East Coast Trail: Trail Magic at Trix's Cove

Where we are from -- Pennsylvania -- the Appalachian Trail winds its way from Georgia's Springer Mountain to Katahdin Mountain in Maine.  While Pennsylvania is known as the place where through-hikers' boots go to die, it is also home to another phenomenon called, "Trail Magic," which is an act or thing of generosity, offered by an often anonymous person (known as a "Trail Angel") to help hungry, thirsty, tired, sick or otherwise deprived through hikers as they plod their way toward their destination at the end of the trail.  Trail Magic might be something as simple as a container of water or cookies on a plate.  It might be something as major as a shelter sitting at just the right spot to ward off a night-long storm.  It might be a sign offering "all you can eat" ice cream.  Trail Magic is legendary on the long-distance trails in the United States.

We don't know whether Newfoundlanders know about the notion of Trail Magic, or whether hikers of the East Coast Trail experience it often, but we ran across true Trail Angels today, and we want to tell you about them.

We planned to hike the northern half of the Bear Cove Point Path --

-- out and back, starting at the Kingman's Cove Trailhead, on the south shore of Fermeuse Harbour.  Our destination was Sleepers Point, or perhaps a little further if we made good time.  As you can see on this map from the keepers of the East Coast Trail, the path proceeds to Lance Cove, then Trix's Cove (where a side trail leads down to the beach), through the former community of Blacksmith, and on around Sailing Point to Sleepers Point.

The drive out Kingman's Cove Road from Highway 10 offers pretty sights in the town, including an old fishing stage remodeled into a bed and breakfast, and this garage or shed painted in the Newveau-Newfy style:

At the end of the pavement, there is a gravel parking area, and the official trailhead sign is only about 100 meters up the old graveled road.  After taking our traditional selfy photo at the trailhead sign, we started up a steep hill, where we were pleasantly surprised to find blackberry and raspberry bushes.  We were even more surprised to see wild hops growing right along the side of the road-cum-trail.  We speculated that someone -- in years past -- had planted these hops to brew a homemade beer and the plants, left to themselves, have thrived along the path in the open sun.  We crushed a hop cone to smell its aroma and can tell you that these are healthy hops!  We have homebrewed beer over the years, and we longed to pick a bag of hop cones and take them home to see how they would taste in a batch of home brewed ale.  Unfortunately, being full-time RV'ers, we can't conveniently homebrew, so we had to be satisfied with the aroma of fresh hops on our fingertips.

Now this seems magical enough, but we hadn't even started to experience the Trail Magic that this stretch of the East Coast Trail has to offer.  We continued up the trail, which still climbed steeply up a ridge:

The trail follows the old road, but periodically leaves it.  At a point where the trail returned to the road, we were nearing Trix's Cove and noticed this locally-augmented trail sign.  It pleased us to see that people in this community nurture the trail:

Between the former of Blow Me Down (which is marked with a beautiful metal sign -- more on that below) and Trix's Cove are a number of foundations of houses occupied before the collapse of the cod fishing.  Some were more formal concrete affairs, and others appear little more than jumbled piles of slate and rock.

Just past the augmented sign shown above, where the trail rejoins to graveled road, the trail continued right, but we turned left down an unmarked side trail that led to Trix's Cove.  The trail is marked on the East Coast Trail map and is described in the accompanying trail guide.  Trix's Cove boasts a very pretty, small, stone and gravel beach at which a lively rivulet tumbles down from a ridge above, through an open meadow filled with blueberry bushes:

We spent a little time hunting sea glass, finding a few pretty specimens, and also stumbled across a few starfish so freshly thrown up from the surf that we were not sure whether they were still alive or not.  In case they had just been stranded, we returned them to the water.

The whole stretch of the trial from Kingman's Cove, as far as we hiked, is dotted trailside with blueberry bushes.  We took the time to harvest over a pint of the luscious wild berries:

Climbing back up to the main trail from Trix's Cove, we came across another pretty metal sign announcing that this was the border of the old Blacksmith community:

Like the Blow Me Down sign and others along this stretch of the trail, the metal sign was delicately painted with a local  scene, and mounted on sturdy round black PVC posts set in concrete footings.  We were very impressed with the workmanship, which clearly demonstrated a love for this trail.

Just past the sign, we came across a small cottage, in front of which was a witty sign denoting a spring, and with it someone had supplied a hose and a cup.  The hose was merrily spouting fresh spring water!

We had just finished commenting to each other that this was a wonderful example of Trail Magic.  The owners of this cabin had taken the time and trouble to make the spring water available to whosoever might pass by on the trail -- when a gentleman waved to us from the house and invited us up to chat.  We've learned that, wherever we go in Newfoundland, when we are in the outports and other local communities, we may not pass through without engaging in some friendly banter.  The friendly conversation informs the local that, yes, indeed, we come from away, and where we are from and why we are in Newfoundland and how long we are visiting.  We often learn a bit about the locals we meet.  Newfoundlanders are very eager to engage in social exchange!

When we had conversed a brief spell, the gentleman invited us inside to meet his wife.  They introduced themselves as Reg and Cathy Brennan.  They were having morning tea at their kitchen table, looking out at this magnificent view over Trix's Cove, and they offered some tea along with a biscuit or two.  How could we resist?

Our little conversation extended for nearly two hours.  We learned that Reg's family has lived on this land for generations, through the cod collapse and other challenges.  Reg explained to us where the family's houses had been on the land, and showed us his excellent solar power system -- homemade, I might add.

Reg and Cathy (on the right in the photo below) kindly agreed to let us take a joint photograph to memorialize this occasion of those two Trail Angels blessing us with Maximum Trail Magic this day:

We learned that Cathy and Reg enjoy meeting hikers who use this stretch of the East Coast Trail.  They maintain a guest book where they ask hikers they meet to note the encounter.

We also learned that they constructed the gorgeous metal signs we described above, with a financial donation by a thoughtful person from St. John's.  Reg makes it his personal career to care for this section of the trail, and he routinely clears the trail and road to maintain its passable character. 

We finally had to say our goodbyes, and we continued southward on the trail.  Reg told us to look out for some old concrete pillars, which were part of the foundation of his father's house further up the hill from Cathy's and Reg's current cabin; the cabin now occupies a meadow that had been where his father grazed sheep.

Reg and Cathy have also memorialized pets they have owned over the years and which have, inevitably passed away.  Signs remembering each of them are posted in the small pet cemetery where they are buried, up the hill from the trail:

Reg mentioned that he had transported a table and some chair southward on the trail, near where the trail leaves the former Blacksmith community (again, marked with one of the beautiful metal signs).  We found that we had spent so much time chatting with the Brennans that we had run out of time to complete the original hike itinerary, so we decided to walk to the table and chairs, which sit at the edge of a wide, open valley --

-- and enjoy our pack lunch.  Which we did.

Reg and Cathy, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for your hospitality, and for telling us so much of the local history.  Our journey through Newfoundland is a physical trek, but it is also a walk through culture and history, and we enjoy all these dimensions of the places we visit here.

And to you who might decide to hike this section of the East Coast Trail, be sure to look in on the Brennans and tell them that David and Kathy from Pennsylvania sent you!