Day Sixteen

Day Sixteen
July 26

Today, I woke up to the pitter-patter of rain on the tent, and the slowly dawning realization that I'd left my shoes outside last night. They were soaked.

The rain followed us all day. It actually made what we were seeing that much cooler. The mountains and lakes were all encased in this mist. Newfoundland is just fucking unbelievable. I think this is the wildest place I've ever seen. There's just one road to the other side and beyond that is nothing but wilderness. Emptiness. A lot of the people live in little villages and towns on the edge of the water. Little bays seem especially popular. It's always a bunch of little houses and boats inside this incredible, spectacular valley or fjord with huge walls on either side of rock and forest. Around the city of Corner Brook the road spirals through an incredible canyon displaying the whole city, which appears to be crawling up the hills until it abruptly ends at the edge of wilderness. I'm in awe of this place and no amount of imagination or preparation could have made me ready for it.

Our destination today was Gros Morne National Park. It's an awesome place so we'll likely spend some time here to explore. It was difficult to find lodging. Turns out the hostel on this side of the bay is gone.. so it's a shitty motel for us tonight. We would camp but the rain would certainly make that miserable. I think some hikes are in order, seems to be the thing to do around here. If what I've been seeing from the road is any indication, then this place is wild beyond imagination. I can't wait..but today we had to accomplish the getting here. St. John's is still like seven hundred kilometers away or some crazy shit. It's good we left lots of time for Newfoundland. I wouldn't mind just staying here actually...