International Appalachian Trail Newfoundland and Labrador
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Cabox Geopark Submits Application Dossier
After several months preparing document and annexes, on February 26 Cabox Aspiring Geopark submitted its official application dossier to the Canadian Geopark Network (CGN). Submitting the dossier is the first step in a 2-3 year application process that, if successful, leads to the designation of Cabox as a UNESCO Global Geopark, one of three UNESCO designations.
Gregory River to Shoal Point Traverse
On August 9, 2024, IATNL Chairperson Paul Wylezol and Appalachian explorer Lew Coty from Stowe, Vermont made a Gregory Mountains traverse from Gregory River to Shoal Point Cove. The adventure began early in the morning at the intersection of Mogul ATV Trail and Chimney Cove Road 2km south of Trout River Campground where Gros Morne Transportation and Tours picked them up in a side-by-side all terrain vehicle and drove them 10 km to Gregory River.
Work Completed on Stage 1 of East Blow-Me-Down Trail
From spring to fall 2024, the International Appalachian Trail Newfoundland and Labrador (IATNL) in conjunction with Cabox Aspiring Geopark developed the first stage of the East Blow-Me-Down Trail off the Forestry Access Road above Benoit’s Cove on Route 450 on the south side of Humber Arm, Bay of Islands. The trail replaces an excavator track to the town’s second water supply that served as the primary hiking route to the East Blow-Me-Down Mountains.
Lew Coty’s Triple Crown
There they lie, lined up like bowling pins on the north side of Rt 430 (The Viking Trail), southeast of Rocky Harbour. Travelling from the north they are Big Hill, Killdevil Mountain, and an unnamed mountain I call Dicks Peak that rises up to the east of Dicks Brook. They aren’t really isolated peaks so much as prominences that are starkly visible from the road where the highland plateau to the north drops sharply down to the East Arm of…
Work Starting Soon on East Blow Me Down Trail
In Spring 2024, work will begin on the East Blow Me Down Trail, a 4km backcounty hiking route that will connect the Forestry Access Road above Benoit’s Cove on the south shore of Humber Arm to the eastern end of the Blow Me Down Ophiolite Massif. The new International Appalachian Trail Newfoundland and Labrador (IATNL) trail will be developed by Cabox Aspiring Geopark, with funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), provincial department of Industry, Energy and Technology (IET),…
Celebrating the Solstice
Appalachian hiker Lew Coty from Vermont makes an annual pilgrimage to Western Newfoundland in August to spend a month exploring the mountains and coastlines of Newfoundland's Long Range Mountains, North America's northern terminus of the Appalachian-Caledonian Orogeny. Some might wonder what he does at home in winter, besides tend to trees on his maple syrup farm. Answer is, he waits for a sufficient blanket of snow so he can head out to the backcountry slopes around his home near the…
Scouting the Virgin Mary Hills
Another chapter in the Adventures of Lew Coty!
"It was near the end of my Newfoundland vacation when I spend over a month hiking into the backcountry every year. Paul Wylezol who heads the IATNL was eager to do some exploring and suggested hiking into the hills south of Little Port not far from the community of Lark Harbour, on the northwest side of Bay of Islands. There is an intriguing loop onto one coastal ridgeline near Little Port called…
IAT Newfoundland Guide Now Available!
The Newfoundland section of the IAT/SIA has been added to the FarOut trail guide app for long-distance hikers, the “No. 1 navigational app for the best long-distance trails in the world!” With over 700km/450mi of thru-hiker trail route and 280km/175mi of “backcountry trail routes”, the Newfoundland section includes some of the most dramatic scenery and challenging hikes on the entire IAT/SIA in North America.
Newfoundland joins IAT/SIA guides for Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec which were released in 2020…
Cabox to Receive Phase Two Funding
At a combined federal-provincial press release at Lobster Cove Lighthouse in Gros Morne National Park, Cabox Aspiring Geopark was among a number of tourism-related projects in Western Newfoundland to share in a total of $2,744,563 in government funding intended to “help upgrade accommodations, host events and festivals, market the region, and develop new world-class attractions”
Cabox Installs BOI Ophiolite Panel at Saltbox
On June 24, Cabox Aspiring Geopark installed its latest interpretive panel, entitled Bay of Islands Ophiolite Complex, near the entrance to Saltbox Restaurant and Geopark Information Center in Benoit’s Cove. The panel is located above a mini ophiolite rock garden containing samples from both earth’s mantle and ocean floor, and features descriptions of all four ophiolite massifs, as well as rock types and flowers found in these unique landscapes
IAT Ireland Welcomes Western Way
After 2022’s successful launch of its new and improved IAT Ireland, IAT Europe’s most westerly chapter has welcomed the Western Way, a long-distance walking trail taking in spectacular scenery in the counties of Galway and Mayo in the west of Ireland.
