Day 11 – Gros Morne & Trout River

I started early having coffee and a shower at 5:30 so I could be at the 3 W Link gas station to get my day pass at 7am and get back to the Inn for breakfast at 7:30 where I also picked up a falafel wrap for lunch on the mountain. I packed my windbreaker and water and cameras and left the rest in the hotel and headed off to the trailhead for Gros Morne.

A 6km walk through forests brought me to a warning signs advising that it’s at least 4 hours of significantly more challenging climbing conditions to get up and down from that point. A gently sloping scree field soon turned into navigating through large rocks and taking big steps to get up the hill with lots of breaks along the way. The views at the top were worth every ounce of effort, and I enjoyed my lunch while daydreaming about one of the views of giant cliffs, ponds on top of plateaus and waterfalls at various points tumbling down to the fjords below. The way down was a different route, offering yet more amazing views of the surroundings, and a more gentle descent than the ascent.

All told I finished in 5 ½ hours and 18km and was back at Neddies with plenty of time to pack up my gear and start my ride to the Trout River. After a short stint on the highway, I turned down the access road for all all the communities along the southern arm of fjord that the giant glacier carved, including Trout River.

With the Tablelands on the left, this road was an amazing mountain adventure on the motorcycle, with large long hills, long views to surrounding mountains and barely any other traffic. Finding the Airbnb was a bit of a challenge since it was at the top of a hill with various dirt roads loading up-to it and I didn’t trust myself with all the gear to take the steep, direct one so had to circle the place a few times to find the right one.

The Dome I was staying in is comfortable though it lacks some lights, and being part of an RV Park meant shared washrooms and being down the hill from the main building, had no internet access.

Trout River is due to get a cell phone tower but as of now didn’t have one, which is why these posts are so behind. Finding internet in this area has been a challenge, even when there is Wifi it only seems to work half the time.

I walked down to Seeside (About 2km) which is apparently on a few lists of places to eat in Newfoundland and had a delicious dinner before retiring.