Month: July 2020

As we work ever so slowly towards getting some active transportation infrastructure here in St. John’s and around the province (or trying to prevent roads being built over what does exist), I retweeted this tweet with the comment “My dream is that somebody would be posting this about *our* NL!”:

“Before I moved to NL I knew they cycled a lot but I didn’t realise how much. It’s part of everything! And it’s amazing. I can’t begin to tell you how much having an integrated network of cycle paths improves your quality of life.”

Of course, the original tweeter was referring to the Netherlands, not Newfoundland and Labrador, and I immediately got a response that “it won’t ever happen because you can’t ride a bicycle up steep hills and you can’t get downtown and back without numerous steep hills. No hills in the Netherlands.” A couple of cyclists came to my defence and I replied myself as well, that I am 66 years old and I cycle up and down those hills. I’m aware that not everybody can, but many people can and want to. Why do car drivers have the right to go wherever they want but not people using active transportation? Also west-east routes are almost flat in St. John’s (very slight uphill grade heading west, which means you can gently coast all the way in to town heading east). And this isn’t only about St. John’s but about the whole province of NL. I’ll write about some of these issues later but this post is about the Waterford River Trail, an existing multi-purpose trail that can be used to commute by bike between the west end and downtown, or from further west as there are also access points in CBS, Paradise and Mount Pearl. It’s a very easy ride, and it is so beautiful your daily commute is guaranteed to lift your spirits if you take this route. You can see a map and access points here.

Past the fascinating time warp of the Apothecary Hall on Water St. west, formerly O’Mara’s Drugstore and now a museum of the history of pharmacy.

Cross the street and continue along the waterfront through some protected sidewalk. Lots of graffiti and litter as well as a variety of wild plants breaking through the concrete. Even with the litter, you immediately feel a marked reduction in stress when you get away from the busy vehicle traffic along that stretch.

Enter the trail behind the old railway station, now a museum (actually, this whole stretch of Water St. is a bit of a time warp). The railway, sadly, is no more. In fact, this trail follows the railway bed from here right across the island of Newfoundland. The statue is The Maid of Industry, erected about 120 years ago by Charlie Henderson, a stonemason for the railway, in honour of his co-workers. See map and information here.

At the entrance to the trail is a little park with a more recent monument in honour of poet, author and activist Helen Fogwill Porter, who grew up nearby and writes about the Southside neighbourhood.

A series of storyboards with a wealth of information about the flora and fauna along the river.

Along a hard packed dirt and lightly gravelled trail through trees…

To Bowering Park and pause for a break by the duck pond and the Peter Pan statue (detail in this photo) erected in memory of Sir Edgar Bowering’s three year old granddaughter, Betty Munn, who died in the wreck of the SS Florizel in 1918.

The trail continues west all the way across the island but I stopped here.

(I’ll have more to say about bicycles in the next couple of posts.)

Plenty of people in St. John’s get to work, school or appointments using active transportation, by choice or because they have no choice, but I’m not sure how many think of our wonderful network of trails as possible commuting routes. Following my Jane’s Walk on a Grand Concourse trail route from Downtown to MUN along the Rennie’s River and Long Pond, I’m going to do a series of posts about possible commuting routes using trails. I will look at the beauty and pleasure of these routes but also their practicality, potential and accessibility. Please note that I am not at all an expert on accessibility but I have noticed that some trails are advertised as accessible when they obviously aren’t so I hope to start a conversation. If you know more about this than I do or have personal experience, I’d love to hear from you in the comments and will correct any errors I might make and add updates.

Here is the second in my series, starting at the point where the Rennie’s River Trail meets the Prince Philip Parkway. (Please see previous post for more detail). I had an errand at the Torbay Road Mall to pick up a small parcel and decided to do it on foot from downtown. The first part is the same as my Jane’s Walk. When I got to the Parkway, instead of heading to Long Pond and MUN, I took the path to the Confederation Centre.

Behind the government buildings, the trail follows the parking lot and then heads into the woods towards Kent’s Pond.

There are a couple of places where the path forks but it’s very well marked. You really can’t get lost. I’m not sure how wheelchair accessible this path would be but, unlike the Rennie’s River Trail, which claims to be accessible, there aren’t any stairs. It seems to me it would be quite good for cycling too but that isn’t allowed.

People have been hiding painted stones along all the trails for children to find and rehide if they have hand sanitizer or take photos of if they don’t. My grandchildren love this. The older one calls them “coupa stones,” referring to something in a video game I think, and the little one calls them “coupa eggs” because he’s a bit confused between Easter egg hunts and regular hikes with painted stones. I saw this one by Kent’s Pond and it’s one of the nicest ones I’ve seen.

View of Kent’s Pond from the trail.

Spruce tips along the trail. This was a couple of weeks ago and they’re just about over now but here’s some information about foraging them and a recipe for spruce tip ice cream. I made a spruce tip cake from the fabulous Two Whales Cookbook from the café in Trinity East, which you can order at this link and it was delicious.

Exit the trail at Portugal Cove Road, cross the road at the intersection, turn right and enter the trail to Kenny’s Pond behind the Holiday Inn, continue east along Kenny’s Pond. I stopped taking photos at this point because I needed to be at my destination before 5:00 and realized I had to hurry. I did take a couple at the very end though, so here they are:

Guerrilla pathway and sign of the times.

Reached my destination just in time to pick up chocolates for Father’s Day and a delicious and very welcome café latte before they closed!