Exploring Quirpon, Newfoundland – a 10-km walk
After getting set up at the Viking RV Park on June 10th, I decided to go for a walk, possibly to see the nearby communityn of Quirpon (population 77) and it turned into a very long walk. Here’s the map from my Strava page. For an interactive Google map, click here.
Walking north on Quirpon Road, the first thing of interest I came to was a sign stating that Quirpon is “Newfoundland’s Most North East Community. Population: 77 (some days)” 🙂
Next, I had the chance to have a good look at one of the firewood places I mentioned in the last post. This one looks like a commercial operation but some wood has been there for a long time, and there’s no sign. A large old buzz saw was a cool feature at this one – it hasn’t worked in many years. I can’t even tell where the wood comes from – there’s no truck/ATV trail off into the forest as I expect in the Yukon. All very strange…
Another thing we’ve seen a lot of is gardens out in the middle of nowhere wherever good soil was found – sometimes one small plot, sometimes several and sometimes a bit larger. But again, as with gasoline and firewood, working on the honour system that nobody is going to steal the crop you worked hard to produce. Here’s a small group of them along the Quirpon Road.
The population of Quirpon is spread out among mostly widely-spaced homes along 2-3 km of the complex coastline of Quirpon Harbour.
Halfway along the harbour, I thought I could see the top of an iceberg in the distance through the mist, and I was eventually able to confirm that’s what it was. So then, of course, I had to keep walking to get better views of it.
A little peninsula is home to a reproduction French bread oven, one of six built in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2004 with bricks and oven-builders brought over from Brittany.
There, that’s better 🙂
A broad view of the iceberg’s location.
Another berg had apparently gone onto the rocks and got broken up by the surf. I talked to a fellow as I walked by his home on the way back to the RV park – he had taken his boat out and filled a milk crate with chunks of the ice.
The cemetery was where I turned around. There are several headstones dating back into the 1860s.
One of four rabbits I saw on the walk back.
As I entered town there was a sign pointing to a trail, but I didn’t go very far in that direction. The next day I took Cathy on a tour, and we drove to the trailhead – it’s the Quirpon Tickle Lookout trail, 4 km long, rated as moderate. There’s never enough time.
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