I was never the biggest May 2-4 guy in Ontario, but in moving to Newfoundland, I've come to appreciate how it marks the start of comfortable camping season. It's usually by Victoria Day Weekend (May 2-4) that you have a 50% chance of the nighttime lows being above or around 4°C/39°F, which is the benchmark I use to differentiate between fun camping and winter camping.

Also, there's a Newfoundland saying about going outside to get the stink of house off of you. May 2-4 additionally serves as a point where it's definitely time to get the Corner Brook stink off of you and escape the west coast of Newfoundland.

That's why this website has featured May 2-4 trips every year for more than a decade. The problem this year though, was that responsibilities were going to get in the way of doing any overnight trip.

Determined to still make the weekend memorable, I went out Saturday afternoon to try and find a better way down to the Bells Brook waterfalls in Corner Brook's west side. The last time I tried to visit these falls, I went off the terminus of a dead end road and slid down an embankment, plus fell down a three-foot hill. There had to be an easier way.

Things were going better by attacking from the south instead of the north, but the easiest way kept pushing me almost right on top of the waterfalls. Not looking to slide into the drink or drop a bigger drop than three feet, I insisted on fighting with the alders to keep on a safer, shallower hillside.

Looking back up at someone's house.

At times I was too close to the houses and there were some steep slopes, but this route was an improvement - although, I figure there still has to be an even easier way to get down here.

(I have yet another possible route in mind that looks promising, but it's also unclear if it's a driveway or someone's backyard. Maybe that's something for me to check out for May 2-4, 2026.)

In the time since I'd last been down here, someone had constructed a home for themselves.

Returning to my backpack, I cracked a cold Keith's, cheers'd to the weekend, broke open my book, and relaxed under grey skies in lovely late May, haha.

One thing that happens when you're always out of town for long weekends is that you miss people visiting or gathering in Corner Brook. That's because no one listens to me when I ask why we don't get together on random, depressing February weekends where you need friends; and instead, everyone insists on getting together for May 2-4 weekend or Canada Day weekend, or whatever sunny long weekend.

So since we weren't out of town in Fortune Harbour or Coomb's Cove, Isy and I were actually available for a dinner of Mexican at Tlacuache in the old Hotel Corner Brook.

It was going to be 15 minutes before we could be seated and our friend Andrew had the brilliant idea of heading over to the Hotel Corner Brook's bar for a drink before our meal. I'd always meant to check out this space again, as I hadn't been here since first living here, back when I knew a guy who was the bartender during Friday dance nights. Dance nights making me uncomfortable and after having a few journey juices during the long walk down here from up on Wheelers Road, I was always glued to the bar on those nights. Plus I didn't appreciate seedy bars the same way back in my 20s - which was really evident today when I saw the Seaport Lounge's cool, dated bar and low ceiling. Here's a postcard view of the same scene.

I especially owe Andrew here, because following this quick pre-dinner drink, for years I thought about bringing a book or my computer to work on BRN here, but I kept slacking. And now it's closed as the hotel has been turned into subsidized housing.

We also headed over to the Golden Cue, a fantastic 1970s relic of a pool hall.

The long weekend gave us three separate opportunities to get outside and of course, I wanted to head somewhere memorable. I asked myself, what Corner Brook things have been on the to-do list for too long?

I knew the vague details of this lookout across the bay, but also saw recent photos posted by a friend. As luck would have it, we ran into Abby and the remainder of my questions were answered. We were all set to climb upwards through the trees to this fantastic viewpoint over the Bay of Islands.

Looking over the estuary of Hughes Brook, plus Irishtown, with the setting sun.

Looking back at Corner Brook.

This is such a neat plateau of grass in a province where at a lot of smaller peaks, it's hard to get a look at the surrounding scenery without a tree in your face.

Heading out.