June 29: Gros Morne to Terra Nova National Park

We had a dry night last night and decided to get up early to take advantage of the small amount of time we did have in Gros Morne.  The plan was to do a few short hikes making our way to the northern part of the park and then going on a small boat cruise through massive rocks cascading over the water.  We started out in the little tiny town of Trout Lake walking along the boardwalk, seeing some newfie’s and hearing them talk in their funny accents.  

Lobster traps lined the wharf

We then started a hike up the side of a hill to get a view of the town and the ocean.  Part way through our hike it started to downpour.  We had our rain jackets but even that wasn’t keeping us dry…So we turned around and headed back to the car, soaking wet by the time we reached it.  As we kept driving, we would reach another hike we had planned but it was still pouring so we decided to keep moving – no point in getting wet and not even getting a view with all the fog that had crept in.  We reached the northern part of our desitination and it was looking more clear.  It had stopped raining so we started the 30 minute trek to the boat cruise.  Part way through the walk we saw where the boat would leave from, it was beautiful – massive rock cliffs that the boat would sail inbetween.  I said to Carl “better get a picture now before we can’t see it anymore (due to fog)”.  

Sure enough, before we even reached the boat launch, the downpour began and the fog rolled in.  The massive rock cliffs we had just seen, disappeared behind the fog.  Right before the boat was set to leave, we made the decision to skip it.  Again, no point in shelling out $120 just to see fog.  It was turning out to be a pretty disapointing day.  The original plan was to stay another night in Gros Morne, however the rain was expected to keep up so we decided just to head out and make our way towards St.John’s.  We are currently about 2 hours from St.John’s staying at at Terra Nova National Park.  It’s a huge park and we are seriously the only people we’ve seen so far that are staying in a tent.  EVERYONE has a trailer, a truck (mostly massive Ford’s) and about every fourth person has a satellite dish set up!  It’s crazy!  I don’t feel so ridiculous sitting at our picnic table with the laptop now…This is the second campground where people have actually commented on the fact that we are staying in a tent.  I am shocked.

On another note, something else we have noticed this whole trip is that the only other people we have run into doing the same sort of trip as us (the maritimes) are our parents age or older.  Are we to young for this?  We have met several couples along the way (and run into them again a few times) but one couple we have run into a few times gave us a glimpse into our future today….This morning, she was sitting at a picnic table uploading her photos of their trip and blogging about it while he was packing up their car and bikes.  I was helping her get her photo’s on her blog while Carl was talking to him about their bike trip through the Cabot Trail and across America (Carl’s dream is to do a bike trip like that).  It was kind of funny to see some similarities…Well the bugs are starting to get really bad so it’s about time to pack it in for another night!