Gros Morne 2004
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Rob had the idea of doing the Long Range Traverse in Gros Morne National Park. This is a very difficult hike
through the Long Range Mountains, Newfoundland, Canada. This hike is not for the faint of heart. There are no marked
trails, all navigation is done via map and compass. The terrain
contains many challenges including 700m cliffs, impenetrable vegetation called tuckamore, ankle breaking boulder fields,
swarms of black flies,
and quickly changing weather conditions. Even though it was Rob that had planned the trip, he ended up cancelling out
at the last moment. That left three of us, myself, Emily, and an old friend Dave from Halifax.
Aug 20 - Ottawa, ON to Corner Brook, NF
Got up early to catch the plane. Very smooth flight via Halifax. The woman in the seat behind us had some motion
sickness which was pretty disgusting. Arrived shortly after noon and picked up a rental car and drove to Corner Brook
where we spent some time looking for lunch and a hotel. Found a cheap hotel right beside the
pulp and paper mill. It
is right downtown which is nice because we can walk everywhere. After supper we took a walk around the neighbourhoods
and observed a really black storm approaching from the north, but a beautiful sunset also blazed on the water.
Aug 21 - Rest Day
Woke up and read my book for a while until Emily got up. Had a breakfast in the hotel room and then went out in search
of coffee which a Tim Hortons provided. Went to the local gun and ammunition shop to look for stove fuel, but no luck.
Took the car up to Zellars and bought a 4 liter can of it there. Don't know what we will do with the extra, but it was
the smallest can they sold. We observed a woman on a tricycle being pulled by two dogs which she was hitting with a
stick to keep moving. The rest of the day was spent hiking around the local parks where we saw some
nice views from
the tops of various mountains. We also picked quite a few blueberries for breakfast from the abundant supply available.
Ate supper in a very expensive restaurant, but it was very good. Then went in search of a pub. Two of my Newfoundland
stereotypes have been shattered; 1 - Everyone is friendly. Most of the people I have dealt with today (with a few
exceptions) were not very friendly. One used bookseller did not say a word, not even the price, when I purchased
a book from him. He just silently took my money and counted out the change. 2 - Good pubs. The first pub we went to
had about 3 tables and no beer on tap. The second was similiar, and we did not even stay for a bottle. The third was
a little better. A young 95% male crowd, bad music and bad beer, but at least the atmosphere and food was good. This
town is full of Chinese-Canadian restaurants and loads of open tanning salons. So far the weather has been bleak, so
maybe the locals spend lots of time in those salons?
Aug 22 - Rest Day
Today we drove out along the Humber River to its mouth at the Gulf of St. Lawerence. The
scenery was spectacular. We
stopped a couple of places and hiked up to the top of the local mountains to get a good view of the surroundings. We
stopped at Blow me Down Park and followed a a strange trail of
wooden steps to the top at a neat lookout. Had a light
snack in a little cafe in one of the coastal towns and then went to Bottle Cove, where we did some more hiking down the
James Cook trail. There is a huge cave here in the side of one of the hills, formed by the ocean tides. This area
gave us a real appreciation for the grandeur of the Newfoundland terrain, and we are doubly looking foraward to the
traverse on Tuesday. Went to yet another Pub in Corner Brook for some supper, but after sitting and waiting for
non-existent service from the barmaid for several minutes, we left and went back to Casual Jack's where we stopped
yesterday. Ate some food, drunk some poor excuse for beer, but the bar tender was friendly and the music was much less
offensive today. After supper, we went back to the hotel room and read for a couple hours until Dave called. We met
him at Casual Jack's for some more beer and onion rings. The music rocked this time with some Dayglo Abortions and
even some Iron Maiden!
Aug 23 - Corner Brook to Green Point
Had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then picked up some food at the main mall in town. Picked up Dave at his
uncle and aunt's place, and had a nice chat with them before heading out. We arrived at the Gros Morne visitor center
and watched the mandatory video of the Long Range Traverse. The video was actually interesting. I thought it would be
pretty cheesy. Two other parties were waiting for their briefing with the ranger. They were both doing the North Rim
Traverse. The first group were from Europe and failed the briefing and hence were not permitted to do their hike. I
feel sorry for them, coming all that way to be turned around. Then a truck overturned on the highway, and the ranger
had to investigate. We chatted for an hour with the other North Rim Traverse couple, who were hitch hiking around
the island doing various wilderness hikes. Finally the ranger returned and interviewed the other couple first because
they wanted to get the 16:00 ferry. Our turn came and I had to prove my compass skills, which was no problem. Another
accident occured, so the ranger had to cut our briefing short. We drove to Rocky Harbour to get Dave some food and then
to Green Point campground, to car camp for the night. As we were cooking supper, some Ottawa friends also touring
Newfoundland, Jason and Karina, arrived and joined us on our campsite.
