I'm alive and well after our hiking trip to
Simms Canyon. Trent and I left Whitbourne Wednesday evening and drove as far as Springdale, then drove to Frenchman's Cove Thursday morning where the trail head is. The trail only goes the
first 4 kms in, the rest we did with our eyeballs and map and compass. I'm
pretty tired and sore, and my feet are just about destroyed from blisters. All worth it though. The area we went was just like the moon. Very similar to the Tablelands in Gros Morne. Lots of wildlife including a black bear with
2 cubs, 10 moose in less than 10 minutes, 3 caribou, 5 grouse and lots more moose. Total distance was between 45 and 50kms in 3 days. We hiked for 5 hrs the first day, then 10.5 the second day, then 9.5hrs the third day. We had a couple of big climbs that almost killed me. Getting in and out of Simms Canyon was nuts! We got back to the car at 4pm or so on Saturday, then we drove all the way back to Whitbourne, arriving around 1am. Awesome trip overall, the West Coast rocks!
Theres a lot of cool stuff to see here in Newfoundland, you just gotta get off your ass and go see it.
Theres a lot of cool stuff to see here in Newfoundland, you just gotta get off your ass and go see it.
Brian
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| The start of the trail |
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| After 4kms or so the trail starts to disappear |
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| With the trail gone, the only way to go was up |
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| Near the top, you can see the Bay of Islands and Corner Brook in the distance |
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| Blow Me Down mountains and their interesting geology |
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| Beautiful campsite |
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| Moonscape on top of the mountains |
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| The start of Simms Canyon. Looks like Arizona |
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| The canyon starts getting bigger |
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| Lunch break on the river. Buffalo chicken wraps. MMMM! |
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| Suddenly the canyon dropped away, so we had to skirt to the eastern side to find a way down |
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| This scree slope provided a route down, but it wasn't easy. |
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| Campsite inside Simms Canyon |
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| Western side of the canyon. Big waterfall behind our campsite |
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| Climbing out of the canyon. What a view! We saw a black bear and 2 cubs climbing the same slope earlier in the morning |
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| When we got to the top, the fog rolled in. Time for map and compass navigation |
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| Lots of moose on the 3rd day. These 3 were lying in the bushes in front of us and stood up when we got close. We didn't even know they were there. After that we turned around and 7 more came out of the woods to cross the bog behind us. |
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| We followed this river most of the way back |
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| Making our way back down the mountain. Almost back to the car now. |
5 comments:
Holy Smokes - that rock-strewn canyon is something else!!!
Sean
You are so right Brian about things to see and the need to just get out and do it. I wish there was more time to do these things or chores would do themselves.
You were walking on some very interesting geology and the reason for it being a UNESCO Heritage site at Gros Morne.
Tony :-)
Beautiful shots mate. Your darn right...most people here have no idea the spots a km fro. Their own houses.
Thanks for the view!
Thanks for the comments guys.
I believe that people like us get to enjoy a little more of this province than most do. Makes me smile when I think about it.
Trent is a professional geologist, so he was telling me all about what was going on there......but it was all over my head for the most part. Sounded interesting though :-)
Hey Brian! It's Wendy Walters from PAB. I haven't seen you since probably 96 or 97 down around home!
I ran across your blog while looking for unique hiking and outdoors trips for our summer visits home. I have been long saying that there is so much more than Gros Mourne and you certainly have captured some of the vast beauty there is to offer. Interesting that there is more rock deposits like Tablelands, I found that and Trout River Pond stuff really interesting last year (although I get to Gros Mourne almost every summer--it seems like I take different interest in a different part of the park each time).
I love your blog and will check back regularly for the photos and stories of your family and adventures on the water.
All the best to you!
PS I dont know if you do Facebook but Christa Ramsay has some amazing photos of her helicopter trips on the SouthWest Coast that really show the beauty of the land and give lots of good hiking ideas. Thought you might like to have a gander at those :)
Cheers!
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