Execution

May 9 -

After much delay (for no particular reason other than school ending) we present our post-trip video:

April 29 -

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Hey everyone, we’re back, we’re well and we’re working hard to get as much of the footage and photography that we took on trip up here soon! I’ve just put a little sampler up above, as right now, at this very moment (I know because I’m in their house) Rene is working on our presentation photo montage and Kevin is upstairs working on a short video.

We made a few adjustments to our plan while we were on the trip and ended up coming off trail a day earlier than our itinerary had us doing so, as we had completed our hike ahead of schedule. After the trip we got back to Corner Brook where Paul and Kevin put us up in their office once again and headed toward Port-aux Basques and the ferry on Monday morning. The rest is a 30-hour blur of driving through every imaginable condition (including 9 hours of driving through a snow storm between Quebec City and Ottawa).

Oh, and then there was this guy:

That was definitely John on a good day; I’m pretty sure by the time we got there he had been sitting around saving up all his fire-cracker wielding enthusiasm for a full day only to be unleashed on us unsuspecting lobster-dinner seekers.

But enough stories from the road already, the trip itself went very well. We got on trail around 11:00 on Tuesday, April 20th and let me tell you, though the atmospheric temperature was a balmy 15C that close to sea level, the water temperature must have been a toe-curling 3C, at least for us it was. We did not get far along the path before our first and chilliest river crossing for which we shed our pants and donned our dollar-store flip-flops and we certainly did not dawdle in the crossing. At the end of our first day, we were pretty pooped and about 2 km behind schedule.

Mid-morning of Day 2 we got up to 1,800′ to get cell-reception to check in with Kevin Noseworthy who was monitoring our progress and ensuring that if help was needed, it would be on the way in timely fashion. We got to use our snowshoes for the first time shortly after and didn’t end up taking them off until we got back below 1,700′. We ended our second day again 2 km behind schedule and again, pretty exhausted, but happy and enjoying ourselves nonetheless.

Day 3 we had determined would be our big push to get back on schedule, hiking around 13 km in pretty rotten snow conditions (wet, sloppy and slippery) and crossing 2 rivers to finish our day at the hunt cabin. We broke camp and we trekking before 9:00 and hiked a solid 8.5 hours that day, reaching the hunt cabin around 17:00. We managed both river crossings without incident and though we were scheduled for a third just before reaching the cabin, we came to the conclusion that an ice-crossing was less sketchy than the 20 metre stream that ended in a 1,000′ waterfall. At the end of the day though, we had our socks up to dry, the fire was cooking and we were enjoying ourselves a dinner of chicken stuffing – delicious.

More drying and resting was in store for day 4, although we did get out to the edge of the cliff for some footage gathering and also to ward off a bit of cabin fever. Later on Rene fell victim to the dangerous combination of a higher than normal sugar intake and cabin fever, the symptoms of which included wearing his base layers and balaclava and sneaking around the cabin scaring the shit out of people in the dark.

On Day 4 we had sat down as a group, had decided that a change in our proposed route would be a good thing to consider for both safety concerns (as our day 5 route took us quite far from our planned evacuation routes) and for simple interest level. Day 5 as the route took us originally would have been a long hike over the flat table-top mountains, nowhere near the edge with little to look at other than each other, and as that wasn’t very appealing to anyone, we changed the route.

So, the next morning we woke, had a breakfast of quinoa, brown sugar, cinnamon and berries and walked west to the edge of the Long Range Mountains where we found the river valley we had seen on our maps and set up a bomb-proof camp. We set it up with the intention of staying there two nights, however the way it was built and fashioned we could have stayed there a month. With our camp installed and most of the afternoon ahead of us though, we faced a choice of: find something to do to keep our boots from freezing or go to bed by 3:00 pm. Thankfully the obvious choice was the former, so Rene and I set about creating the pinnacle of all winter-camp thunderboxes, this thing was a throne, it even had an ‘on-deck’ chair, shelves and not one, but two circular stair cases to get down into it. After that we set about determining the capacity our trail shovels held for multi-activity use through field testing. By this I mean that we had wicked-awesome downhill shovel races!

