North Rim and Long Range Traverse

Here is the long overdue trip report for the North Rim and the Long Range Traverse In Gros Morne National Park.

This trip (honeymoon) was a combination of being a tourist and being a bit of a backcountry traveller. For this post I will keep it to just the few days we spent in the backcountry of Gros Morne National Park. We Arrived in the park on thursday afternoon after a long ferry ride from the mainland and we were slated to start our trek the next day. We both felt tired from the previous days driving from Quebec  City and the lack of sleep on the ferry due to absurdly loud snorers and screaming and crying children. We only had 2 earplugs between the two of us and we did 2hr shifts sharing them. On the ferry ride home we would be able to get a cabin on the ship!. If I did the trip via ferry again, I would most definitely book a cabin!

Due to our tired bodies and minds we decided to take the friday to chill in Rocky Harbour and rest up before we hit the north rim on the Saturday. It was a good call we made because come saturday we were both raring to go! We booked our taxi to pick us up at the Gros Morne mountain parking lot at 7am as a early start would be mandatory. Our cab driver was right on time and he got us safely to the parking lot for the Western Brook Pond trail by around 730am. We took two photos and hit the trail at 740am.

It was a quick 30min to the junction where we go north towards snug harbour.  We had a rather un-eventful walk into Snug except for two separate moose that we encountered. One was pretty close and the other was farther at around 50-60m. We made the roughly 8km into Snug in just under 2 hours. We had a quick snack and a pee and got ready for the long climb up to the top of the north rim. Now most people had warned us about the North Rim. Nobody had anything good to say about the route other then it was terrible and had tons of tuckmore, which is stunted balsam fir and spruce trees and that penetrating them is next to impossible. Think of it as trying to walk through a cedar hedge with a pack on...

Anyways we made our way up to the top of the rim in about 2 hours and had a quick lunch and a great view out into the Atlantic Ocean. We took a compass bearing and checked the gps to cross reference our intended route. I had opted for a different route then most other people have taken and I though it may avoid most of the horrendous tuck that everyone spoke about. We made quick time trekking across big open Alaska type terrain. We had very little tuck to navigate on the first day, with only about 1.5-2hrs of the nasty stuff. The rest of the first day was 5 star backcountry travel. No footprints, no people  just Eden, myself and our packs. That is until we crested a rocky hill at around 5pm. We popped over the top and about 40m away was a very large caribou! It was massive! He was most certainly the dominant male in the area as he was about double the size I envisioned a male would be! If I had to guess I would say his weight was around 1600-1800lbs or about the size of one our two year old bulls. ( I live on a farm).

He did not seem to mind that we were there and just kept eating grass. We watched him for about 5 min before we thought we better leave him be. We made our way around the top of the hill and went on our way. We had dinner around 630pm and put the new Jetboil stove to the test! It worked flawlessly and we enjoyed our backcountry pantry thai dinners. We walked about 4km after dinner until we found a good spot to make camp. We dropped the packs at 830pm and we soaking up the views that only a handful of people see each year. It was breathtaking! We did 27.2km the first day from the parking lot. 8km of that was on trail and the rest was cross country trekking. We only had about 4-5km tomorrow morning until we hit the back of western brook pond and the start of the Long Range Traverse.

We found a small cliff to hang the food and hit the hay satisfied with day one. We awoke early and had some quick oats and coffee/tea and were packed up and walking by 730am. The next 5km was completely unreal! It was very hilly and the steep slippery grass slopes made for fun navigating. We found some good moose trails around the last few lakes and hit the end of the North Rim and the start of the Long Range Traverse by 1130am. We had been told to expect to take minimum of 3 days to do just the North Rim and we did it in less then half of that. We didn't crush the speed, we just kept moving. The total length of the North Rim clocked in at 32.1km. We had a bite of lunch, snapped some photos of Western Brook Pond and got ready to hit the much more frequently traveled route ahead. We were technically only 32-35km from the car and therefor almost halfway done!

