“Spout” attracts Visitors year-round…

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Spout attracts Visitors year-round…

The East Coast Trail Association has scheduled hikes and volunteer trail maintenance outings throughout the summer and fall. The volunteer trail maintenance group has continued our “outings for pleasure” into the winter months these past few years, always including a snowshoe to the Spout overland from Bay Bulls highway. The inland route is not the ECTA mapped summer route but rather a trek over frozen bog, across meadow and stream, mounting a ridge and down through the woods to the Spout, approximately 3 hours of snowshoeing each way.

The Spout is a fantastic destination in any season and a great find by any route. Its discovery provides wonderful reading in the English explorers’ journals from as early as 1664* (*Hiking the East Coast Trail, Guidebook #2, page 130-140). The Spout, river water trapped in a narrow cavern where it intermittantly meets sea wave pressure, blows as high as 80 feet into the air through a blow-hole at least 30 feet above sea level. It is a natural wonder long known to the maritime community along the southern shore and is noted on older maps.

The Spout at one time landed a huge rock in its blow-hole. In 1995, three East Coast Trail volunteers with 70 kilos of tackle gear, leveraged the massive rock out of the blow-hole, restoring a favoured coastal wonder* (*read more in Hiking the East Coast Trail, Guidebook #2)

With our increased snowfall this winter, more groups have been visiting the Spout on the overland route. On a sunny day there is a rainbow with every spout. The spout itself varies in activity with wind, river and sea level. The route can be cold if the wind is up.

Our Association office has received a number of calls asking for information on how to get to the Spout in the winter. While this is not an ECTA path, our volunteers have offered information on one of the winter overland routes to the Spout for fellow snow shoers. A link with GPS notations can be found on the East Coast Trail
facebook Group. This route is traveled at your own risk, it is not well defined and requires a GPS. As always, travel in a group with an experienced leader and be prepared for the cold and wet and a full day’s work in the outdoors. Enjoy!

“Story and photographs by Janny Van Houwelingen”