June 11th - Cape St. George

Tuesday we decided to take a drive to Stephenville and then down the coast to Cape St. George. On the map it looked like the highway ran along the sea and we assumed it would be very scenic, like the Cabot Trail. We were wrong. While the road does follow the sea, there is nothing scenic about it. The road winds through miles of small houses on each side and little more. In over fifty miles there was not one store, not one filling station. In Cape St. George, which isn't a town, only a place, we stopped at a Mi'Maq (MicMag) Indian Tribal Center-Museum thinking it was open. It wasn't. As I was walking back to the truck a lady pulled up and asked if she could help us. We told her we were just going to check out the museum. She said that it was too early in the season for it to be open but that she was the Vice-Chief and she would open it up and show us around. It was very nice of her. Here is a picture of the sign for it. The entire place is funded by contributions so the "Chase the Ace" was a fundraiser they are currently having.

The building is primarily a community center but they had exhibits of drums and carvings made by the locals. She told us they have camps and bring in experts to teach the native language and native skills to young and old. She said there was no industry around there. Most people drive forty-five minutes to Stephenville to work. She said they have to drive forty-five minutes for everything they need. I can't imagine doing that all the time in the cold, cold winter. Instead of continuing around the horn we turned around and headed back. This drive was a great disappointment but the weather was nice.

We came back and took a kilometer walk on a trail through the fir trees here at the campground. It was a nice trail. Here are a couple of pictures. Kelly and Kellen were worried about bear. I assumed if bear were around they would have warned us.

After walking the trail we had dinner, showered, and watched a DVD we brought along.