It was a busy August and September of travelling, but Canadian Thanksgiving was now here and that usually marks the last of holiday camping in Newfoundland for the year.

In addition, I'd made a new friend in Corner Brook and I didn't think twice about quickly suggesting an overnight camping trip. She said she didn't get out camping enough and I thought that was an easy enough thing to fix.

Apparently that was a bit forward though. So it was off to the group chat where she posted a description of me, checked if any of her friends knew who I was, confusedly exclaimed that she couldn't find me on social media, and gave the group an itinerary that involved "camping on a logging road on the Baie Verte Peninsula". This was somehow given the green light by the group, lol.

By the way, the ladies man that I am, only one person in this group chat had ever seen me before in their life in this small town. It was the girl who worked at the local coffee shop, recognizing me and declaring "I know that guy, he's double shot Americano, tall to go cup guy!"

Our destination options were limited because we were only going for one night, but Baie Verte always seems like an exotic and worthwhile place to visit that is relatively close by. Plus Isy had somehow never even turned off onto the Baie Verte Highway and I love bringing people to places they haven't seen, especially nearby places that they already should have visited.

The first stop was the village of Westport, where she could see a scenic lighthouse and I could check if the light was still unsealed and threatened. After I found the door missing a couple years ago, I meant to drive up here and secure it myself, but life got in the way.

Thankfully someone else stepped up and secured this gem of Westport.

For about half of the Westport highway, the road follows Middle Arm Brook and provides distant views of a few cascading waterfalls. While I've always thought about seeing if I could get any closer, I figured it was at least worth stopping along the highway today, especially with the colourful, autumnal trees.

Following that, we picked up some supplies in Baie Verte and drove through to Fleur De Lys at the top of the peninsula. This also brought us close to Coachman's Cove, where I had an idea about a place for stealth camping. Although it was still a bit early, it was also grey and calling for sun tomorrow, so we'd be better off continuing our tour in the morning.

On one of my first camping trips in Newfoundland, I hiked the French Island Trail of Coachman's Cove and found sprawling grasslands. At the time I wasn't the biggest on camping in unsanctioned places, but now it seemed like a great location.

The problem was that the French Island Trail was longer and had more staircases than I remembered. In addition, Isy had brought a fair amount of gear including a giant tent and a huge tub of cookware, so we now stood here and questioned ferrying all this stuff over to a distant cove.

The funny thing was that Isy suggested the little spot right where we had the car. This well-maintained, pretty little park that's clearly for day use? Then again, it was late in the day, we would be good campers and Coachman's Cove was awfully sleepy. I figured she might be on to something.

The park was located on the south side of Coachman's Cove where the land curls around and narrows as it stretches out towards French Island and the Tin Pot Islands. Including the other side of the road where you had a fish plant and some docks, the land here is only a couple of hundred feet across.

This meant that there was the same amount of grass as an average suburban house, then it was down to a small beach with inclined, slaty rocks separating small coves.

After getting the tent set up, it was fantastic to have oceanside access so close, where I could pour myself a little bourbon and walk all of 30 feet to go hang out on the rocks.

I sat and fantasized about going out to those islands, explaining how insanely excited I would be just to camp out there; which Isy seemed to find a bit odd, but not that peculiar. This was a good sign if I was going to continue explaining my laundry list of idiosyncrasies at some point.

Even though there was a bit of wind, I was still surprised as mosquitoes showed up at this late juncture in the year. They seemed to like Isy more than me though, which I suppose was a good development.

The wind was also warm and summery, a great thing considering all of the single-digit temps I've camped in along the coast. This was glorious weather for mid-October.

As for anyone caring that we camped here, there were a couple of old poppys driving around, but the men didn't stay when they reached our end of the road. There were also a couple of women out on their evening walk, but they didn't even slow down as they passed by. Lastly, a teenage couple walked over, but they simply took the next cove down and went out on the rocks like we had. No one seemed to care at all that we were camped here, and by allowing us to relish in such a great camping spot, Coachman's Cove was moving up my town rankings. And I already liked the place from walking their trail eight years ago!

A great thing about camping in fringe camping months like May or October is the length of days and how easy it is to get up for sunrise (even after staying up into the night).

Rolling out of the tent just as the sun crested over the Ming's Bight area, we also brought everything for breakfast instead of simply going to Subway in Baie Verte, allowing us to spend even more time outside in the fantastic sunshine of this spectacular day. Clothes were quickly shed as the temperature skyrocketed.

Walking up the stairs from our campsite and crossing the road, this was the view looking at the main harbour here in Coachman's Cove.

By noon we were heading even further from Corner Brook, over to Tilt Cove, with its population of just four and the scenic, substantial cemetery above town.

I've covered Tilt Cove here before. The Coles Notes read that it was once a great mining town but only a few people stayed after the mines closed. That number continues to dwindle, although a few hardy residents still inhabit homes around the central pond.

Following the cemetery, we walked past the often photographed, most prominent house of Tilt Cove. It's here that I was curious how Isy would react to the staged baby doll that someone placed in an upstairs window.

Much to my delight, she only thought it was unusual & didn't make us leave the whole town because she was scared of evil spirits. Nice!

I also figured I'd go about finally seeing the inside.

I'm not one to visit abandoned places and picture the factory's auto workers or a school's studious pupils, but with so many visits to Tilt Cove and studying its distinctive history, I couldn't help but picture the life left here. Was this place sealed up and only occasionally visited as a cabin? Was this home to one of the last people when the population numbers were still in the 20s or 30s? How long ago was it abandoned? And was it abandoned because the people grew old, or because they didn't have any work opportunities here?

For all of my visits to Tilt Cove, I've never run into the mayor who keeps the town museum with all of the old photos. I really need to remedy that and ask about this place in the process.

And oh yeah, that stupid doll is staying in its upstairs window until this place falls down - because even my careless and invincible self didn't like the look of these stairs.

Following Tilt Cove, we popped up to La Scie, where the views approaching town and from the coastal trails make it a worthwhile stop on any Baie Verte touring trip.

For all of the visits where I've stood at La Scie's Island Cove Campground, this was the first time I realized you could see the Horse Islands from here. I used to think it was only from the Cape St. John Road. Neat.

The last thing we happened upon used to either be a town museum or a bed & breakfast. We couldn't really figure it out, although the upstairs was done up in a way that would make me lean towards bed & breakfast.

I was impressed when Isy regretted that we didn't have an extra night to sleep in this abandoned spot. I guess this wasn't a matter of just putting up with going into some abandoned houses, but actually enjoying the activity.

Alas, we didn't have another night to spend here. It was time to get going back to the place where we live after an enjoyable autumn trip to the Baie Verte.