We found a well used game/foot path and put some solid km's behind us. The views we out of this world! I have done lots of neat backcountry trips and this one definitely rivalled anything else. We met a group of three hikers at the campsite on Little Island Pond and chatted for 5 mins. Their packs were big any heavy and they were drooling over our minimalist loads. "You guys did what yesterday"??? "NO way!". We said our goodbye's and hit the trail. We aimed to get another big day in before making camp at Middle Barrens(or beyond) and hoped we made smart decisions in the navigating department. We found many game trails with fresh footprints going in every direction! It was very confusing with all the tracks leading in different directions. I decided to opt for my own route and disregard the human footprints. We made our way down to the abandoned ranger station at Hardings Pond and over to the camp platform at Middle Barrens. We found a party of 3 already set up there and we chatted for a quick 45 min... We had some snacks and realized it was only 445pm. Well we have tons of time to log more km's before making camp, so we decided we were going to try to push on to Green Island Pond before dark.

We left the 3 amigos at around 5pm and walked out of camp on what seemed to be a very well travelled trail. We walked up to the top of the big hill after the camp and decided that at around 6pm we would call it a early night and make camp. We found a great spot on top of the hill and had a nice pond close by. We had noticed earlier that day that the weather was turning from gorgeous sunny skies to grey and was getting worse by the hour. When we left civilization 2 days ago the weather looked good for about five days. Clearly things were about to change. We did about 23km the 2nd day and were at 50km total. We were now roughly 18-20km from the car we left as few days ago. We had nowhere to store our food for the night and since I had seen almost no bear signs, we opted to let the food bag stay in the fly of the tent. That made for a great nights sleep! I almost always am able to find a spot to hang food and with no big cliffs or trees taller then 8ft it was impossible to find a good spot.

We had light rain throughout the evening and into the night and awoke to grey skies and light mist. It was however looking like it was going to keep building throughout the day. After a quick Breakfast we were on the go by 7am and found day 3 to be equally as good as the first 2 days!. Eden was the wildlife spotter for the day. She spotted a big bull moose on top of one of the hills close by and she also spotted a lone caribou which ended up being a entire herd of caribou! We watched them for a few min as the equally did the same before they had decided that they had seen enough of us and wandered off. We had the rain slowly building and the terrain was getting quite slick and getting out to the car today would make life much more enjoyable as we both were excited to go up to the north end of the island and see Icebergs!

We went up one hill down a valley and then up the other side. We would get to the top of the next ridge or viewpoint and scope the next decent and climb. That went on for the majority of the day. The views are so stunning that it would be very hard to put into words. I took many photos and hope that the images help me remember what a special place this is. We finally made it to the last somewhat technical decent into ferry gulch which was made even more fun with the rain and mud. We hit the marked trail at around 1pm and snacked quickly before we headed off into the final leg of the day, 8km of marked trail to our car and dry clothes! I had contemplated a quick run up to the top of Gros Morne mountain but given the fog and the rain I opted out of that idea. I knew I would be able to come back in a few days and make a quick run up the peak.

We hit the car at 3pm soaking wet and ready to to go get some food and a shower. All Eden and I could do is think about the 2 parties of 3 people that were far behind us. We wished them the best to whatever this weather would bring. We went to the park office to drop off the PLD (SPOT) and chatted to the rangers for a bit, as they were amazed that we did both routes in about 1/3 the time it takes most parties. We also learned that the weather was here for the next 4 or 5 days and it looked as if we made the right decision to try and get out on day 3. We Checked into the hotel and had a shower and started to unpack. We laid out all the wet gear and relaxed! It was a trip that I had wanted to do for quite some time now and I very happy and excited that Eden not only joined me on this epic honeymoon adventure but that she crushed it! She matched me stride for stride and over the 69.95km.

After a visit up to St Anthony and Lans Aux Meadows we made our way back to the park and I did go for a run up Gros Morne Peak. I ran the 16km loop car to car in just under 2hrs in a time of 1hr57mins. It was Awesome!

14 photos to sum up the honeymoon

Enjoy.

Wedding Part 1

Wow what a blast the last 3 weeks have been! There is so much I want to write and I can't even think of where to start. Soooo let's go back three weeks..

