Biking in Newfoundland: King's Point, Rattling Brook

Westbound at the side of the Trans Canada Highway
 outside of the visitor centre at the Springdale junction. 

Saturday was sunny, and a had high of 22 degrees Celsius (the annual maximum high here), so I decided to do some exploring on bike. I didn't really have a plan and had just made note of some of the surrounding towns that I could visit. My first stop was the Springdale visitor centre next to the Trans Canada Highway to pick up a town map, and to try out this much talked about Newfoundland meal, the jigg's dinner.

On my way out of town, I had crossed Kelly, my colleague and some of her friends coming back in town on bikes. They saw me heading out of town a little just before noon. In a way I like the small town community, because if I don't make it back after a solo ride, there is always someone who will notice. Friends back home have already urged that I purchase another cell phone; except the reality is that in between areas of civilization, one is lucky to find reception. The surrounding towns being smaller than Springdale are not serviced by any mobile phone company.  

A RV park at the centre of King's Point next to their hiking trail.
This park is large enough to service about two dozen trailers  

After the jigg's dinner, and chatting with various locals all intrigued by my presence, I decide I would only try out a short bike ride that afternoon. The nearest town is King's Point, and according to the road sign it is only 12 km away.  (Follow me on a map.) Having done some long distances before, not to mention a 30km ride on my first day biking with the women's group, I decide 12 km was doable. Little did I know that the 30 km the ladies took me on towards Little Bay was not representative of the terrain in the region, because the route towards King's Point, had two large hills! The ladies had laughed when they heard about my mistaken assumption. 

I saw a sign saying Township of King's Point,
and followed this gravel path,  only it lead me to a quarry. 

From King's Point, the tourist map had said I only needed to go another 5km before reaching Rattling Brook and the Falls, so naturally I had to go visit this place.  

At the foot of Rattling Brook Falls.

The 800 feet trail leading up to the look out for Rattling Brook Falls is as much of an attraction as the falls. 

The forest floor had such rich texture. In a way it was enchanted,
because the thick layers of moss looked so  inviting.

At the top of the trail with a view of Green Bay.

Near the very end of the town of Rattling Brook is a general store called Joshua Toms and Sons owned by a sweet old lady named Dulcie Toms who has been running the store for 50 years. (I was going to call it a corner store, because that is what we have in the cities, but in small towns, these are more appropriately called general stores, because they supply the locals with most of the necessity.) This old fashion general store full of assorted knick-knack attracted the camera crew of "Land and Sea", a CBC documentary on Newfoundland people, culture and life. http://www.cbc.ca/landandseanl/2012/07/dulcies-in-the-store.html 

Dulcie and I at the counter.
Note the display in the background.

So even though I regret not having had any time to get out of the city this summer (to get in touch with nature), this move to Newfoundland is making up for all of it. Joy's place where I am boarding at feels like being at a cottage, and just minutes out of town, I am out with the trees and birds (and moose and bear for that matter, but I have not encountered those yet!). Here are some photos from my bike ride that day.

I was never the type to take photos, because with my inherited 3.0 megapixel camera, there was always someone with a better camera than I at what ever social gathering, and always  someone with more patience to upload the photos afterwards, so I never developed the habit for taking photos. However, since I was riding solo this day, I had brought along my camera, and the beeping of my camera signaling the completion of a shot was oddly comforting, to a point I think I might now even consider it a friend. 

While stretching my feet, I serendipitous noticed
this cute little motivating phrase on the tongue of my biking shoe.
"Always lead, never follow."