I’m back!

Well, I guess I didn’t have a chance to update the blog while I was on my vacation! But here’s a quick update about what my friend and I got up to!

We had originally planned to go hiking every weekend, but both of our foot problems made it difficult for us to plan anything like that for most of June. One easy walk we did was around Signal Hill, which I’ve shown here before. It was a beautiful day for it:

Here’s an old house that’s collapsing near the bottom of the hill, it was really surprising to see; it wasn’t like that the last time I was in the area!

Our next easy hike was Brigus Head, along the network of trails I’ve been doing. It was my first time there, so I was happy to do it with someone!

In the picture above, you can see a teepee, a traditional, Native American shelter. I don’t know who made it, but it didn’t seem very old. Maybe someone who lived in the small village made it as a hobby?

In this picture, you can see the rough path we had walked to get to that point. It was a beautiful view!

Here you can see some moose tracks, a common sight on the East Coast Trail.

We did a few other trails around town, but we mostly relaxed and gave our feet some time to feel better before we tried the main event: The Spout!

Maybe you remember me talking about The Spout before. I hiked it last year, and I wanted to bring my friend along. He’d never tried overnight hiking before, and I wanted to challenge him with it.

It was very difficult; the weather was colder than I expected, and it was more exhausting than I remembered. But we both managed to get through it okay, and I was very proud of him for doing it for the first time!

This little bird, called a sand piper, was cheeping and peeping at us while we sat down to have a break :) He was very cute, and didn’t seem very scared of us.

It became foggy, and a little spooky at one point…

…and it made for a very cool (and scary!) effect next to cliffs!

Soon, we reached The Spout! I wanted to use this time to get some footage with my drone. We named him “Buzz”, because it makes a loud buzzing sound (like an insect).

My friend, an artist, drew on Buzz to make him more lively! :)

Below is some footage I got of the Spout (no sound, sorry!)

You can see me controlling Buzz with my phone, but I’m not so skilled at it yet…

After I took the video, it was time to eat!

Do you remember MREs? I explained how they work here! It was my friend’s first time, so I was excited for him to try one.

He said he liked it, even though it looks low-quality, haha!

This was another style of hiking food; dehydrated meals. It’s a bit different than MREs, less convenient, but easier to buy, so we wanted to try these too. first you boil water, pour it in, and wait 10 minutes.

The result is actually quite delicious, I was surprised, so I’ll probably bring meals like this on my longer hikes!

After 7 hours and 11 km of walking, we arrived at the campsite. There were several platforms we could choose, so we set up the tent and went to sleep pretty early. We were both very exhausted, haha…

The next morning, we had some oatmeal and eggs (from a dehydrated meal pack). The oatmeal was great, but the eggs actually weren’t so delicious, I was a bit disappointed…

After breakfast, we headed off. It was VERY difficult on the second day, my foot was in a lot of pain, but we push through it! We had plenty of food and water, so we took our time.

Near the end of the hike, we saw a Search and Rescue helicopter fly quite low over the ground. It was my first time seeing something like that! I think they were doing training.

We saw a couple of guys lounging in the open door! It must be exciting, and a bit scary…

Those are some of the highlights of my summer vacation! We went to many restaurants, saw Toy Story 5, and did a few other things together, but mostly I just enjoyed hanging out.

Now, I’m back to my full time routine! Thank you all so much for sticking with me, and I hope I get to see you all soon!

(A big thanks to my friend for taking all the pictures in this blog; he’s a great photographer, and takes WAY more pictures than me!)