The rest of the evening was spent drinking beer,
hiking along the coastline here and roasting corn around the fire.
Today was the most difficult hike of my life. I am writing this just after sunset on a beautiful campsite beside a
babbling brook draining into the lake. It all started at 05:00 this morning by getting up and starting breakfast before
sunrise. We packed up camp and drove to the base of Gros Morne trail, which is our exit point. A taxi guy picked us
up in a mini van and for $32 drove us to Western Brook Pond. Jason and Karina remained behind, they were planning to
a day hike on the Gros Morne loop and then driving out to the Newfoundland ferry to Nova Scotia later in the day. An
easy 3km hike brought us to the boat tour.
We met up with the couple who were hiking
the North Rim and took the boat
with them. Their names were Rob and Natalie. The place filled with camera wielding tourists, and then the boat
departed, a full load. The tour was interesting, but probably
not worth $35 if you were not using it for
transportation. We got dropped off at the far Eastern point. There was no turning back now. We hiked a little ways in
and then had a quick lunch with Rob and Natalie. We hiked on, but Rob and Natalie soon out paced us and we never saw
them again. We continued through some six foot tall flowers
which got us soaked thanks to an earlier rainfall. As we
progressed, the terrain began to get steeper and steeper. We followed dried stream beds for aways which was tough going
because of the big boulders making footing unsteady.
We saw a nice trail up into the hills so we took it, but this
got harder and harder as the tuckamore got thicker . We finally turned back downwards and bush wacked a little to get
back to the stream bed. It got steeper. We reached the base of a very tall waterfall
and had to climb a dry stream
bed along side it at near vertical. Many times we had to stop and rest or help each other by pulling each other over
more difficult parts. After 6 hours or so, we came out and were rewarded with a
spectacular view, which I celebrated
with a swig of Screach, the official Rum of Newfoundland.
The terrain was now open and rocky so footing was good, but
far from easy, as it was inclined at a very steep angle still. We hiked up this, snacking on wild blueberries for
another hour, until we stopped for supper beside a small pond. After eating and washing up, we turned south. The first
part was very difficult and required some rock climbing skills at some points. While walking across a flat part, the
ground under my left foot suddenly gave away and left my leg dangling in a hole of some unfathomable depth. Fortunately
I was not hurt and managed to pull myself out of it. We finally crested our highest elevation and could see Little
Island Pond a couple of kilometers away. From this point it was a fairly easy hike along a well beaten path, although
a little muddy at points. Finally we arrived at the campsite just as the sun was setting. We quickly set up camp.
There is a bear locker for food which was a relief, as we are all too tired to find a
suitable natural storage facility.
The privy is awesome. A literal throne with a great view of a local peak. The tents are set up on wooden platforms
which are flat and level. I had to get creative with some rope to set up my tent as it is not a free standing model.
We all are hitting the sack early tonight because we all are pretty exhausted.
I did not sleep that well last night, but nevertheless I got up at 07:00 and felt fairly rested. Cooked up some
breakfast, filled the water bottles from the stream, and then packed up camp. We were sore today. The first trek down
to Mark's Pond was fairly easy going.
A muddy trail pretty much led the way. We had a quick snack on the side of a
set of rapids and then made a fairly difficult crossing by wading through
the fast water with the help of a small fallen
tree which we borrowed as a walking stick. We each crossed in turn and threw the stick back across to the next in line.
Once we all got across, I threw the stick back so any other subsequent hikers could use the stick again. We
hiked around Mark's Pond and then down to a smaller un-named lake which we
stopped for lunch. At this point the navigation
got tricky. Numerous small peaks and tiny bodies of water confused travel. To confound things, the tuckamore crossed
paths with us many times, which turned a straight bearing into a meandering path. The open areas were grass covered
boulders, which were very difficult to negotiate as every foot fall was treacherous. We got disoriented many times,
but knew if we kept trekking in a general southerly direction we would reach a long east-west chain of large lakes.
We finally spotted water and hiked up to the bank and had a snack. This lake looked like nothing on the map. After
some study, we figured out it was a lake that we thought we had passed earlier. At least now we new where we were, even
though we were not as far as we had hoped. We took a bearing at another small lake nearby and head off. After
battling through lots more tuckamore and glacial boulder fields we spotted a large lake which was easily identified as
Harding Pond.
I do not know what happened to the lake we were aiming for, but nevertheless our goal was in sight. It
still took us over an hour to descend down the tuckamore and boulder strewn slope. While searching for the campsite,
Dave and I came across a large moose with big antlers.
As soon as he saw us he booted out on his way. We found the
campsite and set up on two adjacent tent pads.
