Gros Morne Mountain

Newfoundland has been cold and cloudy. Time to dig out all the sweaters, socks and feather comforters. Coming up the coast and watching the rocks and water in the inlets often made it feel even colder and more desolate. Yesterday there seemed to be more sun so we decided to tackle Gros Morne Mountain.
It is a 806m high flat topped mountain with Arctic tundra. The hike is 16km and takes 6-8 hours. The first 4km winds up through the forests. The dense trees, ferns and moss reminded me of portaging in Tamagami, except Henry wasn’t carrying the canoe. I was remembering all those great Sunday afternoon and Thanksgiving Weekend hikes we used to do. It wasn’t hard to imagine Owen running ahead. Then we came to the viewing platform at the base of the mountain. The next hour climb up the scree slope was enough to make me second guess this whole trip. But you only had to look behind you at the beautiful view to see how far you had come already. (That, and the girl carrying her tent, sleeping gear etc. who was actually going to camp up there.) It was exhilarating stop and catch your breath and finally to have lunch at the top. The alpine meadow is fascinating and the view over the mountains awesome. The pictures just don’t do it justice. It was really cold even with no wind. This is Tamagami on steroids. I just kept taking pictures and thinking you would need to be a poet to describe it. Praising our amazing creator God was as close as I could get. The descent, although just as beautiful was gruelling. It is a long path of scree, loose rocks and boulders. We kept our eyes open for moose or caribou that obviously live here and use the path, but didn’t see any. We did spot a flock of Rock Ptarmigan.
By the time we got back down I felt like a cripple. I can’t believe it is harder going back down than up but it is.
Wow, what a hike, what a day! Thank-you God!
Grace