Hobbit benches

Remembering what I wrote yesterday, this morning, when we passed an Information Center about a mile down the road, we stopped in to get specific directions to a couple of places we wanted to go to today and to get some information about where we will be going in the next week to ten days.  We came out loaded with pamphlets and brochures. 

Karen and Adrian who staffed the Information Center today.  Karen is from Labrador and was able to tell us about some places to eat when we travel to Labrador. 

Yesterday, driving to Corner Brook and the north shore drive, we noticed a highway sign for Pasadena, and Meyer's Minerals. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions to get off the Trans Canada Highway, go into Pasadena and see if Meyer's Minerals is open on Sunday.  Initially it didn't look good, but we parked outside a huge building with a number of businesses occupying their own space and found, to our pleasure, that Meyer's was open.

Meyer's Minerals is in space #4. See the little blue sign "Meyer's Minerals" with an arrow?  Space #5 is occupied by Frito Lay of Canada. 

Inside #4. That's a geology/rock map of Labrador on the back wall. Meyer's only has stones from Newfoundland and Labrador. A speciality is Labradorite. 

Here is a little bit about Labradorite from Meyer's Minerals: 

"The existence of Labradorite on the northern coast of Labrador was always known to the Inuit. In the 1770's, Moravian missionaries in the Nain area sent Labradorite to Europe where the mineral's beauty was acclaimed in Germany. Mineralogists identified it as a feldspar mineral and named it Labradorite in recognition of the spectacular 1.2 billion year old outcrops in Labrador's Nain region. Found in many locations in Labrador, it is rare on the island of Newfoundland. Uniquely coloured Labradorite found in Finland is called spectrality. However, most Labradorite commercialized today is sourced in Madagascar and made into jewelry in Asia... 

The iridescent 'flash' of Labradorite calls to mind the colors of the Northern Aurora Borealis. Greens and blues are most common, but yellow, bronze, red, pink and purple, or rainbow-like mixtures of these colors. The iridescence results from white light entering the crystal at a unique angle, and then undergoes interference and diffraction in a prism-like fashion. This is caused by thin exsolution lamellae that grew in the mineral as it cooled from a liquid melt.

The Labradorite worked in our shop was collected by the owner, Jamie Meyer, from the Pearly Gates deposit west of Nain, with the permission of the Labradorite Inuit Association. The stone was flown by helicopter to the coast, shipped to the island (he means Newfoundland), then trucked across to our shop. This mineral is very brittle, and cracks must be 'healed' as we work the stone. It takes careful selection and proper orientation while cutting and polishing to bring out the mineral's magical iridescence that is captured in (every) piece of Labradorite."

This is Sandra Skeard ("I might be 'scared', but I'm not frightened".) She was very friendly and outgoing and we stayed and talked to her for over an hour. Another couple came in while we were there, looked around for about one minute, and left. Otherwise, we were the only other people there.

Sandra invited us into the back and gave us a tour of the operation. She kept referring to Jamie Meyer as "the Boss". He was a geologist for Canada, and when he left their employ, they allowed him to take out, "one time", some Labradorite. With the permission of the Inuit Association, he flew out a couple of helicopters full of Labradorite.

This is the Labraorite in its raw form. This bin of "rocks" is all that remains of what Jamie Meyer brought out.

Sandre showed us how the stone is cut into slabs. Notice the 13" diamond blade on the left.

A stone, held in place for cutting with the 13" blade on the left.

During the cutting process  this cover comes down over the operation because water is used to keep the blade cool.

After cutting Sandra coats each slice with an epoxy stone glue.

The polishing discs; from #50 to #800.

Sandra showing how she "cuts" out the stone for jewelry and ornaments.

Sandra was working on a white marble urn. They do a lot of special request items.

We finally tore ourselves away from Meyer's Minerals and drove into Corner Brook and paid a visit to the Captain James Cook Historice Site. There is a spectacular view of the Bay of Islands from this Site.

Captain James Cook began his study of Navigation and mapping in Newfoundland.  During 1762 - 1767 he spent his time mapping the coastline of the island of Newfoundland. His charts were so accurate that they were used into the mid-1900s. In fact, his charts for the Bay of Islands are still used today. 

The view of the Bay of Islands.

Frederick and Captain Cook.

Leaving the statue of Captain Cook, we found Route #450, the Captain Cook Trail. This scenic drive is along the south shore of the Bay of Islands to Lark Harbour.

Bottle Cove, just beyond Lark Harbour, where we ate our lunch before we began our hike.

Our hike for today was the Southhead Lighthouse Hiking Trail. It wasn't a trail to a lighthouse because the lighthouse was destroyed in 1996. Here is more information about the trail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVioDSFogQ

Nice waterfall along the trail.

The waterfall, lower right, descends right into the bay below.

Looking back towards the Bay of Islands.

Along the trail we noticed this white drawing on the rock face. If you enlarge the picture you can see what looks to us like a moose. (The white spot right in the center of the picture.)

Creative use of a fallen tree. You can see the roots in the upper left. The trunk has been stripped and notched and is supported by another log.  Nice bench.

We found this little hand crafted bench by the side of the trail. Just the right size for a Hobbit.

Spectacular views from the trail.

After the hike we returned to Lark Harbour and their Viking Ship. 

