Day 13 – Barachois Pond

Today was going to be a short driving day down the TransCanada so I added two stops along the way. The first, in Pasadena to take a look at the address provided by the Find My feature in iOS for my AirPods that I had dropped in my Airbnb parking spot that mysteriously disappeared 20 minutes later. That was a bust, I mean, I wasn’t expecting much, but it did get me off the highway and to a very nice coffee shop where I had a toffee muffin (who knew?) and latte while relaxing a bit.

Back on the road, I drove through Corner Brook which was not at all the cute little town I thought it was, instead being a major shipping hub. I think it’s the second largest city in NL after St. John’s and has massive shipping yards crazy traffic and construction. I had intended to stop and explore, but decided to just keep going.

My last deviation from the course was the little spit of land that shows up on the map. I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned into quite the adventure, since as soon as I turned from the Trans Canada Highway, pouring rain started. I kept going (my gear keeps me dry) as it wasn’t miserably cold like the leg down from HV-GB, and I felt like I was riding towards clear skies and sure enough, it stopped and the sun came out again. Not much further down the road, the pavement was dry, so another localized shower.

I stopped for a slice of pizza and a little further into the area, drove down a large dock jutting into the sea. Two people were fishing there, and one of them looked up and said hi to me, so I chatted with him a bit. He told me it was his first time in years fishing for mackerel off the dock. I didn’t ask, but he told me his wife died a few years ago and it’s been tough for him to get going afterwards. There is a look a lot of the older Newfoundlanders have, “weathered” might not be the right word, but certainly one of a hard lived life and he definitely had it. He did tell me I could go all the way to the end of the finger of land and there was a little town there where they caught bigger mackerel but it wouldn’t be worth the gas to drive the 20km for them. I wished him good luck with the mackerel (one of my favourite fish to eat) and went on my way.

The spit was a rough gravel road which I enjoyed riding down, and there was indeed, a small fishing village at the end of it. I looked around, took some pictures, the one guy I passed on an ATV on the gravel road was there getting out his fishing gear.

I turned around, reversed my course and went to Barachois Pond Provincial Park and checked in, opting to have some wood delivered and set up my tent for the night. I drank my two beers that I picked up in Trout River, made Kung Pao Beef (best of the freeze dried meals!) and hit the sack.