Climb Every Mountain

Today’s update actually begins last night. My evening appeared to be over shortly after my Bingo experience came to an end. It was around 9:00 and I had finished uploading my latest blog entry and had returned to my tent. It actually looked like I was going to get to bed at a reasonable hour – something I thought was somewhat important considering my plans to climb a mountain. I was getting things put back into their rightful place when someone knocked on my tent flap – well, as much as one can actually “knock” on a tent flap. It’s safe to say this caught me more than a bit by surprise.

I unzipped the door and then the flap to reveal a fellow camper from the site across the road who proceeded to invite me over for a beer. Who am I to say no to a beer? So, after grabbing my jacket and headlamp I wandered over and officially met Randy (aka. Chico) and his wife Judy. While Judy was inside reading, Chico and I sat around the fire. Chico was a very interesting, entertaining, and hospitable host. Clearly this was the Newfoundlander hospitality I’ve heard so much about – complete with the very heavy Newfoundland accent. I’m not going to lie, there were a few occasions where I had no idea what he was saying. But he told some stories, a few jokes, and gave me some pointers as to where to go and what to see in St. John’s. It was great.

Four beers and two hours later (along with some VERY tasty moose bologna and t-bone steak) it was time to call it a night. It was now after midnight – so much for an early evening! But it was a very entertaining evening that won’t soon be forgotten.

I only woke up once during the night – four beers before bed, what was I thinking? It’s a good thing campsites are surrounded by trees. My somewhat shortened slumber ended around 6:30 this morning.

I had pretty much decided that I was going to head over to Gros Morne Mountain this morning, rain or shine. The forecast called for the former but the reality was the latter. At least at that hour. With the sun still low in the sky I was hopeful for a sunny day but either way I was going to the mountain.

The trailhead is about 8km from the campground – factoring in the hills, it was a 30 minute ride. The trail sort of has two sections to it. There’s a 4 km hike to the base of the mountain and an 8 km hike up, around, and back down the mountain – well, I guess there are three sections if you include the 4 km walk back to the parking lot. Despite the somewhat sunny morning, there was only one couple at the trailhead when I arrived. I grabbed my gear and headed down the path. An hour later I was at “Decision Point”. I was told at the Visitor Centre that, because of the terrain, once you go beyond this point you’re pretty much committed to doing the whole hike.

I had passed the only other hikers on the path earlier so I was alone at “Decision Point”. There was some fog SLIGHTLY obscuring the top of the mountain but I decided to continue on. I mean, I didn’t come all this way to hike to the bottom of a mountain (yes, I realize that is not exactly “safety first” logic).

To say that the first segment of the climb is rocky would be a gross understatement as the first segment is ONLY rocks. But generally fairly large ones. The climb was steep but I found the rocks offered a pretty stable footing most of the way. As I climbed, I kept my eye on “Decision Point” to see if the other hikers were going to follow my lead and ascend into the fog. Obviously all I could think of was, “Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows it?” They followed.

I had some beautiful views of the Rocky Harbour area as I continued my climb. Until the fog rolled in. Just to be clear, I was never engulfed in fog – it was just following me. Kind of motivating me to keep going. By the time I reached the top the views were, well … actually I couldn’t see anything because of the fog. Again, I wasn’t IN the fog, the fog had just pretty much surrounded the mountain. I took the obligatory photo at the summit and moved on.

The summit isn’t a peak like most mountains but instead is on a rather large plateau area. So, the next hour was spent following the trail around the top of the mountain. As I walked, a interesting thing happened. The sun started to burn through the fog. And the once foggy views were now spectacularly clear. I MAY have wandered off the trail (ie. towards the edge of the cliff) to get a better look at the newly revealed scenery. Truly stunning. I attempted to capture the view as best I could but the camera lens just can’t see what the eye does.

Fast forward a couple of hours later and I had made my way around the mountain and back down to “Decision Point”. The descent wasn’t nearly as gruelling as the signage leads one to believe, but I think they do that just to prepare people for the worst. It’s certainly not an easy descent but not gruelling either. They’ve even built some stairs in some sections which makes the descent a LOT easier.

On my return along the path to the parking lot, I encountered a lot more people making their way towards to base of the mountain. Given the time (1:00) and the suggested 6-8 hours it takes to do the climb, I was really surprised at the number of people that were just starting their climbs. Especially considering how quickly the weather has been changing.

I was back at the campsite by 3:00 and was more than a little famished. I was going to go into town for a restaurant meal but decided to just cook up some more rice. After 5.5 hours of non-stop hiking plus the bike ride to/from the trailhead, I was little bit beat. As my second batch of rice finished cooking (as I said, I was famished) I noticed the return of the dark clouds. About 20 minutes later I was eating my rice in my tent as the thunder rumbled and the rain poured down. I couldn’t help but think of the climbers that were surely still on the mountain. Fortunately for them, the storm only lasted about 15 minutes – but with no shelter to be had I’m guessing it wasn’t a pleasant 15 minutes.

I should note that as I’ve been typing this (at least for the past 10 minutes or so), I’ve been serenaded by bagpipes from somewhere on the campground. Not sure if that’s a regular Saturday evening thing but it sounded pretty good. It’s over now though.

As usual, I don’t really have a clear plan for tomorrow. With the mountain conquered, I feel it might be time to continue the ride towards St. John’s. I’m not sure if it makes me happy or sad that it’s only about 750 km away. Then again, 750 km is still a long way to go.