Tried setting up my tent tonight in a church parking lot in a little community several miles back, but the tent blew over as it’s become increasingly fragile every time I set it up. It seems to have turned out just fine though – I have my camping mattress spread between the trunk and backseat so will sleep in the car tonight. After dinner i the church lot I kept driving to get a little closer to St. Anthony’s and pulled off the road into a laneway of cabins. I’m probably trespassing, but the view is spectacular and I’ve just watched the sun sink into the west while listening to the waves from the St. Lawrence touch the shore. It’s an amazing vista and I seem to be all alone here with none of the cabin inhabitants here on a Wednesday.

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I woke up at the Green Gardens backcountry campsite this morning bundled up with toque, gloves neck buff, and by the time I had walked 20 minutes I had stripped down to my tank top. The sun was blazing and it was a gorgeous day. I tested my knee by running most of the Tablelands trail and then climbed up to the Woody Point lookout. It’s so crazy to look to one side and see barren rock, alien terrain, then to turn your head 90 degrees and see lush forests and rolling hills. This is one wild place, an intersection of intercontinental rock as I learned yesterday in the Discovery Center. Being a part of this world makes me want to be active in preserving it. The effects of climate change could erase the grasslands completely – changing the face of much of Canada.

i stopped in at Molly Made in Woodypoint to visit a girl’s parents (Cat – she fixed my tent the 2nd time in St. John’s). Her parents, Molly and Austin, were full of local information including plant species native to the region, how to net a capelin that flounders it’s way to shore in June and fry it up with salt and pepper, and so much more. Their store was cute and I bought a couple of cards to send home. Austin showed me a fossil he found that predates dinosaurs, right before handing me a jar of moose meat for my travels (see my post about that amazing stuff). I am so excited about this last point. Ever since completing the ECT I’ve been eating everything I can get my hands on – moose will be a huge treat for this 95% veg humanoid.