Author: kbarlow

September 27, 2019: 17.7km walked/hiked

Started off a bit later than we’d hoped but it’s tiring cramming in everything we can each day!

We started off at the Discovery Centre in Woody Point which has the most amazing view, and some really neat information about how the tablelands were formed.

We set off to the trail a couple of kilometres down the road and hiked it in the rain. It let up a bit and we got some neat photos! Then we drove to Trout River and had lunch in the only restaurant in a 30km radius haha. Luckily it was delicious and had an amazing view of the beach. We both had fish burgers which was a pan fried piece of cod on a soft bun. It was fun to see the birds chasing the fishing boats coming in as we ate.

We drove back to Green Gardens trail and set off with the rain coming down, but every single person we passed saying how worth it the hike was. It was a tough hike! Up and down over and over, some really steep areas and tons of water and mud. We both slipped in the mud. I landed ever so daintily on my butt. G caught himself and only got one hand muddy. The hike was so all over the place but we finally reached the end and it was totally worth it, although there’s no doubt we’ll both be sore tomorrow! The views were great. Apparently in the summer, sheep graze up here (lots of evidence of them being active still, you had to watch your step so you didn’t slip on a pile of poop and slide off the cliff lol) and the field is filled with irises!

Coming back, the rain and wind picked up, the fog rolled in heavy, and it had been about 4 hours in the pouring rain, so nothing was waterproof anymore other than our boots. Sweaty feet but warm and not wet from the elements. We saw a bunny! That was fun. The fog was so heavy we couldn’t see anything, not even the car 100 feet in front of us! The trail was supposed to include another loop back, which I’m guessing is what made the trail a blue square (moderate) hike, but having to turn back once we got to the end of the first trail (the loop was closed due to erosion) meant going back up and down all those stairs again!

We drove back with the heat blasting and the seat warmers cranked up. On the way, we saw a car pulled over so we slowed (no one behind us) and saw the giant moose they were looking at!

According to my app, we hiked 17.7km today, and did 91 flights of stairs. I’m scared how I’m going to feel tomorrow!

Had a bite to eat at the only open restaurant in town after 8pm, and sitting down to watch some tv!

Tomorrow is an easier day with the boat tour and deciding if we’re staying in the area to hike again Sunday or heading north to the Viking settlement, and then resuming hikes in a couple of days.

September 26, 2019: 5.4km walked/hiked

So thrilled to finally take this trip to Newfoundland. I’ve wanted to see Gros Morne for easily a decade, and can’t wait to start exploring!

We landed at 1:20 in the morning, and luckily the car rental place was still open! We thought we’d have to cab it back in the morning, so we lucked out there, and picked up our Nissan Murano for the week. It was very fancy compared to my little baseline Rabbit lol.

The Airbnb we booked for the night was super close to the airport which was great. We basically fell into bed and slept until about 9, getting moving around ten, neither of us slept that well. Having the flight and the car pickup so late we saved a lot of time being able to get the car last night, but it ate into sleeping hours. Went to an Irving station for breakfast which was pretty good (bacon and eggs).

After breakfast we drove through Gros Morne National Park up to Rocky Harbour. The drive through the park was absolutely stunning. I took photos from the car, but it doesn’t even comes close to how beautiful it is.

We got to Rocky Harbour and immediately found the beach so we did a quick comb and then headed to the Airbnb to drop our stuff off. It’s pretty nice, about 500sq ft with a kitchenette and there’s a huge back patio with a BBQ.

We looked at everything we wanted to do this week and chatted with the person at the Parks Discovery Centre who was very helpful in showing us on a map what we wanted to do, what she liked best, giving us suggestions and recommendations.

We’re going to the Tablelands tomorrow and doing the Green Gardens trail since it’s in the area.

Saturday looks like the best weather so far, so we booked the boat tour on Western Brook Pond.

Saturday we’ll also look at the weather and decide if we’re staying another night and doing Gros Morne Mountain on Sunday or heading up to the Viking settlement and then coming back to do Gros Morne Mountain afterwards. I really want to do it but since it’s 806m high – you need a clear day or you’re up in the clouds and seeing nothing for a 10 hour hike.

The Parks person was also kind enough to let me in on her secret beach for beach combing! She could tell how much I’d appreciate it, and it was so nice of her to tell me! (The location will remain a secret.)

We had a couple of hours left of daylight, so we decided to explore the area a bit, and headed up to Lobster Head Cove where we could see the light house and off another road and over some big rocks, a driftwood beach shelter.

After our beach adventures, we realized it was getting later and we hadn’t eaten at all since breakfast so we had dinner at a popular local place. They close Saturday for the year so we’re just squeaking in for places closing. We both had pan fried cod and fries. The cod was also topped with salted pork scrunchions. They were delicious and seemed to be tiny cubes of pork fat heavily salted and fried. Delicious.

We figured we’d get a few snacks and granola bars for the hike tomorrow, which were crazy expensive! We chalked it up to location then found another store with much better (but still up there) prices.

We were told the sunsets would be gorgeous at the beach in Rocky Harbour so we did another quick hunt and watched the sunset.

We thought we should do a bit of a night drive to try to see a moose, but halfway through we decided to call it a day.