Wedding prep. Eden and I had a army of family and close friends to help assemble what would turn out to be a night that was above and beyond anything we could of imagined. We are so fortunate to have so many people that were able to jump in and lend a hand. We had the the ceremony and the reception in our backyard on our farm that has been in my family for many generations. It was a kind of tribute to the land that helped so many survive. We had a clear hot week of weather leading up to the wedding and on the Saturday we awoke to dark skies and heavy rain. It poured for a hour and a half and was enough to make everything green and lush! Not to mention it was going to be great for keep the dust down.!

I managed to stay relatively calm all week, slowly picking away at the jobs that needed doing. The day of the wedding was a little more hectic then I thought it would be, but all in all it was not that bad..... (get the beer on ICE!!!) The ceremony went off perfectly! I cried. I was so choked up that it was hard to even speak. I had nowhere to hide, no sunglasses to cover my eyes. I stood there any tried to get out what my head and heart was trying to say. It was awesome!

The reception afterwards was a great evening! The food was excellent, the music ideal and the people, the people are what made it. We wanted everyone to have a night that was fun and one they would hopefully remember. I tried to make it around to chat with everyone.... I don't think I even came close to achieving that goal. If I missed you and you somehow find yourself reading this, I apologize.

On the Sunday we had the same army plus a handful more helpers to help disassemble what was such a special event only 10 hours ago. I am truly sad that it is over. I mean, I am more happy then ever to be married to the girl of my dreams, but I wish it wasn't over. There was so much planning and work leading into the wedding and I wanted to try and take it in as much as possible. I made sure to sneak out of sight a few times throughout the evening and just take a step back into a shadow for a few minutes and watch. I stood and tried to paint a mental picture that was our wedding. I knew it was going to go by fast... but wow. I had a ear to ear smile all night!


Part 2 "The Honeymoon" coming soon. (with photos).

Frontenac Provincial Park Perimeter Trail Trip Report

SO I was just about to sit down and write a late trail report of the run Ryan Atkins and I did last weekend (a week late) and I see he has already written a very good recap on our experience on the trail! Sooo here is the link to our trip report of our sub 5hour run on the Frontenac Perimeter Trail. Enjoy.

http://ryanatkinsdietrecipebook.blogspot.ca/2012/04/frontenac-perimeter-trail-041412-fkt.html

2 days: 53km, 18000ft of ascent and 10 Mountains Later...

Wicked trip to the Adirondack's this past weekend with Ryan Atkins and Peter Demos. We drove down after work on Thursday evening and grabbed a hotel 20 min from our trailhead starting point. After a good sized breakfast, we hit the trail towards our first four peaks Mt Wright, Algonquin, Iroquois and Boundary Peak. We made good time going over the first four peaks and made our way down 2500ft to only have to climb almost 3000ft up the other side of Mt Marcy (highest peak in NY). We summited Marcy just before dark and made our way part way down the mountain to where we found a nice place to set up camp for the night. We woke the next morning to a light dusting of snow and fairly foggy conditions. We had a big day ahead and got right to the money by running up Mt Wright and topping out before 9am. We then went back to camp, packed up and headed over towards Little Haystack and Mt Haystack, all in full winter conditions! We then headed over Basin Mountain and Saddleback and navigated a few sections that we had wished we has a small rope and a ice axe (all we had was lightweight crampons). After cresting Saddleback we had a 16km trek back to the car... Most of that was downhill, all except for one small pass up through Klondike Notch. We hit the car around 7pm after 11hrs of continuous forward progress. We hit a local steakhouse for a "all you can eat prime rib special" and packed as much pr away as we could. We grabbed a hotel for the night and made our way home Sunday morning (all 5.5hrs of it).

"When in Rome"

The past 6 weeks have been very busy trying to balance work, training, life, planning a wedding etc etc.
I started a new job last fall with a very reputable company (Able Tree Service) in the Arboriculture industry. I have thought about getting into the field of Arboriculture for the past 5 or 6 years and I had never taken the leap to seriously get in the world of trees. With my fairly extensive climbing background and my love of the outdoors I was almost certain it was a great fit for me. The past 6 weeks I have been climbing BIG red and white oak trees at the Toronto Hunt Club golf course almost 5 days a week and it has been very taxing on my evening energy that is left for any training. It is hands down the best job I have ever had and I am very excited to where it takes me in the Arboriculture industry.

