Friday August 4, 2017

We head down for breakfast at 0730. Our choices are granola, eggs with meat, or buckwheat pancakes. I opt for the pancakes and Carol has some eggs and sausage. I have real maple syrup and also put a bit of partridgeberry jam on my pancakes. I am enjoying the flavor of the partridgeberries which I have now had as a dessert in a crumble, in muffins for breakfast, and now as jam on my pancakes. We meet a couple from Alabama, and another from Kansas, so it is an American morning today.

The Earths Mantle

After breakfast we grab our packs and head out for the short drive to the Tablelands Trail. We are going on a guided walk this morning to learn about the area. We have noticed that the Canadian Parks are doing a good job with interpretive signs on most of the trails and also have enjoyed many guided walks. This walk proves to be no exception. Our ranger guide, Cat (for Catherina) is here on a 6 month detail from a park in the Yukon. They get 20,000 visitors there on a good year and over 200,000 her in Gros Mornes. This pales in comparison to the millions that visit places like Zion, Yosemite, and many of our parks. I like the lack of crowds much better. Back to the tablelands. We learn that the rock here is part of the earth’s mantle that had been pushed through the crust. The mantle is accessible on the surface in only a very few places, most of which are on the other side of the world so it is a very special place here.

Heavy Metal Guide

The barrenness is because the rocks are full of heavy metals such as magnesium, nickel and others. The toxicity of the soil is not conducive to plant life but a few species manage to eke out a life here. The rocks are yellow and orange as they are mostly made up of iron. Inside they are black but as we know, iron rusts and that changes the external color of the rocks. There is a rock here called serpentitite which is black and filled with white cracks that happened as water with minerals hit the hot molten rock. We also see some pitcher plants and learn more about them. The pitcher fills with water attracting insects which are than trapped by the downward facing hairs in the plant. It also attracts mosquitos which lay eggs in there. The larvae hatch and eat some of the trapped insects and poop them out. The plant lives off of the decaying insects and larvae poop. Yummy.

Yummy Stuff

We get to siphon some of the water from the pitches and see what they are eating for ourselves. Our water is mostly green with bug parts and poop, while some others are red from centipedes and other bugs. Carol isn’t hungry so we return the green smoothie to the plant. We finish the walk and break off to go across country to a small series of waterfalls. After the waterfalls, we return to the RAV and drive to the Discovery Visitor Center. We have a picnic lunch at a table with a view and go inside to see the exhibits. We had planned on doing a guided walk on medicinal plants in the area but come to find out that we had some old information and the walk was yesterday. I am a little bummed about that but we press on deciding to do the Lookout Hike that starts here.

Climbing

It is a little over 3 mile round trip trail to a high point with beautiful views. This turns out to be real kick us in the butts trail. It gains over 1200 feet of altitude in a mile and a quarter. Up, Up, Up, there is no flat to be had anywhere. To make it worse for me, they have built wooden steps (I assume to help with erosion) but they are a horrible length between steps causing me to take half steps in between each upward gain and it is rather awkward. We finally come to a regular type of boardwalk before the final climb which helps for a while. Making it to the top, I am dripping sweat like crazy. There are two red chairs at the top and a lady gets up and gives her to me. Looking like I am about to fall over has its benefits. We enjoy the breeze and the views and chat with several people who are doing the same. We continue on a small teardrop loop at the top which shows off some different terrain than what we just climbed through. It adds a bit to our return trip but is worth it. We join the original trail for the now steep descent. We are glad we have trekking poles as this would surely be brutal on our knees otherwise. We finally make it to the bottom and high five our success.

Halibut Dinner

We drive to another small community called Woody Point which is a very short distance away. We see a place that I had written down to possibly eat at and it has an outdoor patio overlooking the water and surrounding area. That settles it and we sit down, order our meals and ask for a full pitcher of water to rehydrate. We both have a nice piece of halibut with a baked potato and some vegetables. While eating we talk with Carl and Jeannie who are from Ontario. I tell them that we haven’t met any unfriendly Canadians yet and he says they have them but keep them hidden. They are doing a good job of it, as everyone we have met are extremely friendly. Our meal complete, we part ways and return to our BNB where I am sure we will sleep well tonight.

Expenses                                                                                                                                 Dinner at the Old Loft Inn Woody Point 60.95 CAD                                                      Sheppards BNB 100 CAD