For less physical hikers, it’s important to understand that the East Coast Trail is not the West Coast Trail. Unlike its counterpart in B.C., hikers don’t have to pack everything in for a gruelling, rugged wilderness adventure. For the East Coast Trail, Ottawa-based Great Canadian Trails – a Can Geo Adventures Official Partner – have curated a highlight package that distills the 336-kilometre coastal trail into a week-long itinerary that takes care of all the logistics. Shuttled to the trailheads, hikers can stay in comfortable B&Bs and inns, carry light daypacks with only the essentials, and feast in the evenings with new companions from around the world. While the full East Coast Trail is made up of 26 linked hikes, Great Canadian Trails select four or five of the most iconic sections that deliver the best rewards.    

We start in St John’s with the 10-kilometre Quidi Vidi Loop that, while not technically part of the East Coast Trail, serves as a warm-up for both our legs and the views to come. Our accommodation is a homely B&B on Gower Street, one of those postcard Jellybean Row houses that are so iconic to the city. We’ll be following a self-guided itinerary, but Great Canadian Trails have removed all navigational stress with an excellent phone app called Road to Discovery. Capable of operating in airplane mode, the app includes a step-by-step interactive map with optional audible directions, information about key sites, and all the practical information hikers might need along the way. As long as your phone is charged, it’s almost impossible to get lost, even when you’re out of the city and deep in the woods. All the same, we’re provided with a small Garmin GPS unit just in case there are any emergencies.

Everything else includes the Snack Shack, dinner, trail transfers, laundry, and daily briefings that take into account the weather and personal preferences. Sharon sits on the board of the East Coast Trail Association and knows these trails inside and out. Every hike in the world needs a Dine and Dream, with Sharon and her partner Alvin at the helm.

My dad turns back halfway along the 16-kilometre out-and-back trail to the famous Berry Head Sea Arch. A year ago, he’d be charging ahead, but health battles have clearly taken a toll. We’d already seen humpback whales breaching off the coast of Grassy Point, hiked along dramatic coastal cliffs, and through forest trails lined with pink rhododendrons. The app will safely guide him home, so I press on ahead. It gets steeper and more challenging until I reach the striking sea arch. I eat my sandwich from the top, watching dolphins dip among an improbability of puffins in the water. Believe it or not, that’s an actual term for a group of these cartoonish seabirds (along with colony and circus, which is only slightly less funny).  

Weather in Newfoundland is notoriously fickle, and after a baking hot summer day, heavy rain arrives. We put on our raincoats, adjust our ambitious plan for a full-day hike, and get dropped off at La Manche to walk a shorter route to St Michael. It’s a woodsy hike, fragrant with wildflowers, wet earth and flowering Sweet Gale. We cross the La Manche Suspension Bridge, and the trail delivers its magic even in heavy rain. From above, we see puffins diving into the transparent water to feed on a shoal of herring. Their agility and grace underwater are on full display, and we could watch this spectacle for hours. All the same, we trudge along to our destination and are grateful to be picked up by Sharon. Keep the tents, I’d rather return to the Dine and Dream to dry my boots and warm up in a hot tub any day.