2016/08 Newf'land trip - Butter Pot |
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Someone we’d met had asked where we were going next and looked shocked when I just pointed vaguely southeast and said “somewhere that way”. “Butter Pot?”, she asked. “Sure”. When I looked it up, I found that it was a park on the Avalon Peninsula. It would do.
We had to retrace much of our route and rejoin the Trans Canada Highway to cross the three mile wide isthmus to the Avalon Peninsula. The peninsula is about a hundred miles across and shaped like a hand with fat fingers. It includes St John’s, the capital, and is home to about half of the island’s population. As expected, the highway got busier, but the weather gradually improved.
Butter Pot is close to the highway and only about 20 miles from St John’s so it’s not a surprise that it’s the most popular park on the island. However, on a Tuesday afternoon we found that most of the campsites were occupied by empty trailers. The owners must have taken advantage of the quite cheap seasonal camping passes.
The park is in an area of lakes, surrounded by rocky hills. We set off in bright sunshine to hike the park’s premier trail, up to the Butter Pot itself. The campground sprawls over miles of shoreline and we were at the wrong end, so we had to hike a feeder trail first.
It was interesting, a mix of forest and rocky barrens. Some sections in the boggy areas were boardwalked but there was one hilly section where 
the trail had become a waterfall with rocks and moss and running water, difficult going.
The main trail was easier, skirting lakes and crossing meadows before climbing through forest. We found a wide variety of flowers. The bunchberries there had small leaves but compensated with abundant, large berries. This pitcher plant looked ready to swallow the camera.
We had no map so weren’t too sure of where we were going and joked about the forbidding mountains ahead. Sure enough the trail got very vertical, bringing us out to a rocky outcrop, then vertical again until we left the trees behind and were crossing the rock slabs of Butter Pot Mountain. In the distance was a cairn that was probably the top. From there we could see the distant city of St John’s and a closer power station. Down below we could hear loons on the lakes. We enjoyed the view for a while until this threatening cloud chased us off. It was a false alarm, just a bit of wind.
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Butter Pot (1.06) |
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Back down on the outcrop we met a young couple who were celebrating their successful ascent until they saw us and realized there might
be more to the trail. I pointed to the cairn, just visible in this picture as a pimple on the top. They decided to call it a day.
On our way down we met this little bird, possibly some kind of junco and this woodpecker.
It felt like a long walk back, particularly along the feeder trail, but it had been a good afternoon. It was still warm enough to down some beers outside at the campsite.