. For example, a fun leisurely paddle can be done with winds up to 10 miles per hour. Anything over 12 gets too bumpy and higher winds can be downright dangerous in open kayaks. The average wind speed while we were in St. John’s was 25 miles per hour! Which is why we were so excited when we got to Corner Brook and saw the weather forecast for Saturday, July 14th – sunny, warm and winds of only 4 miles per hour! Oh, yes, and our campground has its own private beach on a quiet cove of the Humber River.  

Time to break out the paddles and dust off the boats!

Our campground here in Corner Brook is situated on the banks of the Humber River. It is one of Newfoundland’s largest rivers. It starts high up in the Long Range Mountains. By the time it reaches Corner Brook, the Humber looks more like a lake than a river. There are numerous bays and coves all around the edge for us to explore. 

The boats are ready!

It felt good to give our legs a break from all those Newfoundland staircases! We gently paddled in order to keep our wake down in hopes of getting some reflective photos.

As we rounded the end of our first cove, we could look down the length of the Humber River toward the orange-brown mountains known as the Lewis Hills.  These hills are also part of the earth's mantle, just like the Tablelands in Gros Morne. Just around the corner ("Corner Brook" -- get it?) to the right is the Bay of Islands and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

We would have loved to capture a few photos of the scampering plovers, the fishing ospreys or the soaring bald eagle, but we need our subjects to stay still long enough for a photo!  So we settled for some reflective rocks in quiet water:

Other than the one fisherman near our campground, we had the entire area to ourselves until about noon. Two small fishing boats made their way over to try their luck; and over, closer to Corner Brook, several jet skis raced about. They were far enough away that they didn't bother us, except for the buzzing like loud obnoxious mosquitos! However, they soon ran out of gas and returned to port. We continued our exploration along the rocky shore.

Geologists love Newfoundland. So much of the earth's crust is available for study. Just imagine the force needed to push all this rock up. 

The water in the river is crystal clear. It has a certain brownish hue. We've asked the locals and there are different opinions. Some say it is the iron in the water, other say its from the tannin in the spruce bogs which feed the river.

There is definitely iron in them there hills, as Kathy cuddles up next to a seam of rose quartz.

We probably spent more time rock hounding than paddling. With each rocky beach we passed, we cruised close as possible and plucked likely candidates from the beach. However, some specimens just wouldn't fit in the boat no matter how much we wanted to take them home.

Just after two, we noticed a subtle change in the winds. We were sure the winds were coming up, even though the forecast had assured us otherwise.  It was time to make our way back to our campground.

It took longer than usual to load up the boats, as we had to clean about 20 pounds of little rocks out of each boat. Now we get to draft and see which ones make it into the rock bowl! 

Newfoundland Rocks!