Gros Morne National Park: the preparation

Finding people who are interested is easy enough. Finding people who can actually go is a much more difficult task. Living in a country with such abundant nature keeps people interested in exploring the outdoors. Taking time off to go hiking is difficult for many people and financing such a long trip is also a challenge. Most people, though they are interested, would rather not prioritize a hiking trip in their life. After a little less than a year of planning with people who are interested, Ji-Won and Helena were the only possible members for this trip. The only requirement that I requested to the people who were interested was for them to be able to run 10KM in 70min; I thought it was a reasonable request and looking back, it was a VERY reasonable request.

Once the team was formed and the date was roughly set, I had to figure out the logistics of the transportation and the hike itself. Buying permits is easy enough; the Parks Canada rangers were friendly and informative over the phone. My biggest worry, despite "someone's" reassurance, was navigation. Nobody in our group has ever had any experiences with orienteering with map and compass. A short research in the library and on Google led me to a couple of books by Bjorn Kjellstrom. He is a Swedish ski orienteering champion and the co-founder of the compass company Silva. I went out and bought an orienteering compass and read a couple of his books. The book and some practice with the compass taught me the theories behind different techniques. I didn't necessarily feel ready but there wasn't much else that I could do.

Information about the park itself is clearly presented on the Park's Canada website so the necessary information was easy to find. A lot of the practical information can be found on blogs that I came across through Google...but like with my other backpacking trips, you have to be there to know what it's like. With varied environmental circumstances (ex. weather, insect status, etc..), people can have a very different experience hiking around the same area.

I think I got most of my practical information by calling a few businesses in Deer Lake and Rocky Harbour. For directions, travel distances/time, and transportation information, you want to call Pittman Taxi (709-458-2486); it's the only taxi company within the park. Car rental was too expensive for us but all the drivers and the dispatch were very friendly and helpful so it wasn't too bad. A ride from/to the airport and Rocky Harbour is $90-$110 depending on how many stops you want. Anywhere within Rocky Harbour is $10 and from Rocky Harbour to the Western Brook Pond trailhead is $60.

Finally, apart from the transportation costs, here is the breakdown of the park fees that we had to pay:
- Reservation fee ----------  $ 24.50 (per group)
- Long Range Traverse ------  $ 84.40
- North Rim Traverse -------  $ 68.70
- North Rim + Long Range ---  $122.60
*Reservation phone: 709-458-3602

You can make your reservation over the phone with a credit card. There is no online reservation service. Fortunately, they are open 7 days a week from 08:00-20:00. You call the number above, tell them your date of arrival, read out your credit card number, and they tell you you're booked in. No receipt, no confirmation number, no email, nada. It may not be the most secure process... but I find people in Newfoundland to be very kind and helpful. They are generous with their time and they never hesitate to get out of their way to give you a hand.

This is the gist of what we had to go through to plan our trip to the Gros Morne National Park.