After lunch on July 3, 2018, we finished our tour of Ryan Premises National Historic Site, and then drove down to Trinity West to hike the Skerwink Trail, listed as one of the top Canadian trails, and also recognized as one of the most scenic hiking trails in the world!
Only 5 km long, it starts out innocently enough in a residential section of Trinity West.
The trail follows an old rail bed out Skerwink Point, past the original homestead:
It is said that the name of the trail derives from "scurwink," a seabird of the shearwater family, which are very bold birds that often follow dories to pluck bait from the fishermen's hauls. Scurwinks are found plentifully along the southern shores of Labrador and parts of Newfoundland.
Be that as it may, the trail itself boasts dramatic views of basalt columns and cliffs that have nothing to do with the birds. This is a quirky little basalt formation that stood by itself out in the deep water:
This basalt column looks like has just separated from the cliff:
The two of them actually form a grouping with other rock pillars along the shoreline:
We saw unusually shaped volcanic rock everywhere we looked:
The coves had beautiful, crescent-shaped beaches with dark -- nearly black -- sand and gravel:
The waters were the clearest green we have seen anywhere except in New Zealand and the Caribbean:
Our hike took us around the first point, where we got a glimpse of other hikers out on a further point jutting out into the ocean:
Hiking further around, we caught sight of the Fort Point Lighthouse, perched on Fort Point in Trinity Harbor, with the rustic, pretty town of Trinity in the background:
Hiking further back around from the point, we caught sight a beautiful crescent gravel beach framing a lake that it cut off from the bay:
Having spotted Fort Point Lighthouse, we couldn't resist driving around to the lighthouse itself, which we added to our growing collection. We made a wrong turn and, to get back out to the highway and around to Trinity, we chose a shortcut -- in reality it was a "long cut." A paved road turned into a gravel road, turned into a dirt road, turned into a rutted, potholed Jeep road, turned into an ATV trail, turned into a stream, and back to a dirt road before we found the highway. We ran into two ATV's, whose riders clearly could barely stifle their amusement at these two people from away, getting lost in the back country of Newfoundland, carrying kayaks and bikes, no less!
Still, we found the highway and made it around to Trinity and the Fort Point Lighthouse:
Our next stop was tiny New Bonaventure, which can brag that it was the location for filming two movies and a TV series -- "The Shipping News," "Random Seduction" and "Random Passage." David was hoping to see buildings that he recognized from "The Shipping News," but a local lady we asked informed us that all the buildings used in the movie had been torn down. Oh, well, still it is interesting to see the community itself:
Having had enough adventure for one day, we finished up with a brew for happy hour at the Port Rexton Brewing Co., in Port Rexton. As luck would have it, the deck offered us two red chairs for our sipping pleasure. We took our seats and added the red chairs to our collection:
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