Day 4 - North Rim Traverse (Gros Morne National Park)

We are a campsite behind but with Scott's advice, we felt confident that we may be able to play some catch up this day. We are supposed to hike through minimal tuckamore but elevation gain and loss was supposed to be quite dramatic. Also, we are expecting some rain on-and-off for the next 3 days.

As usual, we got up, had some warm oatmeal with dried prunes, packed our tent, and set to go. I was more confident with the map and the compass at this point and the terrain was not as difficult to navigate through. For the first several hours, there were many ponds to take reference points from. We just had to match the ponds we see in our surroundings with those on the map. Scott was right. We were able to walk around tuckamore with ease and it was just a never ending hike through the rolling hills. Up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down... the hills were not high but it was very repetitive. As advised by Scott, you always want to go against the "grooves" of the hills. 

The ground was very damp and rain started drizzling down on us on-and-off. It was difficult to take photos because of this but our rain gear was decent. Except for my boots. My boots are nearly (perhaps over?) 10 years old. It is a pair of North Face suede boots that used to be water resistant. Within 30mins of walking, my socks were entirely soaked and the boots had no support for my ankles. There was not much I could do and after several hours, it didn't bother me too much.

Pond after pond after pond after pond after pond.

Since early morning, fogs came in an out of our path. Sometimes visibility was limited to the point where we would just sit at the top of the hill waiting for the fog to blow over. Visibility is key when you are navigating by compass and map. I think it's a big drawback from a handheld GPS units, but we managed without too much difficulty.

By late afternoon, the ponds became too small to accurately identify on the map, fog was getting worse at many points, and the path was nothing but rolling hills. With my limited orienteering skills, I could not locate myself on the map any longer so we just kept going "against the groove." Once we reach the top of a hill, we could see endless hills ahead of us in the far distance. As long as we continued to go up and down, we were supposed to see a big lake. This first big lake that we run into was supposed to be the campsite for the third night in the park.

The plan in the morning was to go past this lake campsite and try to make it to the next campsite that would be only several hours more into (finally) the Long Range Traverse. For hours and hours we walked through the hills hoping and hoping that we would see the lake. Every hill that I climbed I kept saying that, "once we're on top, I think we would see the lake!" 3 hills in, nobody believed me. We were fed up and daylight was dimming slowly. 

One thing about wilderness orienteering is that your mood is rarely medium. You are always either extremely happy and mountain high or you are feeling insecure and feeling endangered of being lost and killed by a bear. We climbed a particularly steep and high hill hoping that it would be the last hill before the lake. We got up and looked ahead and I was wrong. Our mood was starting to crash. Then suddenly, at that moment, it started pouring rain. We stood on top of the rocky hill looking at each other in silence for a good 15 seconds listening to the rain drops hit the rocky surfaces surrounding us. Ji-Won suggested that we should take a break by "that rock over there." We walked about 5 meters towards the rock and right under the hill, there was a huge lake! I took out my map and in 10 seconds the three of us were yelling and dancing in the rain in joy. The lake was only about 1.5-2km away from where we were and it was a down-hill route.

I guesstimated about 15-20minutes to get down to the lake. Another 3 hours and we could arrive at our planned destination by 19:00. We were walking down the hill feeling extremely happy and confident. It turns out, the hill is a very rocky jagged one. We walked around in circles and back-tracking whenever we hit dead end (usually a cliff drop). It took us over 2 hours to get down and we were pissed as we got closer to the lake. The route down was a very dangerous steep rock face. Walking on wet rock with a 30-40lb pack is mentally stressful. One slip can set you back a long way in the mountains.

Finally we arrived at the site. We found the toilet, the bearbox and and ideal place for our tent. We decided that we should not go on much longer because we won't be able to make it to the next campsite before sunset. We were still very happy to be able to have a warm dinner and get inside our warm cozy tent. I was especially happy to take my wet boots off. Then...as it got cooler and the sun was setting, bugs started acting up. There were these small flies that would swarm on my bare knees and just sit there. I observed their behaviour and assured the ladies that "it's okay, they don't bite!" I was never more wrong. In 15 minutes, my legs were dotted with purple bite marks. In hours, they were starting to swell a lot: they were black flies. I didn't bring any long pants so I expected to suffer for the next 3 days.

This didn't stop Helena and I from going for a dip in the cold lake. It was freezing cold but we had to do what we had to do. I prefer the cold over going into my sleeping bag with all my sweat from the day. A quick dip, a nice warm dinner and we were once again safely in our sleeping bags wondering what we will have to face the the day after.

Sleeping in a tent in the wild is something I recommend everyone to try out. It's an unusual feeling. Lying in the tent in pitch darkness can give you a different perspective of our selves.

Oh. Also, I got a black fly bite right in my butt crack from going to the toilet.