Travels with Piqa!
Home
Us
Piqa
Hikes
Photo Gallery
Recommendations
Links
Suggested Trips
Guest Book
The Shadows of My Mind
Table of Contents

 
Hit Counter
People have
visited my page!

____________

You'd like to be really bored you say?  Just click here!

_________

You'd really like to know about a little enterprise we're starting?

_________

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."  GKC

________

Griffin/Hewitt Family Tree (Jackman/Stowe)

__________

Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador

Blue symbolizes the sea.
White represents snow and ice.
Red is for human effort.
Gold signifies our confidence in ourselves.

The blue triangles stand for our Commonwealth heritage in its reminiscent of the Union Jack, which has so decisively shaped our present.

The red triangles represent the island and mainland portions of the province.

The gold arrow points the way to what we believe will be a bright future.

When hung as a banner, the arrow closely resembles a sword - a reminder of the great sacrifice made by our province's war veterans.

The white centre incorporates the Christian cross, Beothuk and Naskapi ornamentation, and the maple leaf's outline.

The trident emphasizes Newfoundland and Labrador's continued dependence on and connection to the fishery and marine resources.

The flag symbolizes the past, present and future of Newfoundland and Labrador.

___________

Newfoundlanders have their own dialect, and indeed almost an entire language unique to this province. The Dictionary of Newfoundland English is a scholarly work in which you will find detailed etymology and definitions for many of the colourful words and expressions you will hear while visiting. NO dictionary will help you understand.

 

Our site location has changed:

www.artandcarol.ca

This site is no longer maintained!

Welcome! Bienvenue!   

Bonne Bay (Taken from the North side of Gros Morne National Park looking across at Woody Point. This is a stitched picture.)

We've always done a lot of hiking, but since Piqa came along (Piqa is our two year old Weimaraner), she insists on her daily hike and extensive hikes at least twice a week. Gros Morne has always been a favourite hiking spot for us.  We go there frequently, and while it still remains our favourite, we've gone a little further afield and discovered wonderful hiking trails in the smallest outports. It's become de rigeur  for every community to have its own trail and they're springing up all over the place.  So, to begin, we'll backtrack and describe some of the trails we've already done, and as we discover more we'll update our page.  We'll also lead you to some of the pages we've explored in our attempts to find new trails in Canada's undiscovered province.

In the picture (left) Piqa is overlooking Bonne Bay, a most incredible view at the top of the Discovery Centre Trail which leaves from immediately behind the Discovery Centre on the South Side of Gros Morne.  This trail offers perhaps the most magnificent views of the park. This trail, and others, is covered in some detail on the Hikes page.

 

Favorite Links

Gros Morne National Park - This is the national parks homepage for Gros Morne.

Gros Morne - This is a more commercial version of the same thing.

Hiking in Newfoundland and Labrador - This is a fairly comprehensive list of available trails. Our list won't match this (yet), but ours will provide more subjective descriptions and personal experiences with the trails we've hiked.

Weather -

Contrary to what you might expect, Newfoundland has a temperate climate.  It hardly ever gets too warm in the summer, or very cold in the winter.  The west coast, in particular, is blessed with lovely summers, a beautiful fall, and an honest winter. We do tend to get a fair amount of snow in the winter, making it perfect for winter sports. There are those who curse the weather in Newfoundland, claiming we don't have ANY seasons, just weather. Most of those live on the East Coast. (You'll have to put up with my bias throughout these narratives.)

Claimer/Disclaimer

We are totally non-profit. We're just folks. We like to chat and spend time on the computers. We'll be happy to consult with you and give you our recommendations as to places to visit, how to get there, when to get there, etc. Just don't hold us responsible, 'cause we're not.

Our most important caveat:  ALLOW ENOUGH TIME. Newfoundland is a LARGE island. And we're not even talking about Labrador.  It's a FULL day's drive from Port Aux Basques to St. John's. That's nine to eleven hours of continuous driving. So if you allow only two days to visit, you'll be able to drive across and turn around and come back. For example, we'd suggest at least four days just to visit the Great Northern Peninsula and the Gros Morne Area. If you actually want to DO anything there, you'd need more time. Think of Newfoundland as an island the size of Texas, with all of the seascapes of Nova Scotia and PEI combined, and two national parks at least as varied as the Rockies (not quite as spectacular, but with seascapes thrown in) and Yellowstone (not quite as much wildlife and no geysers, but better entertainment) combined.

There is also a wealth of quality summer entertainment in the various music and theatre festivals.  You need to know where to go, and you need to book ahead. 

___________________

Coat of Arms - Newfoundland and Labrador

The Newfoundland Coat of Arms was originally granted on January 1, 1637 to a private company. It was not until 1928 that it was rediscovered and officially reintroduced. The arms consist of a red shield bearing a silver cross with lions and unicorns in the quarters. The supporters holding the shield are European interpretations of Newfoundland's native Beothuk people. An elk, meant to represent Newfoundland's caribou herds, stands above the shield. The Latin Motto, seen on bottom, reads "Seek ye first the kingdom of God".

This is Carol on the Stuckless Wigwam trail, a trail that leads to and around a mountain "pond".  (In Newfoundland, bodies of water smaller than oceans are called ponds. To be called a lake, you have to be really impressive.) You can see more about this trail in the "Hikes" section.

Here's our "Hike of the Week"

Today we hiked to Western Brook. Ben was with us. It was cold, and windy until we got into the woods. Nice hike though. Just a little snow still in place in the woods, but hard and easy to walk over.  We didn't see a moose on the hike in.  We saw three moose altogether, MANY caribou, and a possible lynx sighting.

The caribou are still quite white and just starting to get a little shabby.

The caribou herds are moving back down to the bogs now, where they'll spend most of the summer. On the bogs just north of Western Brook Pond you'll always see caribou from May on into September. They're very curious creatures. They're not afraid of you and will often come quite close.

Photo Album

We have over 8000 digital pictures on our computer.  Web space is limited on this server, so in the interests of both space and download speed we've tried to keep the pictures small.  If you'd like full sized files of any of the pictures (some are as large as 4.5 megs), we'll be happy to send them along to you.  These can take considerable time for you to receive if you don't have broadband. But you know that of course. Some e-mail severs will also refuse files that large.

Table of Contents

Communities & Forums

If you'd like to chat with us anytime, Carol is often on AIM as NewfoundlandMyst. You'll sometimes find me there as PiqaPop. I use the same moniker on MSM.  We also spend a lot of time on StarChat either playing trivia or chatting in one of the 50+ rooms.  Carol's nick is "Iceberg^^"; mine is "`AJ`".  I play a lot of bridge at pogo.com in the social room, as well as using BridgeBase software to play duplicate (www.bridgebase.com). My username in both is PiqaPop. If you'd like to play sometime, just let me know.

Contact:

e-Mail:  Art   Carol   Piqa  Please sign our Guest Book

This is Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park.  This is a 180º picture. The wharves  on each side are two ends of the same straight wharf.

For love of a place, and a people...

Home Us Piqa Hikes Photo Gallery Recommendations Links Suggested Trips Guest Book The Shadows of My Mind Table of Contents

This site was last updated 05/12/04

©  2004