'I’m not getting my hopes up for any sort of real long-term winter. The weather gods have dashed my hopes too many times already'
Here's my buddy Robert fixing up a rock cairn on the north side of Spider Pond. These were markers for winter travel. Contributed photo - Contributed photoI think all of us, maybe with the exception of a few die-hardened deniers, understand that climate change is a reality.Just last week I said to a buddy of mine, “I think I’ll sell all my snowshoes and buy more fly rods.” He knows me well, so he just laughed it off.
Last year, the ponds on the Avalon Peninsula weren’t safe at all, not even for a few weeks. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s the way I recall it. The ice-fishing squeeze has been on for a solid decade now I think.To the present , trout season just opened and the only way I’m going fishing in the middle of Gull Pond is to take my canoe out of winter storage.So, the ice anglers are looking at yet another open-water opening day.
This was the last time I cut wood in Cat Hill country. You can see Cat Hill, which requires a frozen-over Spider Pond to access for wood cutting in winter, in the background. - ContributedFor Spaniard’s Bay and surrounding area, including Bishop’s Cove and Island Cove, Spider Pond is and always has been a gateway to the backcountry. There’s really no other reasonably easy way to get into the Cat Hill region.
I’ll have to source my boat plank from somewhere in central and have it trucked to me. I wanted to cut it myself, but such is life and the whims of the gods. Around here in the early 20th century, the ice cover on Spider Pond was essential to survival. This place was settled in the 1600s and wood and logs close to home had been cut long ago. Come winter, folks would harness up their Newfoundland Ponies and head into the backcountry over Spider Pond, with axes and saws in hand. They needed firewood, as well as timber for boats, barns, fences, houses and whatever else needed building.
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