Losing & Finding yourself on the East Coast Trail

Spurwink Island Path

Gord Follett

Jun 6, 2014

Losing & Finding yourself on the East Coast Trail

Friday, June 6, 2014

Losing and finding yourself on the East Coast Trail

Coastal paths still something to be discovered, even after 20 years

by Josh Pennell
appeared in The Telegram June 5, 2014

If you ever need any inspiration to start hiking the East Coast Trail, you need look no further than Ed Hayden.

A long-term volunteer with the East Coast Trail Association, Hayden has been involved now for 15 years.

I did my first hike out at Cape Spear and went ‘Oh my God, this is absolutely divine’, he says.

Listening to Hayden’s description of the trail and what it brings him is like taking the experience and bringing it to people without the having to go outside.

We all have the everyday activities that have to be done like paying the bills and buying the groceries. On the trail, he says, is something almost ethereal.

“You go out on the trail and start walking and you get into your groove, into your pace. You start hearing the warblers and looking at the sea ducks. For myself, I enter into a kind of contemplative mood where I notice the world. It’s almost like you’re into something you’ve read about”, Hayden says.

Besides the general quality of life time on the trail brings, Hayden says there’s also the specific experiences. Loons in the bay. Seals following along the shoreline through the surf.

“Sometimes just seeing otters playing in the kelp”, he says.

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