Goin' With Gary

Wayne's friend Gary stopped by to take him out exploring the area on their Quads and I decided to tag along, much to Wayne's surprise.

Ready to ride!

Normally I leave the off-roading to him, I prefer to do my exploring without the roar of an engine or the smell of exhaust fumes.  But it is a good way to get around in Newfoundland's terrain and access places harder to get to on foot.

Down to the Argentia area first

Gary took us to spots in Argentia first, where on some days you can see things, but on this day all we saw was fog.

You may recognize this spot from my post the other day.  This is where we were standing when we saw the moose at Annie Healy's lookout.

The fog was lifting a little so that we could see inland, but out on the bay it was still pretty thick.

The wind was roaring along pretty good, so I have no idea what they may have been discussing, or maybe they were saying nothing at all besides "some foggy, wha?"

Other spots we rode to included a couple of ponds heading from Argentia to Dunville.  Sheltered from the wind we did discuss the amazing amount of land the Americans once were using.  On the quad you could ride across it for days probably and keep discovering new things.

Candy bar break

After a candy break and shooting off some guns (I have no idea why, just because boys will be boys, I suppose) we were off again to Dunville.

Wayne thought I was over-reacting when I kept lifting my feet over the wet areas, but my shoes were still soaked when we got back to the camper.  Some sacrifices must be made on adventures.

This used to be the old Newfoundland Railway track through here, where it left Whitbourne and came out to Argentia.  In 1888 a 26 mile branch line was built from Whitbourne to Placentia, and in 1921 a 3.5 mile side track to Argentia was laid.  The railway branch closed in 1984, but it's funny that I don't remember it at all.  I'd say the track out to Placentia was closed long before that and the one to Argentia would not have been visible from the road, not to mention off limits for security reasons as the base was still in operation.

Gary climbed up some rock to point out the view of Seven Island Cove to us.

You can see it from a pull-out on the main road as you go through the town of Dunville, but I'm telling you it doesn't look quite like this, or maybe that was just the high from adventure that made it feel that way!  It's a spot I've told Wayne I want to check out in the kayaks, but we did not have the weather or the time on this visit.

No reason why I want to take the kayaks around the little isles, I'm just nosy and want to see everything.  I get a lot of looks from family members, I'll be honest.  Not all have my explorer's heart, but luckily for me Wayne is the same way.

Back on the trail

We backtracked toward Argentia and then made our way to First Beach.  Can you believe this was Wayne's first visit to First Beach?  That crowd from Placentia didn't see any reason to go hang out with those crazy people in Freshwater on the beach rocks I guess.

He was impressed a little bit, even though he hid it well.

Yes, I know what it's like to ignore your own backyard in favor of remote adventures, but sometimes you miss treasures that way.

Buddies 

Next time we're there we'll have two quads because we left this one there and bought a new one when we got back home that sits the two of us legally.  So maybe I can take the old one out by myself and see what trouble I can get into?  Maybe...

Sometimes I can't believe what I let him talk me into

Here's a video of our ride, what wasn't too shaky to see anyway!