Thank goodness for these wooden platforms, because the ground everywhere
is mud. We cooked supper on a nearby beach and as we were finishing up, another couple arrived,
who were doing the combined North Rim and Long Range Traverses. The temperature plumetted. I am wearing every piece
of clothing I brought except for my rain gear and one t-shirt right now. As the sun is fading in the distance, and the
moon is reflecting nicely off the water, I think it is time to climb into a nice warm sleeping bag.
I am writing this at 22:00 in the tent after the second most difficult hike in my life. It all started with an
absolutely freezing cold night, which we awoke to find frost over everything. Dave and I got up really early and
watched the sun rise
while drinking coffee. While packing up camp, a moose lumbered out of the bushes and started
eating the nearby vegetation, allowing us to get some photos.
We hit the land at about 09:00 after Emily gave Dave and
I a lesson in stretching. The other couple was just getting up and must have found it entertaining to watch our
syncronized stretches on the tent pad. The first part of the hike was on a
rocky river rapids, which was easy going
as travel was made simply by hopping from rock to rock. After following this for a few km, we decided to strike out
cross country, which was harder going as most of the land out here is either moose soup,
or tuckamore, a nearly
impenetrable, low growth tree. A few dead ends were hit, requiring back tracking and searching other paths through
the tuckamore. We hit a large lake of which the name escapes me now.
We hiked around to the far end where we stopped
for lunch. We waded out into the lake to sooth our aching feet in the cold water and wash the mud off of the lower legs
and pants. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny blue sky as far as the eye could see and very warm to boot. After lunch
we navigated to the crossing between two lakes and crossed. We then were required to climb a fairly steep mountain pass
for several hundred meters in the blistering heat. After several rests, we made it to the top, and were reqarded with a
spectacular view of where we had come from.
After a brief snack we continued on, navigating a path through
numerous small lakes and small peaks.
This required the use of almost every compass skill known to us. At one point we battled
through a short stretch of tuckamore to be rewarded with a stunning view of a big gorge and
Gros Morne mountain itself.
Some more compass work and some very difficult boulder traversing brought us to a lake which we thought was the last in
the chain. We were one off, but this was easily determined by looking around and taking some bearings off of other
landmarks. Some more hiking with treacherous footing brought us to the target lake where we had hoped to skirt around
on the Eastern side. A sheer rock face dropped straight into the water dashing any hopes of that. We were forced to
take the long route around which was a push through tuckamore and boulder strewn slopes covered with tall grass hiding
any footing below. Finally we made it around and made a steep descent down to Green Island Pond. It was now nearly
18:30. The real task of finding the campsite began. We dropped our packs and then Dave and I scouted the area. We
searched for over an hour with no luck. The Ranger had warned us that this site was hard to find. He was not kidding!
I finally gave up and went back to Emily who was waiting with the packs. Dave was off in another direction, and out of
earshot because we called and whistled for a while. I climbed a rise for a nature call, and saw Dave and the other
couple coming down the slope. We compared notes about the campsite location. They had actual coordinates, but those
did not make sense as we had already searched that area. We decided to climb the hill with them and try to find the
campsite. Scott, the male representative and current leader pushed us higher and higher. We all stayed back while he
scouted further. He came back saying that he could get down to an area where he thought it was, over a km hike down a
very steep slope. As the sun was beginining to set, we decided that attempting the descent in the dark would be
foolish, so we head back the way we had come and made camp in a small valley
near the lake. Scott and Marcie continued on upwards.
We cooked supper in the dark and head to bed right after. Note to anybody who hikes the Long Range after reading this:
Try to find a better source for campsite locations than the Gros Morne Trail map. We have had to to some searching
every night. It was too dark to find a place to secure the food bag. I shoved it in a crack in the rocks near the
lake. Hopefully it will be alright, otherwise it will be a long and hungry two day hike out of here.
I got up aroung 06:00 and started making coffee down by the lake and watched two caribou walk through our campsite, stop
to look at me for a brief moment, and then continue on their way. After breakfast we packed up and attempted to skirt
along the coast to the rapids. The going was tough and included some
wading through some parts. We crossed the rapids.
I jumped across, while Emily and Dave waded. From this point on, the way was quite easy, as most of the
terrain was tundra.
Much of the day was spent following a trail which was worn into the tundra by countless numbers of hikers.