What this sign says: "The opening and closing scenes of the Viking epic, science-fiction thriller, Outlander, were shot in Little Port, Lark Harbour in the Outer Bay of Islands in October, 2006. Some big name movie stars - Jim Caviezel, John Hurt, Sophie Myles and Jack Huston - were in the area for the filming and were joined by about 100 locals who stood in as background characters."

After filming the boat was gifted to the village of Lark Harbour. (We thought it would be in the water, but there it was, next to the Post Office and the town offices!)

Nice carving.

The next few pictures are for Nathan, who loves trains. Corner Brook has a collection of narrow gauge rolling stock from the Newfoundland Railway including steam locomotive No. 593, working diesel electric locomotive No. 931, snow plow train and various other cars.

Frederick in front of Ol' No. 593.

#593 - a beautiful locomotive.

Her history.

Another gigantic snow plow for the railroad.

The snowplow is being pushed by No. 931.

Tomorrow is moving day so we always try to diesel-up before we hitch-up. At the local Irving Gas Bar, as gas stations are know in Newfoundland, there was a statue of a moose. 

Frederick admiring this out-sized moose.

This picture was taken in Maine on June 29. This one is true to size.

Heritage Tree

Have I mentioned before how wonderful the Newfoundland Labrador Travel and Tourism website is? There are also wonderful Information/Welcome Centers all across the Province. At the one we stopped at in Placentia, we picked up four "Things to see & do in the ...." little fold-out sheets, for the 4 regions on the western peninsula. There is one entitled "Things to see & do in the Humber Valley", and that is what we used today and will follow tomorrow as well.  

There are two scenic drives, one entitled Captain Cook's Trail, which we will do tomorrow, and the other is called Admiral Palliser's trail, which travels the north side of Humber River/Bay of Islands, and we followed that trail today. 

Stop number one was the Newfoundland & Labrador Heritage Tree. It is located at the Marble Mountain Ski Resort, off the Trans Canada Highway, in Steady Brook. Since didn't know what a Heritage Tree was, the first thing we did was drive right past it. We went over to the ski lodge,where there were lots of people congregating, and asked someone where it was.

What a great way to celebrate your heritage!

The Vikings are right there, to claim first European "discovery". 

The Heritage Tree is still a work in progress.  You can read more about it here - http://members.tripod.com/heritage_tree/home.html

The people who were congregating at the Ski Lodge were all wearing safety harnesses and carrying big clips. The signs on the vans they were heading for said - "Marble Zip Tours". 

Almost all of the adults got in the vans, but some children, and one adult, headed for this zip-line structure. Pictured above is just one side. There were three outer challenging "walls".

A young girl on her final descent.

The adults in the vans were headed up the mountain, for the top of Steady Brook Falls. That is where we were headed, too, to take the hiking trail to the falls. As we were hiking up to the falls we could hear the sound of wheels rolling along wire and could see flashes of people whizzing by overhead, through the trees. I tried to take pictures of them whizzing past, but all I got were trees.

Here is Steady Brook Falls, a very nice falls, about 2 km from the base of the mountain. On either side of the falls, in the trees to the left and the right, are platforms like the one in the picture above. One-by-one people would zip from one side of the falls to the other, on an ever descending trajectory.

Right in the center of the picture, maybe you can make out one of the zip stations, to the right of the falls.

Next we headed to The Man in the Mountain; how could we resist? It does take some imagination, but there he is, right in the middle of the picture. As Frederick said, once you find him, that's all you can see. According to local legend, there is buried treasure on Shellbird Island in the Humber River. If you look closely you will see the face of a man in the rock formation overlooking the island. The "Old Man in the Mountain" is said to be guarding the hidden treasure."

Here is some help - from an exhibit in the parking area at the base of the mountain. What helped me find the face was the dark triangular shaped rock that looks like a hat on the man's head. 

In the same parking area is an exhibit that commemorates the Trans-Canada Trail. When the Winter Olympics were held in Canada in 2010, the Olympic Torch was greeted in Corner Brook at this site.

This is the car in the parking area; to give you some idea of scale.  The mountains are definitely getting bigger!

Along the Admiral Palliser Trail, in the town of Meadows, this view, the Meadows Point Lookout, was touted as, "Spectacular view of the Bay of Islands". We are standing on a pleasant beach, and the view is nice, but "spectacular"?

Many trucks have these guards on the front - as moose protection.

In Gillams there was, "A beautiful trail that leads to a scenic waterfall." We took it.

This trail, and this waterfall, more than made up for the under-whelming "Meadows Point Lookout". The trail that we took was about 2 hours. 

Here we are, eating our lunch at the falls. Not spectacular in height, but so lovely.

Since the water level was low, we were able to go out onto the rocks at the top of the falls.

I thought that the water action patterns on these rocks were interesting. At times, the water flows over, and is carving out, these rocks.

On the river bank, on the other side, were these interesting folded and bent rocks.

This is the village of Cox Cove, at the very end of highway 440 - it doesn't go any further. These structures are boat ramps and the log bases are filled with rocks.

Across the Bay of Islands at Cox Cove.

Another view of Cox Cove.

Cox Cove.

Returning from Cox Cove we stopped in McIver's and took this picture across the Humber River as it is flowing into the Bay of Island. Now this could be called "spectacular".

That small island is called Tern Island - another bird rock.

Maybe you can just make out the patch of snow on the mountain across the river? There were several of them that we could see, but the camera just barely picks this one up.