August 24
End: Island Resource Road
Miles: 43.4
Total: 5438.5
The entire night I was waking up, finding myself still wet from the rain. Down sleeping bags do nothing when they get soaked, so it was a pretty miserably cold, wet affair. In the morning I was conflicted, wanting to get out of my wet sleeping bag and get moving, yet so miserable that I didn’t want to move.
It was not raining, so I made myself get up, and forced myself to start hiking. Wearing my rain jacket and pants, I protected myself well from the cold coastal winds which threatened to blow me off the road. I knew that I had to continue moving because it was not raining, and I wanted to take advantage of that.
What really excited me as I walked along the coast was Labrador. Easily visible some twenty miles on the other side of the gulf, Labrador was teasing me at this point. This was the closest I had ever been, but I was about to leave it behind to head inland. Stopping at the last convenience store for some one hundred kilometers, I stayed for awhile and chatted with the locals there in Green Island Cove.
Finally I decided to move on. What little rain there had been was still going on, but soon stopped. I miserably longed for some inland road walking while still on the ridiculously windy coast, but soon I made it. Sadly, I later found that there were plenty of open spaces inland which offered high winds as well.
I kept checking my phone to help pass the time. The weather was on my side, as a day which was forecast to be certain rain was almost completely devoid of the stuff. Determined to put in big miles so that the next day would be manageable, I kept on trekking the long road through the swamps of Northern Newfoundland.
As darkness approached, I started looking for camping spots. Searching before dark was rather pointless, however, as I wanted every last mile that I could take on. Using my phone, I could see there was some road up ahead on which I hoped to turn and get to sleep. The road turned out to be a resource road, and I found some sort of box on which I set up my sleeping pad.
I was worried about the possibility of rain. It had not rained all day, but now dark clouds were showing up, though nothing was forecast to fall. Sadly, it started raining on me and I was too lazy to get up and set up my tarp. I just got it out and slid under it. Though I stayed fairly dry it was not the most delightful experience. My time on the trail was soon coming to an end. I just needed to make sure nothing catastrophic befell me before I reached the finish line.