We still ended up going to bed a bit early that night, but not without purpose, for in the morning we awoke early in order to get a head start on the day. We were walking south on the morning of Day 6 to a ridge we hoped would have a great view of the surrounding area, and by waking up early, we were also hoping to beat the clouds there. This plan did not pan out, not at all. We got there and were able to see the ocean, but within minutes, as if the clouds knew we had arrived, we were surrounded by a thick shroud of clouds. We tried to wait it out to see if it would pass, passing the time by trying to bait some young caribou closer to us, however the clouds were there to stay.

Around 11:00, with two of our members shivering from sitting still too long, we made the decision: we would hike back to camp, pack up and head to the car a day early; we had accomplished our goals, we had hiked over 50 km and we had a lot of work ahead of us off-trail. After a brief debrief on that southern ridge, we hiked north, back to our camp through some of the thickest cloud cover yet. We could not see a thing, no horizon line, nothing for over an hour of hiking. Without the GPS we would have been walking in circles, or potentially off cliffs. Thankfully we did have a GPS and did not walk off any cliffs.

The rest of the day went as planned, we had lunch, packed up camp in under an hour and got back to the car by 15:00. After lighting ourselves off a little firework in celebration (we didn’t know it then, but this would be a strange trend during our trip back), we took a quick trip over to The Arches Provincial Park and then we did something magical. We showered. A week prior, when staying at The Shallow Bay Motel, we had arranged with the staff to get ourselves a room for an hour so that we could clean up and take a quick sauna as soon as we got off trail – best idea of the year. Once we had fulfilled all our sanitary desires and changed into some nice, clean clothes, we set off for Corner Brook to meet up with Paul and Kevin and tell them all about our journey.

Well folks, that’s what I can say for now. It’s the quick and dirty version I know, but as I am currently borrowing time from my tomorrow self, that’s all I can afford because my tomorrow self has a presentation to do. Speaking of which, for any who are not able to attend our presentation (which is being held tomorrow, April 30th, in the cafeteria in the college at 2:00pm), we are planning on filming it and posting it up on the blog. We hope to see all who can make it out, and we hope that all who can’t get the chance to see it here.

April 19-

Well today was highly eventful, however it is quite late and we are finally hitting the trail tomorrow morning.  So I will be somewhat brief.  We woke up in the IATNL office this morning, packed our things and headed to the College of the North Atlantic Corner Brook Campus to meet with Dean and Jeffrey of the “Outdoor Tourism, Outdoor Recreation Program” (http://www.cna.nl.ca/schools/tnr/source/adventure.html)

They supplied us with poles and snow shoes and told us a bit about their program.  Fast forward, Kevin Noseworthy (of the IATNL) sent us off with a hand shake, a good luck and a can of white gas from Canadian Tire.  We drove a few hours up the most beautiful road I’ve ever driven, highway 430.  We arrived in Cow Head and headed to the “Shallow Bay Hotel” (http://www.shallowbaymotel.com/) in which two rooms were awaiting us (courtesy again of Kevin Noseworthy).  We were half expecting to spend the night on the floor in a little hunters cabin and what we got was 2 rooms, beds for all with an ocean view!  I’m getting tired so I’m gonna wrap it up fast, we dipped in the ocean, jumped in the sauna, packed our bags, had an amazing meal uploaded some footage and went to bed….well I will be shortly.

Super excited to head out tomorrow and we shall be back with some posts in 7 days to re cap our trek.

-René-

April 18-

Video blog of our travels thus far..with a comedic twist

We have arrived safely in Corner Brook after a rainy but still breathtaking drive along the Trans Canada.  We met up right away with Paul and Kevin at the IATNL office and received some great advice about the trail and some dangers to consider before our trip.  We also met an office assistant Carolyn who has cut some trails in the area and knows a group of former ODA students who are currently residing in a nearby town.Small world.  We can’t possibly express how grateful we are for all Paul and Kevin’s help, and they have furthered their courtesy by giving us keys to their office so we can spend the night.

