Kathleen's Window: Signal Hill, Fossils, Fog, and Cape Race

Friday, July 19, 2013

I am sitting at the dinette window on Cape Race at dusk looking across the barrens. The Cape Race light is flashing every 7.5 seconds over my shoulder as it has done since 1906. This lighthouse is situated on the southeastern-most point of the Avalon Peninsula on Newfoundland, and is the last light that ships see as they head out across the Atlantic. Hundreds of shipwrecks have occurred off its treacherous tip over the centuries.

Today we hiked into the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve to see the fossils of the earliest sea creatures, buried in volcanic ash on the ocean floor 565 million years ago. They were all evolutionary dead ends, but were the first multicelled living organisms to be discovered and represent extremely rare remains of animals that lived before the “invention” of hard shells or skeletons. Several of the fossils have been found nowhere else on earth. The Reserve is applying for UNESCO World Heritage status because of the rarity of these fossils and the huge scientific implications of this discovery.

Let me back up a day and tell you how we got here. The rains came into St John on Wednesday night after the glorious weather that day. Thursday morning we packed up and left Pippy Park after spending time parked by the park gazebo to use the wifi, hence a late start. We drove back into downtown St Johns and out to Signal Hill, which is a national heritage site. Signal Hill sits at the entrance to the harbor, high above the Narrows, the 60 meter opening to the harbor. It has served as a military outpost to watch over and protect the harbor, but more importantly it's signaled the arrival of ships, by flags and cannons.

Snowshoe Hare visiting our campsite before we left

We stopped first at the interpretive center most of the way up the hill. The rain was being blown sideways by the wind. We watched a 20 minute film about the history of Signal Hill and the many times the hill was taken in battle as the French and British fought for possession of St Johns. Then we drove to the top and ran through the gale into the three story tower. The first floor was a gift shop and the second floor had a museum dedicated to Marconi and his invention of wireless communication which he first successfully transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean from there. The third floor open deck was closed due to the high winds. We were able to look out the narrow windows on the second floor and see the harbor and St Johns. The view would be spectacular on a clear day! There were trails all over the hill and it looked out over the ocean. Before returning to the RV we made a quick run around all the informational signs posted around the outside. By the time we got back in, our rain jackets kept the top of us dry, but our pants were soaked from the sideways blowing rain.

Cabot Tower interior

The harbor opening from Signal Hill

Looking back at the Narrows

Cabot Tower on Signal Hill - authentic weather

Driving back down the mountain we made a quick stop at the GeoCenter, built mostly underground. It seemed to be geared more for children, but we stopped in the gift shop and finally found a guide and geologic map to Newfoundland and Labrador. The geology here is incredible as this part of the world has been a place where the tectonic plates collided, and where the continents pulled apart as the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea split apart.

Due to the heavy rain and fierce wind we decided to head out of town and not visit Cape Spear which was a detour to the coast south of downtown. Cape Spear has a lighthouse and is the easternmost place in North America. Would have been nice for bragging rights, but we went on a quest for Ches's Fish and Chips instead. I found an article listing the 10 best fish and chips in Canada, and Ches's was on it with three locations in the St Johns area. We drove out past the same mall we had driven by the previous two days and found it in an old Arby's. Greg thought the fish and chips was decent, but no better than he had before, but he knew he was getting cod, which it usually isn't made from outside of Newfoundland. As we were finishing a charter bus showed up to eat there. It turned out to be a busload of Special Olympians with their coaches, from the town of Gander. It was good to see that program active in Canada, too.

You can't have fish and chips too often!

After lunch we drove south down the easternmost peninsula on the Avalon Peninsula, the southeastern section of Newfoundland. This area was settled by the Irish, but also fished by the Portuguese, and Lord Baltimore tried to establish a colony there, before he came to Maryland. We passed the town of Ferryland where an archeological dig of the settlement is taking place. As we drove, the rain continued on and off and the heavy overcast as well. The farther south we went, the population got sparser and the landscape more barren. We arrived at Chance Cove Provincial Park. There was a six km gravel road to drive from the highway to the coast. The sign said that it was an unmanned park and there was no designated campground. We had read that we could dry camp in the parking lot. We drove the six km in the rain and gloom, past stunted spruce trees and bogs. We couldn't see very far across the barrens. As we drove Greg exclaimed, “Now THIS is Newfoundland!” I commented that we would probably be the only ones camping there, it seemed so remote and we both agreed that we were fine with that.

The road to Chance Cove

Funky Puffin - Blueberry and Rhubarb wine, If you can't grow grapes, use what you have!

