Sunny hike to Freshwater

We set out early for Bay Bulls and walked from there to Freshwater along the East Coast Trail and back. The last time I walked that segment, David and I did the last part in the dark, having miscalculated how long it would take us from the Spout. We had small headlights but still crept along very slowly to Bay Bulls as we couldn’t easily tell when we were on the edge of a cliff. Let’s just say it was a bonding experience. This time Camille, Alison and I did it in brilliant sunshine and I finally got to see the stunning scenery I had missed the last time.

We set out in brilliant sunshine…

My hiking companions: Alison…

and Camille.

Tuckamore, which I think of as natural bonsai: trees that would be tall but are dwarfed and sculpted by the wind and the sea.

And a ghostly root of another tuckamore.

After lunch the fog started to roll in.

The sky changed from turquoise to opal.

And then to shades of grey at the Bay Bulls Lighthouse, which is where we realized last time that we were not going to make it out by nightfall.

There was a great big sea, or as the midwife in A Midwife’s Tale put it, “a great sea a-going.”

And a snotty var at the end of the trail.