Now, just about to head to bed, we are very excited for tomorrow as we will be checking out the College of the North Atlantic that operates a program very similar to the ODA program.  They will also be providing us with some gear, snow shoes and trekking poles, which clearly became a necessity after speaking with Paul.

That’s it for me tonight, loving Newfoundland so far and will post again tomorrow.

-René-

April 18 -

Right now, at this very moment, I am writing this blog entry from a boat called the Caribou which is travelling at a deceptively fast clip toward the island of Newfoundland. This morning we awoke to the same rain cloud that has followed us from Pembroke and will apparently (if the forecasts are correct) follow us onto trail this week. After a continental breakfast of bread with small packets of gelatinous goo which vaguely resembled jam, we made a quick call to Marine Atlantic to see if they had any space left on the 11:30 ferry.

Usually these government subsidised companies which – like VIA Rail – are given special permission to hold a monopolistic hold over a certain service are unreliable at the best of times (and why not? Who have they got to impress?), but Marine Atlantic felt like being especially unhelpful today. Their reservations phone line could only suggest that we come wait in line and hope for a seat, failing to mention that the boat was fully booked – which we learned at the front gate.

So down to the docks we went. At the gate we gave the ‘play dumb’ approach a try, but to no avail. We were going to have to wait in line, twiddle our thumbs and hope that someone’s alarm didn’t go off this morning so that we could get their spot. We waited around for all of 5 minutes before the fidgets set in, so we took a tour of this small ocean port town. We had not explored long before the warning bells rang at the docks and we hurried back only to wait around again. Hurry up and wait must be the mantra of everything we do for ODA.

It was not long though until our friendly gatekeeper came by our car and asked us if we wanted to go to Newfoundland today on the boat we saw before us. We concurred that this was our intent and he informed us that to do this, it’d cost us an extra $25. So we happily galloped over to the office and strolled merrily up to the clerks window to cough up an extra $25 – which was essentially paying for her to press some buttons and print off some new tickets so that we could move our reservation up 12 hours.

But enough of me bemoaning the costly bureaucracies that we must deal with, the boat’s on its way and we’ve been having a ball running around all over it – frankly I’m pretty sure we have been a few places we weren’t supposed to be. One of the biggest benefits of getting to Newfoundland early is that we actually get to meet up with Paul tonight and tomorrow we’ll have the whole day to tour the College of the North Atlantic in Corner Brook, pick up our borrowed equipment and get ourselves to Cow Head for one last night below 1,000′.

April 17 -

My friends and loyal readers, after 15 hours of driving we have arrived at Canada’s version of New Scotland. Yes folks, we’re in North Sydney, Nova Scotia camping out in the North Star Inn – literally a stone’s throw away from the ferry loading docks. I know we said that tonight we were camping out in Moncton, New Brunswick, but after arriving in Moncton with still plenty of steam and nowhere cheapish to lay our heads we made the decision to keep on truckin’.

I had the privilege of working the gas peddles and steering wheel between Moncton and North Sydney, a meer 5 hour stint. The evening of driving really could not have come to a better finish as we rolled past the docks and into the first open motel/hotel/hostel/B&B/Inn that we’d seen in 3 hours. We managed a two bedroom suit with breaky, a pool and enough second-hand smoke residue on the walls to fill a 5 gallon pail for just 75$.

Well I’m going to keep this post brief, as it is already 2:00 am with a promise to post some photos and videos on the morrow. Oh and I almost forgot, we’ve got plans to squeak onto the early ferry tomorrow so that we can get to Corner Brook in time to meet up with Paul Wylezol. We’re not sure yet if we can move up our reservation to tomorrow’s daytime ferry yet, but we’ll be calling in the morning to give it our best shot to get to The Rock!

