North Rim - Day 3

Triangle Pond to Snug Harbour

September 7, 2017

It rained all night, but fortunately it petered off at first light and allowed us to get up and pack camp without getting fully soaked. A stiff breeze helped dry thing as we put them away, so everything went into the packs merely damp and not soaked like yesterday. The other group, Ian, Stephen, and Katherine showed up at our tent platform ready to depart at 07:30 right on the agreed schedule, so we all saddled up and struck off into what is known as the tuckamore tangle. The first couple of kilometers were actually pretty straight forward following a trodden path along the shore of Triangle pond, after which we continued allong a couple of dry stream beds. We took a break overlooking a body of water which I dubbed "Lake of Many Rocks", or in Newfoundland terms should be called "Pond of Rocks A-Plenty". We then struck off into the tuckamore. Now we got a real taste for what this route is known for, as we pushed, grunted, and cursed our way through, trying our best to follow the moose paths, but at times just having to give 'er and bash on through. Finally stymied about where to go next, Katherine and I climbed on top of a dead stump to look around and spied a gloriously bare rocky area only twenty meters away. Another fifteen minutes of bashing ensued, where we finally escaped the clutches of the tangle, and we all fell out of the branches one-by-one onto the blessed alpine tundra. A quick break to get our bearings and ensure that we were still on course had us then strolling easily and quickly along in the high country, slowing only to snack on the copious quantities of blueberries and cloudberries that adorned the land beneath our feet. Rain clouds moved in along with another stiff wind, which has us scrambling into our waterproof layers, followed by sunshine thirty minutes later allowing us to dry out agiain. This series of events replayed itself over and over for the rest of the day. A few more battles were had with short stretches of tuck and we finally arrived at the top of the maintained trail which descends down to Snug Cove. Another storm rolling in from the south caused us to abandon plans of checking out the side trail overlooking the gorge, and instead we had lunch at the top of the descent route while enjoying a fantastic view of a rainbow in the lowlands below which stretched all the way out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From here on down we had a trail to follow, albeit a very mucky one, so the navigational brain could shut off and just leave on the circuits dedicated to careful foot placements between the muck holes and slippery rocks. We sped ahead of the others here, and after about two hours of muddy descending we reached Snug Cove and hiked along a pretty pebble beach towards a pair of Parks Canada red chairs, which was also our camp for the night. As we were about 30 minutes ahead of the other group, we set up camp on the nicest site of the three at the waters edge. The gale force winds off of the bay though had us tearing down the tent before it was ripped to shreds and moving to another site with a little less exposure. Another bought of rain had us diving into our shelter, where we remain until this time as I write this, which is late afternoon. Hopefully the rain will taper off before supper.

Breakfast at camp.