UPPER RED COVE TO SOUTH HEAD
Today is one of the days we’ve been dreading for the past week: the half-way point between the Witless Bay and the Bay Bulls trailheads. We have to carry Amélie more than three kilometres to the start of her hike, knowing that we’ll have to carry her all the way back from wherever she finishes.
We were definitely hoping for a great performance from our little trekker.
That didn’t happen.
When we got close to Upper Red Cove, the fog came in and it got cold. As soon as Séb put Amélie down, she asked to be picked up. Séb and I looked at each other to try and figure out what to do. Go back right away? Give her a snack? Distract her? Option #3 seemed best.
“Amélie, do you see the Xs on the logs? They’re so that we don’t slip!”
“Amélie, do you see the red rocks on those cliffs? Aren’t they beautiful?”
“Amélie, look – another hill! Do you think you can climb it?”
“Amélie, do you see that black-and-white marker ahead? Do you see the white triangle? Where’s the next one going to be?”
Nothing worked.
She was miserable. Utterly miserable.
And vocal about it too. She was wailing. And wailing. And wailing. It didn’t get better until Séb spotted a tiny caterpillar, whose appearance drastically de-escalated the situation. The five-minute distraction helped her forget her discomfort.
When we started off again, she wasn’t wailing anymore, but she was still not happy. So ten minutes later, we called it a day at the dreaded spot: the half-way point at South Head.
We placed her in the backpack, where she was very happy to stay. We decided to walk towards Bay Bulls instead of going back the way we came, which ended up being a much longer route, since we walked all the way to the Robin’s Donuts on Maggoty Pond. Thanks, Riley, for the ride back to our car!
Six hundred metres of progress is still nothing to scoff at on this terrain 🙂
AMÉLIE’S PROGRESS
- 0.150km (Our house to Alder Hill)
- 1km (Alder Hill to Bears Cove Inn)
- 1.65km (Bears Cove Inn to Tobin Memorial)
- 1.5km (Tobin Memorial to Otter Cove)
- 1km (Otter Cove to Upper Red Cove)
- TODAY: 0.6km (Upper Red Cove to South Head)
- Amélie’s total progress: 6.1km/316km
- Distance walked by the adults today: 9.9km
- Total distance walked by the adults: 23.5km
- Total time invested today: 7 hours (includes prep, driving/walking to hike’s starting point, total time on the trail, and the drive/walk back home).
- Total time invested in the effort: 15 hours
