So, what REALLY happened in Newfoundland?

The past few weeks’ trip to Gros Morne National Park actually started for me back during the summer of 2013 at the West Coast Trail in Vancouver Island. During our WCT hike, we met Grant and Heather. This lovely couple was from Ontario and they clearly had a lot more experiences in backcountry hiking than we did. We asked about their experiences in hiking other places around the world and Grant generously shared some of his past adventures with us. Among many hikes, he personally ranked the WCT as the most beautiful trail. His second favourite hike was the Long Range Traverse in Newfoundland. All he said was “there’s no trail but you can have an entire lake to yourself.”

Fast-forward a year and we were set to go on our long awaited adventure. After much difficulty juggling everyone’s schedule, finding members, losing members, buying gear, researching the area, reading books on wilderness orienteering, finding maps, finding more maps, printing the map, running everyday to be in shape, on and on and on, we were finally at the airport on August 12^th 2014 with our boarding passes in our pockets waiting to board the redeye to Toronto at 23:10.

In short, the trail we attempted to finish in 7 days was by far the hardest hike that I have ever been on in my entire life. We planned to cover both the North Rim Traverse and the Long Range Traverse; the former is much less popular among hikers than the latter due to its difficult terrain. Retrospectively thinking, with no real life experiences in wilderness orienteering, I was not ready to lead a group through these two areas. The rough estimated distance that needed to be covered was only 62km; but in reality, since 62km is almost the “crow-fly” distance, we must have walked a whole lot more.

It rained for the majority of the time and my feet were seldom dry during the entire trip. We faced steep hills, dense tuckamore, and a lot of swampy wetlands. We had some amazing times walking right to the edges of a cliff, picking cloudberries, and swimming in ponds with an amazing backdrop of the fjord. It was a tough journey with great rewards. 

Most importantly, hats off to the two ladies that came along with me. They were troopers at keeping the attitude alive during some of the hardest moments and maximized each and every moments of joy. This trip wouldn’t have been the same without either one of them and I wouldn’t want to be there without either one of them.

I plan to return to Newfoundland for this hike next summer for reasons that I will explain in future posts. Words cannot fully depict what I have experienced in the 7 days on the trail but I will try my best to articulate it through this blog. I hope that these bits of my life can be both informative and inspiring to get people planning this adventure for themselves.