Day 60 - Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland

Off we go again – no rest for the wicked – this Sunday, July 29.  It is 8:30 and five of us are driving North to Western Brook Pond for another boat cruise through the Fjords.  However, before we even get to the dock, we had to walk a good 45 minutes on the trail.  Nothing like getting our exercise.
Info regarding this lake:  Most of the water comes from clear, cold, mountain streams.  Resistant bedrock, a small drainage basin, sparse plant cover and limited human use give Western Brook Pond some of the purest water on the planet.

There was a small pond on our way to the lake and already you can see the reflections.  This is a picture of our boat we took to cruise the lake. It was a beautiful smooth outing.  The water was like glass – not a ripple until we turned at the end of the lake to return back to the dock.

The reflections were so dynamic that it was hard to distinguish between the surface and the water.  One thing that wasn’t a reflection was the Bear – so exciting.  This is something we certainly didn’t expect to see.  There was also a baby duck  that got separated from her Mom and couldn’t fly.  We watched her flutter across the water to no avail – finally gave up and rested.  There were quite a few waterfall sightings.

Couple more waterfalls.  They were amazing as they start up so high that the water never gets down into the lake or if they do, not enough to add to the lake.  A picture of the five of us that took the cruise -  Bruce, Roni, Fran, Wendy and Wayne.  Another set of chairs and these aren’t the cheap plastic ones either.  We sat and had lunch after our cruise before our walk back to the car.

Bruce and I decided to take another hike since it was so beautiful.  We hiked to the base of the Gros Morne Mountain – over 2 hours.  It was hot, humid with no breeze.  Starting out at 2 p.m. wasn’t one of our better ideas.  Bruce can walk in the heat, but I don’t do that well.  The trail consisted of a lot of rocks and various sets of stairs.  It took us almost 1 ½ hours to get there (I'm just talking to the base not the top of the mountain like what Bruce did yesterday) and 50 minutes on the return trip which was downhill.  We met a lot of people coming down off the mountain and they all commented on how tough the hike was.  We saw many children from age 6 on up that did the hike (Bless their Hearts), but our Hiker of the Day was Baby Jeromy – l0 months old – that did the hike on the back of his Daddy in a backpack baby carrier.  I couldn’t believe he would take this baby with him and his wife was pregnant with Baby #2 and she did the hike as well.  Crazy in my book.  It was dangerous just doing the part I did as it was so easy to slip and fall.

When we got back to our campground, we were informed that we had 45 minutes to get cleaned up and eat before we headed to the theater to see a local play.  Unfortunately, it was further away than expected so we had to leave earlier and had to really rush.  We made it but a nice cool drink would have helped.  The play, as it turned out, was okay.  The best part of the evening was driving back and seeing a moose on the side of the road.  By the time, we were able to stop, the moose moved further into the bushes so Bruce was only able to get a picture of his head – one big dude!!

It was a great stay here in Rocky Harbour and hopefully, with all the hiking, we were able to shed some of the calories and pounds we’ve been gaining.

Picture of the Day!!

Oh yes, it had to be the Black Bear looking down on us as we cruised the Fjord's.

Hope you had a great weekend as well!!!