Day 3 - North Rim Traverse (Gros Morne National Park)

Our second night was loud and windy. We all didn't sleep very well but when morning came, we were recharged and ready to start hiking again. In the morning, I could not have been more thankful for the awesome tent that we had. It withstood the strong wind and held together fine through the rough night. Again, we had some Clif Bars for breakfast, took down our tent, and packed our bags. With the daylight, we were confident that we were at the lake that we thought we were at. Our direction for our next campsite was clear but the terrain looked rough. A few more hours of harsh uphill tuckamore and we made it to the top of a hill by early afternoon. From this spot we were able to make out the direction for the next few hours.

Why else would I bring her?

We planned to sleep at the campsite 2. Even though we would be a day behind, we did not want to risk another night where there would be no bear box. At the time, we thought that it would be better to play catchup for the day we lost in the Long Range Traverse section of the park. It was an easy day until I twisted my ankle and fell. I just sat there on the ground and wondered what was to happen if I couldn't walk anymore. The pain was getting worse and worse by the second and it felt pretty shitty to think about the possibility of not being able to finish the hike because of me. By this time, the three layers of my boots were starting to separate (the rubber sole, the spongy cushion, and the main leather wrap); the boots really took a beating from the hike and it had less and less support by the hour. Helena had an injured ankle from the beginning so she had some bandages and tenser for her ankle. She took them off and put it on my ankle. After a 10min break and 2 ibuprofen, I was back on my feet.

Even when they are close to tears, they never fail to smile so brightly when you point a camera at them. Camera therapy.

After another 2 more hours of hiking, we found ourselves on top of another hill overlooking the our destination lake. It was a beautiful scene. We were on a big plateau with amazing weather. Since we were only about an hour away from our destination, we took a long break. Ji-Won and Helena took out their sleeping mats and took a short nap while I played with my ukulele. It was a great feeling lying down in the middle of nowhere under the sun letting the wind play the ukulele. If you hold up the ukulele at certain angles against the wind, it would ring random tones! It was a bit freaky at first but lying there in the sun listening to it was very soothing.

Our new campsite

We arrived at the campsite right by the lake. Even though we only spent 1 night at an "un"designated designated campsite, the bear box, the toilet, and the tent pads felt like 5-star luxury amenities. We were a day behind but we were in such good moods. We had instant ramyun for lunch and Japanese curry for dinner. By 16:00, I was walking to the edge of the lake and saw a couple arrive! They were setting up their tents and filtering water. It felt so great to find a fellow human being in the wilderness. I spoke with the lady and she said they lived in Rocky Harbour and that they do sections of the hike often. They promised to come by our tent after dinner and give us some tips.

This is where we met Scott Taylor. Scott works as a geographical information systems (GIS) specialist for Parks Canada at the Gros Morne National Park. He knew the geographical features of the park like no other. He had the latest satellite images and a lot of different tools to survey the land. For any first-timers at the park who wanted some advice, he was the man to see. He came over to our site after dinner to give us some useful advices. The most welcome information from him was that you can eat the berries that we kept seeing them on the ground during our hikes. They were called cloud berries and they were not poisonous despite what I thought. The colour and the way it grew so low to the ground off of 1 stem looked fatally poisoning to me but I guess I was wrong. He said that we're not allowed to pick them...(?)... I cannot put into words the gratification we felt for him during the days to come; we benefited so much from the valuable information that he was so generous to provide us with. He even gave us his phone number just in case we needed a ride out from the trailhead on our last day. Scott, if you're ever seeing this, leave me a comment!

Cloudberry

Scott's satellite image map

It was a great day. Even though we were a day behind, we were well fed, we had another day of amazing swim, and we were back on track! We had a few days of rain ahead of us, but we were prepared and confident.

Feel the music