Spout Hike

In January of 2003 (I think) Neil and I decided to attempt a hike to the spout (A wave driven fresh water geezer on the Southern Avalon Peninsula). This is trip didn't go so well and we didn't actually get to see the spout in it's winter glory. This Year we decided to have another go. The next few photos are of various stages of the trip. Here Neil is on the barrens about 2km from the spout.

Spout Hike

This is a view looking south from the top of the ridge above the spout.

Spout Hike

Neil Surveying the landscape, trying to pick a good route down from the ridge. There is only about 800m of woods between the foot of the ridge and the shore, but this is the hardest part of the trail. on our return in 2003 it took us about 8 hours to get through this section, yes, a speed of 100m/h. Deep snow and fallen trees made travel extremely difficult!

Spout Hike

The Spout is created as a small brook runs down a fracture in the rock leading to a submarine cave. Wave action pushes water in and out of this cave, as waves enter the cave they act like a piston and force air and brook water out through the fractures. In the summer this is a pretty impressive feature. In the winter the fresh water freezes forming a large cone, here we estimated that it is standing about 20 feet above the rock on which it stands.

Sliding at Flatrock

On the north west facing side of the beamer (a 1km long peninsula in Flatrock) the 550 million year old sea bed is exposed and dips at about 20 degrees to the west. This winter ice has formed on several parts of this surface making walking out there an interesting, but possibly dangerous way to pass an afternoon. We also found that the ice can be quite fun as if provides a great surface for sliding - no sled required! Unfortunately this image fails to convey the motion, but rest assured that you can reach some pretty high speeds sliding on these ice sheets.

It should be noted that the beamer is notorious for the lives claimed by the waves pounding it's shores. We were sliding well out of reach of the waves and separated from them by several hundred metres of grass, boulders and rather short trees.

Taking a spin out to Flatrock.

The last snow storm we had in the Northeast Avalon area ended, as most have this year, with heavy rain followed by rapid freezing. This has resulted in some impressive ice sheets. Form this image you may think that I have been foolish enough to drive out onto a frozen pond, however this is just a parking area covered in about 10cm (4 in) of ice. Most flat surfaces in this ares look like this now unless they have been salted. Many car parks, drive ways and even some roads have a healthy coat of ice.