From June 30 to July 2, IAT/IATNL Chairperson Paul Wylezol, IATNL Vice Chair Arne Helgeland and IATNL Finance Director Kevin Noseworthy returned to James Cook’s Stone Brook for the first time in 2015, to do some maintenance work on the IATNL base camp at Back Cove.
The adventure began in Cox’s Cove, Middle Arm with the loading of supplies – shingles, lumber, etc – onto True North Charter and Tours’ MV The Pilgrim Ch. 2, and after 45 minutes cruising arrived at Back Cove, North Arm just as neighbour Kerry Park arrived back in shore with a load of lobster pots taken up for the season.
After a quick lunch, the trio got down – or is that up – to work on the important job of installing new asphalt shingles on the roof
and only stopped long enough for Kerry to show them the half dozen different species he brought to shore from his bait trap.
However once work was done for the day, Arne and Kevin reached for their rods and cast a few lines from shore, intent on surpassing Kerry’s catch of the day. Let’s just say it was practise for the Canada Day Derby.
Day Two – Canada Day – was a beautiful sunny day with no wind and few black flies. Shortly after breakfast, Kerry’s 18ft Bay of Islands orange dory rounded Stowbridge’s Point, after having done a half day’s work already.
Soon Kevin and Paul were back on the roof, gluing and nailing like a home reno tag team
while Arne spent the day as camp chef and dishwasher, closing with a half dozen tasty crustaceans that Kerry generously donated to the cause.
Shingles completed, Arne jumped in the boat with Kerry and his wife and headed to Liverpool Brook to try his luck at sea trout.
Kevin grabbed his rod and joined Paul on a short walk over the small hill between Back Cove and Stowbridge’s Cove, which provides a spectacular 360 degree view of the Bay of Islands and North Arm Hills.
View east of Back Cove and North Arm Hill (click to enlarge)
They arrived at Stowbridge’s beach in time for Kevin to make a few casts before the sun set behind the Gregory Mountains to the west. Over the coming months the sun will track to the south and set over the Gulf of St Lawrence in each of the gaps in the Bay of Islands.
View west from Stowbridges Beach (click to enlarge)
They returned to Back Cove in time to see the moon rising over North Arm, Arne’s fish-laden boat struggle to shore, and Kevin play Captain Canada and rescue Kerry’s lobster pots from the sea!
A campfire soon blazed above the battered seawall
and at the end of the Norwegian Hemingway’s Cuban cigar!
Day Three was devoted to rebuilding a section of seawall damaged by winter storms and sea ice.
Kerry stopped by to lend a hand and some large spikes, before getting called away by the collector boat making its rounds of the remote outports, picking up the last lobster catch of the season.
By mid-afternoon the seawall was shaping up, but there was still plenty to do to repair the wood and stone structure. Other jobs include installing new upstairs windows, doors and clapboard.
With the afternoon nearing an end, the IATNL trio accepted Kerry’s offer of a ride back to Cox’s Cove, and the small orange Bay of Islands dory set off across North Arm.
The ride around North Arm Point provided a great opportunity to survey the Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician shales and sedimentary limestone of the Cook’s Brook Formation, a possible geosite within the planned Cabox Global Geopark.
…..Stay tuned for more news from James Cook’s Stone Brook and Cabox Aspiring Geopark!
