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Route: East Coast Trail- Integral (NL, Canada)

Submitted by therunningpanda on Tue, 06/18/2024 - 04:07am
Location
Newfoundland and Labrador, CA
Distance
302.1 km
Vertical Gain
12,643 m
Description

The East Coast Trail is a ~330km trail that stretches from Cappahayden to Topsail, following the coast of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. It runs through the provincial capital city, St. John's. The northern section of the trail has it's southern terminus at Quidi Vidi, and the southern section has it's northern terminus at Fort Amherst (Quidi Vidi and Fort Amherst are approximately 7 km away trough ).This intergral route links both the East Coast Trail- South and the East Coast Trail- North to make one complete route. 

The East Coast Trail originally stretched 220km from Cappahayden to St John's, until the ECT North was added from Topsail to St. John's (now the original trail, south of St. John's, is referred to as the East Coast Trail South, while the new trail, north of St. John's, is referred to as the East Coast Trail North). The ECT- Intergal is 336 km according to the East Coast Trail Association (but 302.1 km according to GPX file). This route is a notable challenge to local runners, as it contains newly developed trails with extremely technical terrain, large climbs and descents but incredible views along the way with high chance of whale spotting. 

GPS Track
east-coast-trail-complete (1).gpx1.24 MB

FKTs

Related Routes
East Coast Trail North (NL, Canada)
East Coast Trail, South (NL, Canada)

Comments

Alexandra Cata…
Mon, 09/07/2026 - 01:50pm

Notable 2026 FKT attempts: In June 2026 Reagan Bilodeau attempted the ECT Integral FKT (supported), starting from Topsail running South, changing the direction that the FKT has historically been done. This southbound variation tackles the paths with the most vertical gain first. Reagan stopped her FKT attempt before starting the Cape Broyle path due to ankle problems. 

In September 2026, Katheryn Cochrane attempted the ECT Integral FKT (supported) following Reagan's southbound route. Poor weather on day 3 and 4 made the FKT impossible.

Surprisingly, no male attempts. It would be great to see more FKT attempts on the ECT as it is truly world class!

Notable FKT logistics that came out of these 2026 attempts:

Weather:

  • Weather on the Avalon peninsula is challenging to forecast with frequent changes in actual weather events vs. model predictions (even when looking at ECMWF, ICON, GFS, HRDPS combined). Finding a reliably good weather window will always be a challenge and a bit of luck is involved here. 

When to race?: pick your poison type of deal.

  • Late spring/early summer: Pros: better temperatures, water refills should not be an issue, no overgrowth, so much daylight. Cons: if there was significant tree fall during winter, it will likely be blocking the path-- easy to go around most of the time.
  • Summer: Pros: less stormy than fall/ "better" weather (depends if you do well in hot and humid conditions), good daylight, trail maintenance should be good (tree fall cleared out). Cons: variable water supply (highly dependent on rain events that year), forest fires could be an issue, weather (humid+++), but above all things will get overgrown!
  • Fall:Pros: temperatures start to be more tolerable. Maybe less overgrowth if done late enough. Cons: less daylight, variable water supply, forest fire activity in early fall, storm season in the Atlantic!  

Southbound variation:

  • As far as I can tell, historically the FKT route has been done northbound simply because the Northern paths of the ECT (Topsail-Cape St. Francis) have officially been added to the ECT in 2022. Despite the more significant elevation gain, the Northern section is more runnable and better maintained compared with the Souther terminal of the trail as it sees more traffic.

Supported attempts:

  • Supported style attempts open up the FKT to a faster possible time. Not having to carry a tent+food, etc. opens up the possibility to run 50-70km/day (or more!) which in theory could really lower the FKT time. The most challenging paths to crew is Motion head (must run the 6km Shoal Bay road; but has plenty of water along the path). Otherwise there are various ways to leave supplies by car at the start/end of each path. Two vehicles and shuttles facilitate having other runners on trail with the racers. 

The ECT is truly beautiful and unique and deserves so much more attention.