Lew Coty Hikes Mount St Gregory Highlands
My trek begins with a boat ride from Cox’s Cove to Stowbridge Head where I spend the night at a cabin owned by Paul Wylezol (who heads up the International Appalachian Trail Newfoundland and Labrador) and Arne Helgeland. For the past several years they have been renovating what was once a dilapidated fishing shack into what they hope will become an active IAT and Cabox Geopark basecamp for hikers.
Ode to Site B
A photo and video tribute to the Lewis Hills and Blow Me Down Mountains, faced with industrial wind development.
A Blow Me Down East Traverse
In the early morning of July 28, IATNL executive members Paul Wylezol, Delano Pittman and Ulrica Murley-Pye set off on a north to south traverse of the Blow Me Down Mountains on the south side of the Bay of Islands.
However unlike the well-established IATNL Blow Me Down Traverse through the center of the Blow Me Down Ophiolite Massif, this trek took a more easterly route that included Knights and Red Gulches.
Like the other three Bay of Islands Ophiolite…
IATNL Hosts American Hiking Society Founding President Jim Kern
From July 22 to 27, IATNL executive members Paul Wylezol and Arne Helgeland played host to American Hiking Society Founding President Jim Kern. Paul, Arne and Jim, who soon turns 88, are friends of Appalachian Trail Museum President Larry Luxenberg, who in 2019 joined Paul and Arne on an IAT 10th anniversary tour of Scotland, followed by an Appalachian Outdoor Economy Forum in Northern Ireland. Jim, who is also founder of the Florida Trail, was in Newfoundland for the first…
Explore the great outdoors: IAT Ulster-Ireland
Ireland’s chapter in the International Appalachian Trail runs from the spectacular West Donegal to the stunning North Coast in County Antrim.
Get ready to take the next step on one of the world’s largest walking trail networks, the Ulster–Ireland leg of the International Appalachian Trail.
The next phase of the Ulster-Ireland chapter of the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) has been launched across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and is an extension of the world-renowned walking route on the Canada and…
Lew Coty’s West Tablelands Trek
Unable to travel to Newfoundland during the summers of 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19, Lew Coty recently reminisced about his many adventures in Western Newfoundland while browsing his e-photo albums, and shared the following story about his West Tablelands Trek with us. Lew hopes to return again this August when he takes a break from his Vermont maple syrup grove. … “Looking northeast across Trout River Pond from the Trout River campground, the western end of the Tablelands looms…
Stowbridges Basecamp Nearing Completion
After significant work over the past two years, the IATNL basecamp at Stowbridges in North Arm is nearing completion and will soon be available for public use. Serving as a basecamp for eco, geo and adventure “seefarers” and hikers interested in exploring the remotest region of the Bay of Islands and Cabox Geopark, the renovated two-storey biscuit box house in a small southeast facing cove once served as seasonal home for a local fisherman from Cox’s Cove.
New Phase of IAT Launches in Ulster Ireland
A new phase of a walking trail which links Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with the Appalachian Mountains has been launched in a bid to attract more international visitors. The International Appalachian Trail (IAT) Ulster–Ireland is part of an international walking trail that follows the Appalachian Mountain terrain, which existed on the super continent Pangaea before the Atlantic Ocean formed that broke up the continent. The Ulster-Ireland section totals 279 miles (449 km) in length, was established in…
IATNL In Memoriam for Tom Calon
The IATNL is saddened to announce the passing of Tom Calon, a professor of earth sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) who spent many years exploring the geology and landscapes of Western Newfoundland and often took advantage of IATNL trails to access the backcountry. As a tribute to Tom and his keen desire for our spectacular landscapes be made available to the public, Tom’s family requested that in memoriam donations be made to the IATNL to help develop and…