Active transportation route from Rennie’s River to Torbay Road Mall

(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!