Day 7: The physics of hiking: what goes down must also come back up again

Today is our last real day to do much of anything here. I’m trying not to think about leaving but did spot a nice looking hotel that offers monthly rates—it’s very tempting though I’m not sure the cats or cat sitters would appreciate that very much. It’s a grey and foggy day here and every once and a while I could see my breath. This morning, we set out to do the last leg of our hike from the other day but the fog was so thick we decided we’d not see much at all so did a bit of driving, picked up some more lovely stones and then went back to St Johns to pick up some tickets for a chamber opera performance we read about. While Dale was doing that, I took some pictures of the above mentioned Newfoundland dog sculpture. As I approached, I was pleased to see an elderly couple patting its head and talking to it as I had done a few days ago. They were speaking a foreign language but using my rudimentary knowledge of linguistics I was able to translate their sentence. They were saying, “Ooh, who’s the cute Newf?”
We also thought it would be nice to go back to Signal Hill since it wasn’t as blustery a day as our first day up there. While atop Signal Hill, I stared across and noticed how The Rooms seem to dwarf all other structures on the horizon. I see how this structure has caused controversy; it really is massive and, apparently, over budget. We also noticed a trail that took you down to some pretty spectacular places so we thought we’d go down. And, while down there, we thought we’d go a bit further. And then a bit further. And, then, well, we wondered if we should go ahead or back. I figured we were half way so why not finish the loop. [Note to my Mum: stop reading here] I had forgotten, until we got to it, that the guidebook warns “If you do the complete walk, there are numerous sections where only 1.5 m of terra firm and an iron chain hammered into the rock separate you from a 61 m drop.” [Note to my Mum: ok, you can pick up again here]. Oddly, my fear of heights didn’t kick in—perhaps because the view was so lovely. I had also forgotten (or neglected to consider) that when you park your car at the top of a hill and then descend that hill, you must climb that hill again. Stupidly, I’d not taken the rocks out of my pocket before we left. My guide book says there are 896 steps descending so the climb back was a bit of an awakening. But, the view from the trail was worth any sore muscle that may ensue. Any caloric benefit of this hike was quickly negated by lunch. Dale was finally able to find his holy grail lunch called the Jiggs Dinner and I had some fish and chips. Tomorrow will probably be my last entry; it’s been such a fantastic trip, it’s hard to believe it’s real.