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In some ways reestablishing the route followed by these seventeenth-century pioneers seemed straight forward enough. We knew where they started and where they ended up so it was basically a matter of getting from one place to the other. Of course, it didn’t turn out to be quite that simple. First of all, we knew that the first leg of the journey was from Cupers Cove to Salmon Cove, as the area around Clark’s Beach was then known, but exactly what route did the colonists take over the hills between these two places? The route that we initially followed took us through the valley that runs between Spectacle Head (or “the Spectacles” as Crout called it) and the ridge farther west. However, according to long time Cupids resident Cecil Akerman, the old road from Cupids to Salmon Cove ran over the ridge at the south end of Cupids harbour. Cecil, who had walked this road many times as a young man, showed us where it once began.
On our next attempt this was the route we followed and it proved to be the shortest way between the two places. Since this was an old established trail over sixty years ago, it seems likely that it was the same route followed by Crout. Once a trail is broken it will usually continue to be used until an easier way of getting from one place to another has been established. Indeed, this part of the trail was probably in use before Crout undertook his journey. By the fall of 1612 colonists from Cupers Cove were already established at Salmon Cove and it seems from Crout’s diary that trips between the two places were an almost daily occurrence.
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3. Walking down the Salmon Cove Road. 