Resettled communities, chanterelles, old houses & forgotten cemeteries were all good enough, but I had one main goal when I was on Exploits; and while I probably shouldn't come as a guest and demand that we spend a day hiking to a lighthouse, it wouldn't come to that, since everyone else also wanted to spend the afternoon across the tickle on the western island.

The boat was fired up, loaded with backpacks and we scooted the short distance down to Butt Cove. A trail here led through the houses and up into the woods.

Exploits was always home to one of the Newfoundland lighthouses that I figured I could get. There's a good number of cabins on the two islands, along with occasional tours and a kayaking business. These all provided opportunities to wrangle a boat ride out here.

Finding the blog of one of these cabin goers, I gained insight into the trail that led up to the lighthouse. As blogs tend to do, of course the hiking pictures made it seem difficult, showing their family climbing over fallen trees and across rotten boardwalks (there were also small children amongst the group).

We found some of the same conditions, but the 4k (2.5mi) hike was mostly enjoyable and passed in no time. There were only a few wet shoe edges, some logs to step over and decrepit bridges to help each other across. That old blog mentions how the trail was abandoned once the community was resettled, but there were improvements on their visit. It also seemed as if there were more improvements as we went along today.

As I mentioned a boat tour, you may wonder how I had never made it out here until today. Especially when Lewisporte is only a 3.5-hour drive away, just a short jaunt if there's a new lighthouse to see.

I called the boat tour and tried to find out about a single person going out to Exploits, but the tour only runs when $600 is paid for the whole boat. This works great if you're having a family reunion or a work outing, but I don't have 11 friends willing to commit a weekend and $50 each to such an endeavour.

Also, it's only a 3 hour tour including iceberg gawking and cod wrangling - meaning you only actually spend about 90 minutes on Exploits. And here I was sizing up if I could run this 8km (5mi) trail to the lighthouse in 90 minutes. If I walk at about a 5.5km/hr rate usually, it would be doable, but how much bog and fallen trees would I run into? Using this lighthouse visit blog as a reference, it didn't seem very doable.

Thankfully none of that would be necessary (especially as I never heard back from the guy, even when I said I'd subsidize someone else's trip if they'd just bring me along with their family/work group/etc.).

The trail started to get better near the end and resembled something like the small town trails throughout Newfoundland. And up ahead was the Surgeon Cove Point Lighthouse peeking above the hill, standing prominently upon its ridge.

No longer could I contain myself & my hurried speed created some space between me and my fellow hikers. I was getting a new Newfoundland lighthouse this year & no foul weather, tides or wind direction change was going to take this one away from me.

Surgeon Cove Point is Newfoundland lighthouse #61. Nineteen to go.

Rosie came up and asked if I was now going to put a checkmark on my NL roadmap next to Surgeon Cove Point, to which I ecstatically replied "of course not, but I'm crazy excited to update the thumbtack colour on my map of Newfoundland lighthouses!"

Everyone had a good laugh at my nerdy bit of excitement.

This lighthouse was built in 1911, improving the ability to find Exploits as well as the nautical lanes towards the shipping centres of Lewisporte and Botwood.

Surgeon Cove Point reminded me of the lighthouse in Bay Bulls (built in 1908), St. Jacques Island (1908) and Sandy Point (I was a little bit off with this one, 1883).

Sitting on the foundation of the old lightkeepers' house, we weren't out here alone and were soon invited inside the new keepers' house. An outdoor company, Canoe Hill Adventures, has taken on a lease of this property from the Town of Lewisporte, hoping to renovate this newer keepers' house in order to host overnight visitors in the future.

In another attempt to get out here, I once emailed Canoe Hill in hopes of volunteering in exchange for passage to this lighthouse, but as I'm not a skilled carpenter and they have enough hands, it was going to be a matter of waiting until they started offering tours.

Therefore this will be another lighthouse that's easier for any new jack-NL lighthouse collector that comes in the future, but I'm delighted to have got it on my own terms and without waiting.

Being out here at the same time as the outdoor company didn't just bring about tea and friendly folks, it also brought about a key to the lighthouse.

Shelloo, Rosie & I all squeezed into the small tower, easing up the stairs and into the lantern room while struggling to take pictures in the cramped space. Everything was cast in a red hue from the plastic wrap around the light, installed to deter water infiltration and vandals from breaking any more of the glass panes.

I was very appreciative that Canoe Hill was clearly working to also preserve the lighthouse while out here working on the lightkeepers' house.

Obviously no one else in the group shares my level of interest in lighthouses, but Dirk & Alli had lived here for a few weeks and this added to everyone wanting to see the place. All three of us had seen social media posts about breathtaking sunsets and retrieving refrigerators with the giant crane, and now it was neat to see the setting in real life.

Speaking of the giant crane, it's needed because of the great cliffs opening out to Notre Dame Bay here. As you've seen in these pictures, Surgeon Cove Point Lighthouse isn't the tallest lighthouse, but it doesn't need to be when it's at the top of a 200-ft cliff.

On calm enough days, Coast Guard ships would deliver supplies here by tying them off and having them lifted by crane over 200 feet up to the lighthouse.

I wandered around the lightstation and took in different angles, ate lunch and happily lounged near the lighthouse, but these stairs down to the landing cove also needed inspection.

The five of us took various speeds down to the cove, some lounging about at overlooks and some of us climbing all over the gnarly, coarse volcanic rock. Rosie wanted to go swimming, while I simply wanted the sun to get out of my pictures. Dirk pointed out a promising cove across the bay which he wanted to visit by kayak one day, while I explained I'd tried to get there one time by forest access road.

Stepping away from everyone, there was that familiar feeling of being very small amongst the northeast coast of this island. I was happy to be at this lighthouse, but also to be in this obscure cove.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay at the lighthouse for weeks like Dirk & Alli and we now had to go. The way back was easier, as it was slightly downhill and we now knew the length. We were back at the abandoned house at the start of the trail before we knew it.

Knowing the trail now, could I have run the 8km (5mi) to the lighthouse in 90 minutes? I'm pretty sure I could have, but this was much more casual and therefore enjoyable.

Shout-out to my friends for using your Exploits day to help me get this new one.