Canada's East Coast Trail: lightly trod but heavy with wild beauty

St. John's, Canada - Nary a person is in sight. There is an unpaved road, but few tourists seem to be aware of it. The lighthouse at Cape Race, slender and white and bright red at the top, stands at the end of the world: the southeastern tip of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. The East Coast Trail has not extended this far yet, at least not officially.

In 1994, hiking enthusiasts in Newfoundland began to clear old paths once used by smugglers on the steep coast of Avalon Peninsula and connect them to make a hiking trail. Their model was the West Coast Trail on Canada's Vancouver Island. While the latter has long become a victim of its own notoriety, the 220-kilometre-long East Coast Trail remains lightly trod to this day.

It need not shun comparisons, however. Thanks to the wild beauty of its rocky coast, the East Coast Trail is even more spectacular than its western counterpart. If it has any fault at all, then the locals are it. The "Newfies," as Newfoundlanders are sometimes called, will impede a hiker by thoughtlessly engaging him in conversation, offering him Screech - a kind of rum - and telling him jokes.

Perhaps the best thing about the East Coast Trail is that anyone can hike it. You can pitch a tent on simple camping grounds along the trail or spent the night at bed-and-breakfast lodgings and have yourself driven to the next trailhead in the morning.

Hikers preferring B&B's can be picked up at Cape Race Lighthouse by Harold Pennell, owner of Northwest Lodge in the community of Trepassey. He drives his guests to the trailhead in Port Kirwan the following day. St. John's, Newfoundland's capital, lies some 160 kilometres to the north. Hikers can easily cover the distance in 10 days.

The first 17 kilometres, to the community of Aquaforte, have a rating of "difficult" on the map provided by the East Coast Trail Association. The reason is soon clear: Behind a bend, the hiker suddenly has the steep coast before him. Deep crevices continually make it necessary to take time-consuming detours inland. But the view is energizing, and sore muscles are forgotten.

With the Atlantic to the right, the trail climbs up steep foothills as high as 300 metres, through knee-high blueberry and cloudberry bushes, then down narrow winding paths into dark hollows at the end of bays.

Up and down - this repeats itself for days, always in the certainty that the next panorama is just ahead. Every now and then, whales can be seen as they play in the bays, and puffins, which shoot through the air like rockets.

The trail disappears as soon as Aquaforte's first houses come into view. So the hiker has got to backtrack in search of signage - over roots, slippery rocks, and steep slopes. Not all of the East Coast Trail is like this, however. The next section, to Ferryland, is so easy that the hiker reaches the historic settlement by early afternoon.

European fishermen used Ferryland's round, natural harbour as early as the 16th century. In the early 1990s, a cod fishing ban that was imposed off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador deprived fishermen of their livelihood. But things have recently begun to look up again thanks to the initiative of young Newfoundlanders with good business ideas.

Over a curry chicken sandwich with fruit salad at the foot of the Ferryland Lighthouse, Jill Curran and Sonia O'Keefe tell their story. The two women restored the structure and have turned it into a bistro. The view of the surf and the passing whales is on the house.

The creators of the East Coast Trail aimed at more than merely satisfying wanderlust, of course. The trail was supposed to help boost tourism on the economically battered Avalon Peninsula. Considering the general upswing seen in harbours around the world, is it now threatened with a fate similar to that of the overcrowded West Coast Trail?

Not many hikers are on the last section, to St. John's. At times, in fact, you have the most beautiful part to yourself. Over the 20 kilometres between Bay Bulls and The Goulds, you have to cross brooks, balance on wet stones, and circumvent rock archways.

Then suddenly you are standing on a tiny rock ledge 60 metres over the ocean. In front, a slender rock parapet watches over the steep coast. To the right, an airy protrusion juts out over the edge. Nothing grows on it save a solitary fir tree, whose roots are hanging on for dear life.

No noise disturbs the quiet, no sound of doors being shut in a car park.

Information: East Coast Trail Association, P. O. Box 8034, St. John's, NL, Canada A1B 3M7

Internet: www. eastcoasttrail. com (dpa)