When we reached the gravel parking lot there were ten trailers already there, but no cars. They seemed to be set up for the season with piles of wood and lights strung up. We discovered a woman and her dog camping in a tent, and late, a pick-up truck showed up with a man and woman who ran their generator until three in the morning and left at seven. We spent the night, took a walk on the beach in the morning sun and saw a half dozen seals in the water. It was a pretty cove with big cobbles in the surf that made a loud tumbling and shushing noise as the surf rolled them back and forth with the waves. Note from Greg – the entire beach, maybe a half-mile, consisted of bowling ball to orange-sized cobbles, no sand.

The outlet for the Barachois pond

The road back out.

Cabin on the barrens south of Chance Cove

We had discovered that in order to see the fossils at the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve we needed to sign up for a guided walk at 1 PM. It was a short drive to the Edge of Avalon Interpretive Center at Portuguese Cove South. We signed up for the walk, looked at the exhibits and went back to the RV for lunch. At 1 PM we gathered for the orientation with Edwina. She was a local woman who was trained to lead the hikes and was well informed and had stories to tell about growing up here. (Especially one about the young men during cod heyday before WW2 who hiked forty kilometers out of a seasonal fishing village on this road over a weekend, in order to go to a dance to meet girls in Trepassey.) We had a couple from Quebec, two women from Newfoundland and a young couple from Toronto with us. (The young man had a Charm City Cakes cap from the reality show based in Baltimore. They had gone to the shop when visiting a cousin in York, PA, took their picture out front of it and put it on their mantle!) The site was a 30 minute drive most of the way down the gravel dead end road to the Cape Race lighthouse. We followed Edwina and at one point had to tackle a very steep descent and then ascent into and out of a beach cliff area with an old abandoned fishing village. The road was slightly washed out from the rain the day before.

The view along the road to Mistaken Point

Following our park ranger

Arriving at the parking area we had a mile and a half hike over the barrens to the coast. Edwina pointed out the stunted spruce tree “forest” called a “tuckamore”, and found some not quite ripe bakeapple berries and crowberries to try. As we approached the coast the fog rolled in. Up to that point we had a stiff wind to keep the blackflies off. We were not allowed to go to Mistaken Point, but went to Watern Cove instead. Because they have applied for UNESCO Heritage Site status, they have to prove they are protecting the site. Erosion and people walking on the fossils are taking their toll on the horizontal surfaces the size of tennis courts that hold the exposed impressions. A huge undertaking has been in place to make large, highly detailed, silicone rubber casts of as many surfaces as they can.

Starting the hike out to Mistaken Point

Bakeapples

Mistaken Point fossil beds in the far distance

Cinnamon Ferns

At Watern Cove we had to stand above the site, while one of the two student interns with us climbed down and pointed out the fossils on the vertical rock face. We were able to look at them more closely with binoculars. It was disappointing not to get closer and touch them. Edwina said they are hoping to build a stairway and railing at this site to allow that. It was still amazing to see creatures that lived 565 million years ago. They have no relatives in the fossil record, or today. They were discovered in the 1960's by two students out doing a geological survey. The local fisherman knew they were there, but because the most common fossil, which is also unique to this site, the spindle, looks a bit like a fish skeleton, they thought that's what it was.

Looking down on the fossil beds

Spindle fossil

Kathleen crossing the stream at the fossil bed

On the walk back I had a long conversation with a woman from St Johns. She asked if we were going to go “cod jigging”, since the “food fishery” was opening tomorrow. We could each catch five cod a day for the next two weeks. Greg wondered later what the heck we were going to do with all that cod in the RV! Then I asked her what a “Jiggs Dinner” was. We had seen it advertised on several restaurant signs. She said it is salted beef that is cooked up with potatoes and carrots and other vegetables. It's often Sunday dinner. She thought it was originally an English tradition. While we walked back, the blackflies descended, and since I refuse to use DEET, I got several large bites, again.

We said our goodbyes to everyone and continued the 20 minutes out to Cape Race and the lighthouse. The fog was rolling in and out. We parked at the base of the lighthouse and walked to the edge of the cliff. From there it was only ocean all the way to the British Isles. We considered boondocking there, but the foghorn was too loud, so we drove a short way back up the road and found a nice, flat gravel spot off to the side. We checked the weather report and rain wasn't predicted until the next afternoon, so we decided to stay. We had dinner and watched the fog come and go. The lighthouse appeared and disappeared and reappeared and at 10 PM it started to rain...