Hiking the Skerwink Trail and Prepping for the East Coast Trail on Day 14 - E.11

Hey adventurers, welcome back to Tents.and.Timber!
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Join us as we dive into Day 14 of our epic 32-day journey from Ontario to Newfoundland and back. Today, we hike one of the top trails in North America, visit a brewery and pack our trekking packs to hike the East Coast Trail.
Big planning day today, followed by the most beautiful hike on the island thus far. However, it was probably the weather that made the hike so good. We woke up and enjoyed some pancakes on our campsite at Lockston Path Provincial Park, followed by visiting the community centre or activity centre.
The activity centre is the only place to get a decent phone signal, plus it also has free Wi-Fi so we hung out here for a while trying to plan the next leg of our trip. There was also an outlet to charge our phones as we worked. We started out by calling a few places to try and find out the best place to park our car for the 5 days we planned on hiking the East Coast Trail. We were trying to find a place near the end of the trail to leave our car so we would finish hiking and end up at our car. The next step was going to be to find someone to drive us from our car to the start of the trail, but we couldn't figure out the first step.
Unfortunately, no one was willing to allow us to park for an extended amount of time. The only place we could find was a hotel parking lot for $15 per day, but it wasn't that close to where we wanted to finish. Jess did get a hold of a super nice taxi driver that would drive us to the start of the trail, but that would prove useless if we couldn't find a place to park. Not knowing the area really hindered us here. After who knows how many phone calls, we resorted to using our social media to help us.
Since it was roughly lunch time by now we made some posts and left the Wi-Fi area to make some lunch and hope for the best until we came back. Lunch was quick as we wanted to get out on the trail. The Skerwink Trail to be exact, and it was only a short 15 minute drive away from our campsite near the town of Port Rexton. Luckily today was probably one of the sunniest days of our entire trip and we spent close to 3 hours hiking a 5 kilometer trail. We took so long due to how gorgeous the scenery was not because it was difficult.
There are so many gorgeous lookouts along the trail that overlook sea stacks, cliffs, beaches and just stunning views of the area. We had our hopes set on seeing some whales, but still no luck on that front. The trail really is not very challenging and would highly recommend this trail if your only able to do one the whole time your on the island as it has a little bit of everything from the whole island jammed into one trail.
Advice: Do not look at any pictures of this trail before you go and just be amazed when you get there.
After the trail we made the short drive to the Port Rexton Brewing Company. We sat out on the patio in shorts and t-shirts for the first time on this trip and enjoyed some delicious beers and great music. It was perfect. We grabbed two beers to go and headed back to our campsite feeling great, with all of our fingers and toes crossed that our social media posts would pay off.
We never enjoy asking for help, but thankfully someone reached out and graciously offered us a place to park and even drive us to the start of the trail. We were beyond grateful. With a solid plan in place we were able to breathe a little easier and just relax for the rest of the evening. By relax I mean we still had to plan out and pack two backpacks with everything we would need for backpacking for five days. We also had to start to pack up our car camping gear, which is a totally different set of camping gear from our backpacking gear.
After all that was done Jess whipped up one of our pre-made dehydrated chili dinners on our ‪@MSRGear‬ Dragonfly stove, while Alex made our first campfire. Up until this point it has either been raining or we have been to exhausted to even have a campfire. We also knew that the East Coast Trail does not allow campfires along their trail so this was the last night we would be able to have a fire for five days. It was a great way to end our time at Lockston Provincial Park.
00:00 Preparing for the East Coast Trail
03:33 Skerwink Trail
07:51 Packing Backpacks for the ECT
11:51 Relaxing by the Campfire
13:53 Bloopers
Make sure to continue to join us as we soak in the natural wonders, indulge in local eats, and make unforgettable memories in the heart of Newfoundland's wilderness. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell to stay updated on our adventures!
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Until next time, happy trails!
#GrosMorne #Newfoundland #AdventureTravel #ExploreWithUs #explorenl

[@oracleocp]

Very classic Newfoundland directions - "You want to go down the road past the yellow house on the left, past the green one on the right until you get to the church - it's the left right before that". Very helpful :)

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Hahaha 😆 nailed it

[@ervinslens]

Outstanding, absolutely outstanding cinematography guys! Overall quality is just unmatched! 👏👏

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Wow thank you! Much appreciated.

[@suesoutdoorcrew]

It's so great to have those connections 😊

[@Tents.and.Timber]

We are forever grateful

[@adventureswithjosie]

As soon as I heard that it was someone from social media, I guessed it was you lol!

[@jaysway2346]

Awesome trail and finally time to add a day of sun to the total.

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Hahaha, oh boy, you just wait and see how many more we get to add in the next video! Not to be a huge tease, but you will see when we post it 😉

[@alanbierhoff6831]

Another great chapter 😊

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Thanks Alan 😊

[@KhurshidsChannel]

Amazing video. Thanks for sharing. subbed & 👍21

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Thanks mate

[@dorisclark298]

Even though we are not visiting the east side of NL this trip still look forward to the latest instalment of your journey . Hope we have less rain days than your trip .

[@Tents.and.Timber]

Hahaha yes we were not lucky with the weather, however when the sun did shine on us, it just made it that much more special! Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the next one.