April 16 (11:24pm)-

We have arrived safely in Quebec City and are settling in to our rooms at ‘Maison Leclerc’ bed and breakfast.  We found our way here after a few attempts at finding lodging.  We originally planned to camp out but rain was coming and we wanted to avoid getting our things wet before we got to the trail head.  So we went to Laval University to rent a dorm and they were closed for the night.  Then we systematically called hostels and hotels until we got a decent rate ( $70) at a bed and breakfast that was a kilometre away from where we were standing at that moment.

We had a blast navigating through the crazy Quebec streets.  Speaking of driving in Quebec, we have discovered a whole new set of road etiquette, that is heavily geared around rage.  When passing a car you must speed angrily to the back bumper of the person in front of you until they have no choice but to move out of the way, due to fear of dying! Furthermore, we have discovered the root of this rage, while waiting at a stop light.  If you haven’t been to Quebec, then you won’t know that the traffic light system here somehow has one car going at a time, in a sequence I have yet to understand.  When the light finally turned green we were fairly agitated and could feel how living here could build a substantial amount of rage….It was at this moment we understood why Quebec drivers drive the way they do.

Here are some photo and video clips from our first day, enjoy!

-René-

Some elk burgers at the Works in Ottawa just before doing the long run to Quebec City

Everything is overdone, even Mcdonalds! It looks like it should be in Jurassic Park

This place is usually like a Swiss Chalet but looked like a trendy New York night club

Busted!

Beautiful landscapes of Rocky goodness

Paul and Kevin giving us the low down on the area we will be traveling

April 16 –

Today is D-Day. Departure Day, that is, we’re not raiding any heavily enforced beaches (at least not to my knowledge). We’ve decided to move our departure up a day due to being super efficient and having all of our bags packed, food prepped and route selected ahead of schedule. We will still be heading out on trail on the same date, this just means that we will have an extra day on the road with which to enjoy our country’s beautiful Atlantic region.

Our new schedule is as follows: Quebec City by this afternoon where we will find ourselves a decent campsite and, if time allows, go see the Montmorency Falls; Saturday will have us driving to Moncton, New Brunswick where we will spend the night (and perhaps see a bit of the city’s nightlife); Sydney, Nova Scotia by Sunday and then our group has a reservation on the Sunday overnight ferry to Port-aux Basques, Newfoundland.

At this point in our Itinerary, the fun starts. We will travel to Corner Brook to the IATNL office where we will be meeting with Kevin Noseworthy – the IATNL Treasurer and one of our good friends on The Rock – as well as with Gene Flynn, a teacher in the outdoor program at the College of the North Atlantic in Corner Brook. Gene has been kind enough to lend our group snowshoes and trekking poles for our trip – thanks a bunch Gene, we and our over-packed car really appreciate the favour.

From Corner Brook we will be travelling with Kevin to Cow Head to stay in the Shallow Bay Motel for one last night in clean sheets and internet access (hopefully). The next day (Tuesday, April 20th) we begin our trek.

We’re travelling an average of 10 km per day with one rest day – Day 4 – and my goodness do I ever feel prepared. We’re bringing a camp-kitchen set-up that a canoe tripper would be proud of, more tarps than we will need (though I have little doubt that we will find a use for them nonetheless thanks to Rene’s recently discovered tarpology obsession), two tents, two shovels and a combined weight of 10+ lbs of GORP. Ahh, and I almost forgot about our media equipment, Kevin Johnston will be outfitted with tripods and camera gear with which we will be taking footage of our entire trek; we have also got GPS equipment with which we will be documenting every move we make starting here in Pembroke and ending here in Pembroke.

As it stands now, our packs have a combined weight (including the GORP) of about 260 lbs which is about right. We had a lesson during our very first course in this program, Leadership & Guiding, on how to pack a pack and what sort of weight ratios people are able to manage for extended periods and according to that lesson, the average person’s weight limit is 40% of their body-mass.

We’ve got some heavy lifting ahead of us and a lot of good meals, great vistas and amazing memories. We will be posting again before the trail, so I shall save our final pre-trek signoff until then. For now, the road beckons.