Gros Morne Park- part 2

Climbing Gros Morne with Wenke and another Julia

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Gros Morne Mountain rises 806 meters out of the surrounding landscape.  It’s name means “large mountain standing alone” and it really is standing tall all by itself in the Long Range Mountains.  The trail up the mountain is a bit more rugged than those in National Parks in the United States.

The first part is a 4 km easy hike through the woods with lots of nice bridges and wooden steps built into the slopes.  After that the trail gets steep and follows the scree field drainage straight up to the top of the mountain. Well, at least it is direct. It’s a one way hiking loop and on the way down we will see the other side of the mountain.  Overall, it is a 16 km loop and is supposed to take 6 - 8 hours to hike.

We are happy that we get to share this hike with two cool women we met at the campground.  Julia is a social worker from Zurich, Switzerland and Wenke is a journalist from Germany. Wenke is on sabbatical and has been hiking on average 10 Kilometers daily for the past three months!  I hope this biking has strengthened my legs enough to keep up. They gave us a ride to the trailhead and we are going to hike the mountain together.

The easy part is coming to an end as we exit the trees and the base of the mountain comes into view.

The top of the mountain is still completely in the clouds

Hikers moving up the mountain become visible as the clouds clear

We can now see the tablelands to the south.   A closer inspection of this area of the park will have to wait until another trip to the province.

The climb up the scree field requires both hands and feet

It  is straight up.

We have climbed past the steep stuff and now the wind picks up and the temperature drops.

We made it!

Julia, Julia, and Wenke shelter from the wind  behind some stones which have been piled by hikers over the decades.  

As we begin our descent, the clouds clear unveiling the amazing views and landscape surrounding the mountain. 

The clouds lifted as we enjoyed some time at the summit. 

A mother ptarmigan and her chicks were not afraid of us.

- too beautiful for words

This looks like prime moose habitat.  Despite the park officials telling us the moose density in the park is two moose per square kilometer, we see none.

Julia and Wenke

Boardwalks protect fragile alpine vegetation.

This hike was a highlight of our trip to Gros Morne and it was made even more special by sharing it with our hiking buddies.  It was a joy to get to know them and we hope to meet again.

Leaving Gros Morne by bike and on to Lewisporte by taxi shuttle

Monday, August 13, 2018

Today marks three months on the road.  It doesn’t feel that long, but it is kind of hard to remember Ohio and New York…  We have traveled about 5000 km (3100 miles). Somehow, the ride out of Gros Morne is as steep and mountainous as the ride in.  There really is such a thing as uphill both ways. We pass by the same little villages and sleepy towns. Today we have clear views of all the mountains along the way and now we can see Gros Morne across Bonne Bay.  It is a clear blue sky day and we have a tailwind for most of the way.

Gros Morne Mountain with Bonne Bay in the foreground

We plan to go to Lewisporte by taxi shuttle and avoid the Trans-Canada Highway.  We want to ride the “road to the isles” and get up to Twillingate and the New World Island Area.  This is out on the narrow peninsula where most of the icebergs are usually seen. We are too late in the season for icebergs and this year there haven’t been many at all- even earlier in spring.

As we ride in the van across the highway for the next three hours we are both glad once again that we have changed our original plan and are not cycling through this empty wooded area on a busy highway.  The driver drops us off at our campsite in Lewisporte and we make a quick dinner and fall into bed. Tomorrow we will ride towards Twillingate.

A look at this profile indicates that it really was uphill both ways.