There were several steep climbs and descents into the numerous valleys and peaks in this area, but none were too
difficult. We were rewarded with several breathtaking views, one of them a beautiful view down the
Ten Mile Gulch,
where we decided to have lunch. Scott and Marcie did not find the campsite last night either. They stayed up at the
top of one of the ridges near Green Island Pond. We did see the site while walking along a high ridge, located a little
ways down the rapids that we crossed in the morning. All morning Scott and Marcie followed us. We could see them in
off and on in the distance. They caught up during a break,
but we were finishing just as they stopped for a break. We
did compare maps to locate the exact place for tonight's camping. They passed us during lunch and we did not catch them
again. Near the end of the crossing of the last plateau, we saw several caribou on a peak. Scott and Marcie said that
they had seen them too. The funny thing was, there was a lone moose standing on a ridge behind the caribou, so Dave
got a picture of four caribou and one moose
in a single shot. We saw a few other moose today as well. The
descent down into the Gros Morne valley
was tough as it was a narrow track through very dense shrubbery. It was steep in parts,
at which points the shrubbery came in handy to hold on to. We took the easiest way down according to the map, but
obviously it was not the correct way, as we had a 400 meter battle through the tuckamore to get to camp. This took us
over an hour and left us cursing and swearing as we pushed through dense growth with treacherous footing which could not
be seen through the thick foliage. The blackflies were absolutely horrendous, which did nothing to brighten our moods.
We finally made it through and found the campsite on pretty short order. This place is pretty messy as it is also a
resting area for Gros Morne day hikers. We
set up tents quickly and dove inside to get away from the blackflies. It
was 18:00 and I remarked that this was the first bit of relaxation time that we have had since starting this hike.
Scott and Marcie had arrived before us and had decided to hike up to the Gros Morne peak for some extra fun. We have
decided to forgo this extra side trip. We ate supper on a picnic table by the lake and then played cards for a while
after dark, just to validate the reason for bringing them.
Since today was the last day, we slept in and had a slow coffee filled morning. I got up early as I always do and
watched the wildlife. A huge bull moose waded through the water right by Scott and Marcie's tent, and then climbed up
the mountain. I heard more splashing and observed a caribou wading in the water on the far side of the lake, and then
climb up the Gros Morne hiking trail towards the summit. I figure that they were both just "heading off to work", to
pose for the first early morning day hikers. Dave got up and we drank coffee for a while and saw a mom and baby moose
get in the lake and swim right towards us. They got out of the lake and started walking towards us. They got a little
close for comfort so we began backing off, at which point they turned and wandered off into the tuckamore. We
got some great photos of it at least.
Emily awoke and we had a lazy breakfast then finally hit the trail. Scott and Marcie had
packed and left about an hour earlier. The trail was easy as it was the day hiking trail for Gros Morne. Stairs were
provided on the steep parts, boardwalk for the muddy parts, and cuts through the tuckamore.
We crossed many
scree slopes in which the footing was a little tricky.
About an hour going, we came across Scott and Marcie. We did not
expect to see them! The mom and baby moose we had seen earlier had decided to take a
nap beside the trail and would
not let them pass. They had been stuck for over an hour. With five of us and a little bit of whistle blowing, they
decided to move on. Unfortunately they kept to the trail
at a slow pace, stopping to munch on various plants now and
then, obviously not concerned too much about the five pesky humans armed with a gym whistle behind them. Finally they
turned off onto a side trail and we could resume to normal walking speed. Scott and Marcie soon outpaced us and were
gone. Once we crossed the summit trail we began to see day hikers, several of which stopped to chat. One arrogant man
told us that he was planning to do the Long Range Traverse one day, but was going to do it in that one day only. "After
all, it is only 35 km you know!" He also said that we were carrying too much gear... when he does hit he will only take
"what is absolutely necessary". Well, I guess if you plan to do it in a single day you do not need any camping gear!
We saw a big black bear on the side of the mountain. This completed our wildlife list of large animal sitings. After a
few more hours and a couple short snack breaks we
reached the parking lot. It felt really good to be done. The
experience was definately worth the hardship and pain. We drove to Rocky Harbour and had a big greasy lunch and then
bought some beer and eggs. We went to a KOA car campsite where we stayed with Scott and Marcie. We all went into town
for another greasy supper and then stayed up late drinking the beer and talking.
Aug 29 - Newfoundland to Ottawa
We got up at the crack of dawn and cooked up a dozen eggs which the three of us ate. It rained last night so we packed
up the gear damp and heavy. Thankfully it was not going on our backs today. We drove to Cornerbrook to visit Dave's
aunt and uncle and arranged shipping of our stoves back to Ottawa, as they cannot be taken on the airplane. We talked
for a while and enjoyed some delicious carrot cake. We then drove to Deer Lake to return the car. The car rental
place asked us to drive to the airport and leave the car unlocked with the keys inside at the parking lot as the
shuttle driver was not available. This felt a little weird, but I did as asked anyway. The flight home was without
incident. We said goodbye to Dave in Halifax as he was on the same flight until we changed planes. A taxi brought us
home from the airport. We are still a little sore, but feel great for the experience we got from Newfoundland.
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