While both towns are rather off the beaten path and most times of the year do not have much going on, Millertown hosts an annual fishing derby and Canstar is a sponsor.
Sponsorship is best served in person and so off we went the weekend of June 14th through the 16th to visit Millertown and attend the fishing derby.We arrived late on Thursday (actually early on Friday) and crashed at Aare's place before heading out Friday at noon for the almost four hour drive to Millertown.
With only partially cloudy skies and warm(ish) weather the drive flew by and before we knew it we were at Badger, the turnoff from the TCH for Millertown and Buchans.
The drive was uneventful except for one thing; as we turned off the TCH past Badger we saw standing by the side of the road a beautiful (to a moose lover) young buck of a moose !!
Our first moose sighting in years! Of course we did not get a picture of him as he dashed off into the underbrush as soon as he saw us but it was a good omen of things to come; except for the weather.
That night we joined Charlie and Diane, two of the local prospectors Canstar works with, for a bonfire party at their place before heading off to the official bonfire of the fishing derby.
Many beers were quaffed and tall tales told. Finally, we stumbled back to the Lakeview Inn for a good night's sleep sometime after midnight.
As mentioned earlier, the drive to Millertown had been with decent weather and the weather held for the first night in Millertown but when we awoke on Saturday morning everything had changed.
Partly cloudy became nothing but cloudy skies and rain poured down all around us.
Aare and Christos went off in the morning with Charlie and Diane to visit the Victoria Mine and other sites of interest to Canstar while Lisa recovered from the previous night's excesses.
When Aare and Christos returned to Millertown, it was time for lunch (moose burgers at $3 each served by the Millertown volunteer fire department) before the three of us headed out to tour the area.
We returned in time for the "Bobber Race", which we had quite a bit of money riding on! Alas we did not place and thus received no share of the Bobber pool but it was fun nonetheless.After the Bobber Race, Aare and Lisa cast lines a few times to symbolically attend the Derby but much of the time was spent at the firepit of the Lakeview Inn.
Dinner on Saturday was surf and turf (steak and shrimp) at the local community center and while we did attend the "Kitchen Party" on Saturday night, the three of us were pretty beat after the previous evening's fun and a full day of activities so we ended up retiring early (just after 11PM) and hitting the sack.
We later heard from Charlie and Diane that it went until 3AM!
Sunday was the final day of the Derby and after fuelling up on coffee, we attended the Father's Day Brunch (complete with bologna over bacon, a Newfoundland tradition) and the Derby awards ceremony before heading out from Millertown in the early afternoon on the road back to Benoit's Cove.On the way out of town, we say a bear cross the road! Very exciting for us city slickers.
We stopped off at the "Alexander Murray Trail" and enjoyed an ~8km hike which included view's of a small iceberg (Lisa's first) from the trail's highpoint.
While the weather was not amazing, it did manage to avoid raining for the hike and all three of us enjoyed hiking new ground.The trail itself is well maintained with lots of stairs and boardwalks making it accessible for almost all levels of fitness and well worth hiking for the stunning views offered from various points.
After the hike, we piled back into the car for a much less talkative two hour drive to Aare's (we were pretty tuckered out).
At Aare's, we dined on marinated chicken and enjoyed a bonfire until some time late in the wee hours.When we awoke the next morning the weather had changed once more and we were greeted with blue skies and sun!
Some time was spent on breakfast and birdwatching (Aare has installed a birdfeeder that attracts bluejays and other winged beasts not to mention the tiny red squirrels endemic to Newfoundland) before it was time to head off for another hike!
We opted for the nearby "Copper Mine" trail which we had undertaken twice before, although one of our previous attempts was aborted halfway through due to inclement weather.
Before reaching the trail, we stopped off at a local fish "factory" and purchased three fresh lobsters for $30 and safely ensconced them in a cooler while we undertook the hike.The Copper Mine trail has around the same length (8km) as the Alexander Murray trail but is less groomed (ie no boardwalks/stairs) and has a greater total elevation (some 650m at Coppermine versus around 350m for the Alexander Murray trail).
The trail offers stunning views of the outer bay of islands and is one of our favourites (the only 30 minute drive to Aare's helps) that seems destined to become a regular hike for our visits to the Rock.
After a good hike, we headed back to Aare's for lobster dinner and more fireside goodtimes. Once more we stayed up until the wee hours enjoying each other's company as well as libations and snacks aplenty!
There was much discussion and analysis of the fire and fire building in general as well as pushing the fire around trying to determine the ideal alignment of burning wood ...Tuesday was another gorgeous day and we could have opted for a hike but after two back to back hikes, we decided that a day of rest was required. Other than chainsawing some dead trees, the day was mostly filled with lounging around the house before it was time once more for the nightly ritual of the firepit and beverages.
Wednesday was our final one in Newfoundland. We visited Aare's parents for lunch before heading to the airport for our flight (via Halifax) home to Toronto.
