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Mega Road Trip to Far-Eastern Canada, June 26
June 26

June 26, 2014. Thursday. Witless Bay (La Manche Provincial Park) to Chance Cove Provincial Park

We awoke to damp, but not rainy, conditions at La Manche, which made the morning dry enough for hot coffee and a bit of birding around the campsite. During breakfast, we heard our Boreal Owls calling again, and the Blue-headed Vireo paid camp a visit.

Dry enough for a hike, we walked about a mile through damp woods to the coast where we visited the site of a small village that was wiped out by a tsunami in 1966. Nobody was killed, and the residents relocated to nearby villages. We saw some nice birds, including a Black-throated Green Warbler and a very cooperative Boreal Chickadee. At the coast, we could see Black Guillemots in the water and one Northern Gannet flew by.

Continuing south, we stopped at a few birding sites and then stopped for a nice lunch in a restaurant with wifi where we did email and uploaded the blog.

From there, we continued south to Chance Cove Provincial Park. An odd place, we set up camp in a gravel parking lot with about a dozen unattended travel trailers. Up here, people just leave their trailers set up in campsites all summer, paying $3/day to store them in the park. We are located just over a low ridge from the ocean and can hear the surf, but not so loudly that it muffles the sounds of even more Boreal Owls! In the night, the rain came back.

June 26
Campsite at La Manche Provincial Park
June 26
La Manche trailhead
June 26
La Manche Trail; notice typical shallow soils over bedrock
June 26
La Manche Trail; notice glacial scratches in bedrock limestone
June 26
La Manche Trail
June 26
La Manche Trail at old village site
June 26
The tidal wave came this high and wiped out town
June 26
New suspension bridge over La Manche River
June 26
Liz on suspension bridge over La Manche River (looking forward)
June 26
Jim on suspension bridge over La Manche River (looking backward)
June 26
Old building; notice red bricks -- probably ballast from old ship
June 26
La Manche Cove (view out on north side)
June 26
La Manche Cove (view in on north side)
June 26
Male Pine Grosbeak
June 26
Wood Frog
June 26
Boreal Chickadee
June 26
Small Irish fishing village barely touched by time
June 26
Small Irish fishing village barely touched by time
June 26
Highway south though Coastal Barrens
June 26
Entrance to Chance Cove Provincial Park
June 26
Chance Cove access road
June 26
Chance Cove campground
June 26
Chance Cove, proper
June 26
Making friends with the locals (introduced Red Squirrel)

Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate.
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