Saturday 11/8/2001   Mont Gros Morne

                                        Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, CANADA

Participants: Bethany Davies, Paul Davies, Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report)

We awoke much later than planned to overcast conditions. Despite our best efforts we were still not on the trailhead until 11:40am. Boy, laden down again, a Lowe pack, Bronica medium format camera and three lenses, two Canon EOS  cameras with two more lenses with the tripod and bumbags and 2L bottles full of water. It very hard going for the first 4km of gradual uphill climb, obviously too much wine last night. We stashed a 2L drink bottle at about the 4km mark. From here it was a very nice wander through the forest, and rapids lookout meandering uphill to the base of Mont Gros Morne. At it’s base the trails split near a couple of small tarns. The weather to this point has been cool but we were pretty warm owing to our exertions.

This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.

Paul (aged 11) and Bethany (aged 8) walking very well. Our plan for this 16km 806m mountain hike was to go very steadily with lots of short eating breaks and no long lunch break. The trail now took off up a steep scree slope. Bethany and Paul really enjoyed this bit – it was much more interesting for them  than a plain old trail! I was over my morning’s acute lethargy by now but the other three still spent the whole day ahead of me. That will teach me to stop and take so many pictures!

Paul and Bethany about to climb Mont Gros Morne

We reached the clouds before the summer plateau, the wind was now strong and steady. Knocking Sue and Bethany over once each. Bethany was scared at first and just wanted to go back down out of the wind, perhaps Paul is getting used to a bit of a breeze somewhat more!

Visibility was very poor cross the top plateau section, but it did add plenty of atmosphere to the barren arctic tundra landscape – it seemed most appropriate. Rocks, rocky streams and lichen covered rocks dominated our views. The local rocks had very recently been dated (in 2001) at approximately 1.5 billion years old.

Once at the end of our hike we took shelter at the Mont Gros Morne summit cairn with a young U.S. couple. Sheltering out of the worst of the wind behind the rock wall which was built for just such an occasion.

Heading back down we caught glimpses of the spectacular surrounding scenery. Ponds, hanging lakes, U-shaped valleys, changing vegetation bands and lots of barren rocky slopes. At one point we saw a waterfall below a hanging lake that was sending giant plumes of water back over the top, it was quite a sight. There were many other walkers out despite the less than ideal weather conditions.

After descending somewhat we passed along a longer gentler trail, passing more tarns and a campsite. The campsite included a number of flagpoles (oops, food poles with sheet metal around the top section to keep the bear out of the suspended food bags).

Further on again Paul and Bethany picked up the pace in a race to be first to find our stashed water bottles. We were back to our van about 6:00pm after what had been a fantastic walk. Both Bethany and Paul did extremely well the whole trip, free of complaints. Bethany especially really enjoyed the challenge. A remarkable effort. 16km 810 m, seven hours and so easily!

We skipped our planned 8:00pm tour and instead relaxed after our strenuous day of hiking. Even managed another swim in the lake in place of a shower. Here we were floating around up to the neck and walking across to the other side of the lake to treelined hills along the edges – awesome.

Another insect free campground at Spirity Pond – also awesome.

Having driven up above the lowland bog / tundra / forest there were very few side roads to explore or find hidden campsites. The highway was lined with wildflowers yellow, white and mauves and interspersed with community vegetable patches and woodpiles.

The surprise of the day was that afterwards both children, especially Bethany wanted to do the walk all over again tomorrow in the hope of getting views at the top. However, we decided to move on.

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