On a kinda funny side note, I have been eating a small container of chocolate covered almonds after I finish work en route home. I have been buying them in bulk and usually would eat a couple handfuls daily. I knew that they would be fairly high in calories but since I had been buying them in bulk I didn't know their exact calorie content, or didn't want to know. Well the other day Eden bought me a big bag of the delicious chocolate covered almonds from costco which did have a nutrition label on the back.... 220cals for 8 almonds!!!!!!!! I quickly grabbed the container that I had been using to store the oh so delicious post work snack and tallied up my average total that I had been eating daily.... I had been eating between 40-50 which means I had been eating 1100-1350cals everyday after work. No wonder I would get home and be able to do 90-120mins of exercise without getting hungry! Gah!

3 weeks ago I also slipped 2 ribs while either trail running and slipping on ice, or rock climbing a ridiculously hard route that I hope I never do again, or maybe it was the combination of both of the events...? Either way it was extremely painful and I am glad that I am on the mend.
I had to take 2 weeks off of running because I simply couldn't run with the associated pain from the ribs. I was however able to ride my bike and given the spring like weather and increase in daylight I was riding outside 3 or 4 nights a week after work. Last week while almost home I stretched my back while still riding and I felt both of the ribs slip back into place! It was a very weird feeling, kinda hurt but I was almost immediately able to take a deeper breaths. Weekends have been usually pretty good, as I am able to get in a couple 3hr days to make up for the lack of hours in the week. Right now I am averaging 11-12hrs a week and I think that is my balance point for training stress considering that my day consists of climbing big trees.

Here is a pick of a coyote leg Rambo found me yesterday... Mmmmmm coyote leg....

2012 Snowshoe Raid

A few months ago Ryan Atkins and decided we were going to sign up for the Snowshoe Raid at Blue Mountain. It was roughly a 2.5hr cross country snowshoe orienteering race. You had a 3hr time limit to attack as many checkpoints as you possibly can. I believe that it was their 5th or 6th year running the event and it was something that I have wanted to do for the past few years. Given the lack of snow situation I was only fortunate to be on snowshoes for a grand total of 4hrs leading up to the event... I am currently not on any specific training program and I am just fitting in what training I can manage here and there. I know Ryan and I work and race very well together and with some residual fitness from last the fall I was sure we would be one of the top teams to finish. We both had a brand new pair of shiny Atlas racing snowshoes for the event courtesy of Muskoka Outfitters in Bracebridge to help us through the roughly 20km course.

After being bused to the starting point,strapping the snowshoes on and making some finishing touches, we were off at just after 11am. From what I had heard there were 117 teams competing in the event! Some of the teams were more serious then others and would be going after most or all of the checkpoints, while some of the teams including a few family's and youths were after as many checkpoints as they thought they could collect while still making the 3hr time limit. It was really cool to see some little kids lined up with their parents partaking in the event. I had hoped that the way Ryan and I laid out the course would be the fastest and easiest way through the rugged Niagara Escarpment terrain. We did the course in a mostly clockwise fashion, which was a bit different then some of the other teams had in mind. 30 min into the event there were snowshoe tracks in every direction! Every team had their own path laid out and with it being a orienteering race you had to be savvy with your maps and compass. We hit almost all the 24 checkpoints precisely, all except 3 of them. We messed up a few of the checkpoints and probably lost only 7 or 8 mins in total as once we realized we were off course we were quick to get back on track. Because allot of the top teams took their own planned route we were racing people that we couldn't see, which can be quite nerve racking as you have no idea how you are doing in the race.

We came into the last section of the course before the finish line at the base of Blue Mountain and nailed the last 5 checkpoints! We crossed the finish line to be greeted and congratulated by the race organizer and race volunteers. We had been beaten by one team. Nick Duca and his teammate bested us yet again by only 10-20secs (unofficial just what I had been told). We had been racing these two guys for almost three hours and didn't see them the entire race! How cool is that!

It was a stellar event and I would recommend the snowshoe raid to anyone who would be keen to try their map and compass skills navigating through some of the most beautiful terrain that southern Ontario has to offer.