Coldwater River to Beatty Cove

Sep 8, 2021

Woke up to a light rain again, but unlike yesterday the rain settled in for an on-and-off kind of day which kept everything damp and very slippery. One slippin-and-sliding scramble over the point and then we had a long sandy beach walk to the Coldwater River where a very overgrown trail/bushwhack brought us up to the highway for yet another river crossing. Isabelle declared she was done at this point and decided to hitch hike to her car at Gargantua Bay, reducing our group down to a party of three.

Hiking slick as ice coastal rock slabs

Highway bridge over the Cold River

Isabelle's departure

Today was the easiest terrain day so far, but the wet rocks really slowed us down. Fortunately each treacherous ocean rock scramble was usually interspersed with long stretches of beach or forest walking, so we made reasonable time and were able to get back on our planned itinerary after cutting yesterdays hike short by about an hour and a half (wet rock travel time). We did have a little bit of excitement though. After completing a very delicate traverse on slippery rock above a short cliff/crevasse feature we met a couple and their dog and engaged in a friendly chat. They began crossing the traverse when suddenly one of the humans slipped and tumbled right over the cliff edge! Eearily nary a sound was made by the falling fellow as this unfolded, not as he slid his way down the rock slab, not as he fell over the edge of the crevasse, nor on impact at the bottom. Fearing the worst, I assumed that our hike was now over as we were presently involved in a rescue or perhaps recovery operation. I cautiously back tracked to the crevasse edge and peered down. Miraculously he was unharmed, but now came the task of getting him out of this predicament. The crevasse was surrounded by vertical walls and opened out to the lake with one meter high surf. Fortunately one side was slightly less than vertical, followed by a fairly steep but slippery wet slab of rock, so I asked the fellow to wait a minute while I rigged up a handline using my food hang rope, figuring he might be able to use that to aid climbing out. While I was rigging this, despite repeatedly asking him to wait both by myself and his slightly hysterical partner, he started scrambling up on his own, clawing at tufts of grass for purchase. Another miracle that he did not fall in the crevasse a second time as I finished rigging the rope for him to use as a handline for the last manouver back onto the trail. Crisis over, Katharina and I then firmly suggested that these folks should consider bushwacking around this section of rock as the entire route here (not just above the crevasse) had been quite challenging. Fortunately they took our advice.

Looking over Katherine Cove

Judy coming up one of the many third class scramble sections

Taking a load off of my shoulders

The rest of the day was thankfully less eventful. The constant rain/sunshine shifting got annoying and every break we took was cut short by a burst of rain. Finally in the late afternoon we arrived at Beatty cove and set up camp in this pretty sheltered bay.

Relaxing at Beatty Cove camp

Hiking time: 8 hours

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