Come September, it was time for a fourth trip up the Northern Peninsula this year.

We stayed in Norris Point the first night and hiked the James M. Humber Trail in the afternoon.

The most hilarious part was when Kingsley decided he had enough of the narrow boardwalk and longed to sniff in the woods, so he bounced off the trail and immediately went right up to his belly in the muck. Trying to wrestle him back up onto the boardwalk was a whole fiasco and boy howdy, was he filthy afterwards.

We also hiked the short Rocky Harbour Lookout Trail and saw this Northern Flicker and a discarded car in the woods (two thumbs up).

On this trail, the hilarity came when we walked past the Rocky Harbour fish plant and out onto the wharf. Isy asked if I thought that the fish plant workers thought we were yahoos, but I said if there's anywhere with touristy yahoos on this island, it's Rocky Harbour. I was sure that they're used to it.

Hiking and staying in Gros Morne National Park isn't really my jam and I'd much rather be in Baie Verte, Bay d'Espoir or Conche.

That being said, after we walked along the water in Neddies Harbour, and then had a fantastic meal at The Black Spruce, I was warming up to our evening/night spent in this tourist hotspot.

We also hit up a play in Cow Head, as well as karaoke night at Cow Head's local dive, Neddy's Pub.

Serena Williams' last match was on TV and I had to squeeze out every last bit of tennis knowledge I had in order to explain 30-love, double faults and sets to Isy, her father & her friend.

None of us were doing karaoke, but I still found it interesting to look through the book.

The Cardigans!

I'm also sort of psyched I didn't end at this place during my 20s. I already embarrassedly think back to a time I hit too many of the high notes in Radiohead's Creep at a party in 2009 - my brain doesn't need an additional memory of me doing that Usher faux-moonwalk slide while crooning "I need a girl, who can ride ride ride, I need a girl, who'll live by my sideeeeeeee" to an uncomfortable rural Newfoundland crowd.

This wasn't just a trip up to Gros Morne and Cow Head, as we made it all the way up to Fort Point in St. Anthony the next night.

I had this big plan to get up this morning and ride the St. Anthony Skatepark in order to warm up for a nearby handrail.

The first problem was that the skatepark was still wet from last night's fog and drizzle - leaving me to instead go ride a traffic island at the local school.

The other problem was that they removed the handrail I had in mind! LOL.

So much for being maybe the first person to grind a rail down stairs in St. Anthony.

One great thing about this trip was that Isy's father wanted to see a few things, but there was also a lot of space for simply stopping wherever there was some scenic country - which isn't too hard to find on the Northern Peninsula.

This allowed me to fill in gaps and stop in places I hadn't been too many times, like Hay Cove, where we saw a giant cruise ship ferrying people to nearby L'Anse aux Meadows.

In L'Anse aux Meadows, I was finally going to be able to hike their 2.4km (~1.5mi) hiking trail. The only problem was trying to keep Kingsley comfortable as it was a unseasonably hot one.

What did I tell you?

As much as it was funny to see a dog who always hated water cozy up with the cold North Atlantic, I told Isy we wouldn't go that far down the trail, but only about five minutes in, decided to see if Kingsley and I could quickly knock it out. We needed to get moving.

Back at the visitors' centre, Isy didn't take nearly as long as she thought she would, so she started down the trail, figuring that she could catch up with us. Passing multiple groups, she asked, "have you seen a tall, grumpy man with an overheated poodle?" which jogged almost everyone's memory, but they all offered the unhelpful, "oh yeah, that way!" and pointed her further down, haha.

In addition to the cold North Atlantic, Kingsley also enjoyed cooling off in the damp grass :)

(Isy caught up to us at almost the exact midpoint, so we finished the trail instead of heading back.)

As well as a first visit to the Bonne Bay Aquarium, this trip also included the first time I'd actually gone inside of the recreated Norseman huts at L'Anse aux Meadows. Here, Parks Canada contract staffers are in character, explaining blacksmithing, clothes making, and how life was here for those who arrived on these shores around the year 1000.

Our accommodations were out in St. Anthony Bight and I tried to get out of the house as much as possible, to enjoy staying somewhere other than St. Anthony while on the Northern Penn.

This included a nighttime jaunt to photograph this fantastic old house that sits right along St. Anthony Bight's main road.

As much as it's an annoyance to drive out of town after dinner or buy groceries, I think I prefer staying in the small villages like Raleigh or St. Anthony Bight up here.

We spent the morning walking around St. Anthony and visiting the Grenfell House, which I've covered before.

Last year I returned to Cape Norman for the first time in over a decade, so with it fresh in my mind, I suggested it as another worthwhile place for us to stop.

The gang decided to go right down to the water, making this an even more special trip. There was the occasional wave that made us take a couple steps back, but overall the sea was calm enough to climb up and down all of these steps and platforms.

Having only been here once in winter and once briefly while hiking past, I had no idea the seashore was like this.

There's another spot on the Port au Port that has similar tabular shelves and I often think of heading there. I guess I'll be thinking of returning to Cape Norman more frequently on future Northern Peninsula trips. It's just so cool to be able to comfortably walk on wide, flat sidewalks, while the sea churns below.

We spent the night in the cabins behind the Sea Echo Motel in Port au Choix. The next morning, I got up early in order to check off PAC's new skatepark, since I had a flat tire when I discovered it a month ago.

And...it's fine. It's good for Port au Choix, I will say that. I wonder how many kids will use such a street-style skatepark instead of the nearby pump track, but good on such a small, hardscrabble town for purchasing this amount of ramps.

For me, it's almost identical to the Massey Drive Skatepark I frequent (even how the top of the box "springs" up and down as you head for the stairs/rail).

I enjoyed being the first to put pegs on both of the A-frame rails. I also greatly added to the scuff marks on the flat bar.

Afterwards we headed out to Point Riche, where we were lucky enough to see a caribou grazing nearby.

Even if Kingsley didn't really grasp it, no matter how hard Isy tried.

If we were going to go out on the rocks in Hay Cove and Cape Norman, I guess we were going to do it here too!

Which was fine with me on account of the American Pipits and shorebirds, plus the distance I could get out into the sea.

For a place with a lighthouse, I've always felt like I could take or leave Point Riche due to the tourists and how much it's on the beaten path. It's just that I'm always going to go to New Ferolle if I'm going to turn off the NL-430 Northern Peninsula highway and drive 15km west, you know?

Walking out on these rocks may have changed that today. I had a new appreciation for Point Riche.

Anyway, of course we stopped at Steve's Trail in GMNP again, but since I've already shared a trip there this year, I'll wrap up this update now. This was a good fourth trip up the Northern Peninsula for the year.