East Coast Trail (ECT) Newfoundland, Canada

Back in august of this year, two buddies and I flew up to Newfoundland, Canada to fastpack the ECT (East Coast Trail). This linear trail consists of 25 consecutive trails linked by community walks along the shores of the Avalon Penninisula, covering a total of 336km. The trail itself covers 270km of single track trail and the community walk linking the trails cover a total distance of 65km.

Our goal was to hike/run the trail as fast as we could, our goal being less then 1 week. In the end we covered the distance in 6 days, 18 hours. Of the crew our packs weighed in at 28lbs (This guy had camera gear, including a drone), 22lbs (Me) and 15 lbs. This included food (up to 3 days of food) and water. For all of us it was our first time taking on such an endevour.

I do not think it was a coincidence that the guy with the lightest pack ended up with the best feet and the guy with the heaviest pack had the worst feet. One factor we could not escape was that our feet were wet almost the entire time. If any of you are familiar with Newfoundland, it was wet!!!!

As far as gear goes,I took along my Hyperlite Porter 55 for a pack. I also took a MSR Hubba Hubba NX to sleep in, it was heavier then you’d want but it does fit into a 5L dry bag. Sleeping bag was rated for 0C, clothing was minimal. Being our first time really taking on a fastpacking trip, I didn’t want to blow my bank account out of the water getting the lightest of everything, we made do with what we had.

Our shortest day was 43km and our longest day was 83km. Over all it was an incredible experience. And I am definitely hooked on Fast Packing. I would recommend the ECT for anybody looking for world class views, a well marked trail and not that far away!

One guy made a fantastic, 3 part, Youtube series on the trip that can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFXV_8Y2irY

Good to see someone else promoting the the beauty that is the ECT. I also thru-hiked it last year, but over eleven days in June. I think your shortest day was one kilometer longer than my longest day (Sugerloaf to Shoe Cove). I was packing an HMG Southwest 40 and resupplied once in St. John's. What a wonderful trail, and my hike coincided with cod season, so I got to enjoy some amazing food along the way as well. I also lucked out on my last full afternoon on trail and met a local near Beachy Cove that fed me Quidi Vidi beer and ribs and let me camp out in his backyard - you got to love the amazing hospitality of Newfoundlanders. Picture taken from Lance Cove on the Cape Broyle Head Path (lost count of how many steps to get down there). Managed to get up to my knees in the ocean, but wow, was that water cold.

Happy Trails

David